There’s no single secret to exam success, it takes layers of preparation. Three key staff explain some of the things that have made the most impact for our students.
A good exam result is not down to one revision session or one brilliant teacher. In our secondary schools, preparation starts the day students arrive in Year 7, and it is built so that it doesn't depend on luck.
Dave Hewitt knows what one teacher can do. Without the maths teacher who kept him behind after school, he would not have got the grade C that later let him train to teach. This film is about making sure that kind of support reaches every student, by design.
From Year 7, students learn through consistent classroom routines and sit assessments that are run like real exams. In walking talking mocks, a subject specialist, often someone who marks for an exam board, works through a real paper in front of students and talks aloud about what an expert thinks when they read each question.
After each round of mocks, teachers look closely at what students don't yet know and plan retrieval practice around those gaps. Every week, senior leaders and heads of department go through the name of every student in Years 10 and 11, and the next day each student is told exactly what they need to do next. From the start of Year 11 there are after-school sessions in every subject, and some are standing room only.
The pastoral work matters as much. Safeguarding leads like Zoe see students in Years 10 and 11 who have never needed safeguarding before arriving overwhelmed, and some come to her room on exam mornings to let off steam before they go in. For the students facing the most, staff from across the school pull together on what will help.
“They’ll choose to come in here and have a wobble, have a cry, just let off some steam so they can go in with the buckets less empty before they go into that exam.”
Last summer Noel walked one Year 11 student down to her first maths exam. She had spent Year 10 convinced she wouldn't do well, so he asked how she was feeling. "I'm okay," she told him. "We've done it so many times, this is just familiar, it's just what we do." She finished two grades above her target.
