Schools in full exam mode as students prepare to sit A-Levels and GCSEs
Schools across the county are in full exam mode as students prepare to sit their GCSE and A-levels.
The Marches School in Oswestry is one and it is leaving nothing to chance with a host of plans to help students as they gear up for the coming tests.
It will be the first year since 2019 that the exam season is back to some sort of normal and to support students the school has prepared a number of ways to help and support its students and their families.
Natalie Richards, Head of Year 11 at the school said: "As Head of Academic Progress for Year 11 for the first time, I have been so proud to watch the students grow both personally and academically over the past two years.
"They have been an absolute pleasure. We have been on a journey of preparation, planning and training for the examinations after what has been a strange few years in education.
"We are really looking forward to the students having the opportunity to truly show what they can do with the return of traditional examinations. We are ready so bring them on."
The school has been running a host of events and preparations – back in February it held a 'Resilience Day’. The event had a focus on mental and physical wellbeing and preparation for the exam season, with a guest speaker from Enlighten Education.
Teachers and staff have volunteered for the 'adopt a student' mentoring programme, while there are 'departmental interventions', every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning sessions, with students selected on a need basis by subject directors.
There has been a dedicated focus on certain subjects with 25 minutes bonus maths revision session every day for all Year 11s, and 25 minutes bonus English literature revision session every day for all Year 10s to prepare for their English Literature exam.
Pupils can also take advantage of a daily after-school revision menu, while a bespoke ‘Exam School’ structured timetable to help preparation is being set up.
When exams take place pupils will also have extra ‘revision breakfast’ sessions from 8am to 9am.
Another fresh idea for this year is the ‘Heads Up’ project. It sees the school working with Shropshire Youth Workers funded by Shropshire Council.
It offers support for students and a 'stress-buster' session each time to with tips and advice on how to approach revision and exams.
