So far for the HeadStart newsletter, I’ve shared two blogs about how we can, as educators, improve student outcomes. As always stated, these strategies are the ‘icing on the cake’ but are still definitely worth considering if you’re looking to maximise student performance and attainment.
In this article, I’ll be looking at how we set up the examination season in my current school and how we maintain students’ and staff focus right up until the end. Admittedly, this is not perfect, the complex nature of the GCSE timetable means that this approach can at times appear messy but we have, over the past 5 years, set out a clear rationale for our approach. That is:
We want students with the right teachers at the right time
We want to manage student’s cognitive load so that they are focussed on upcoming assessments
We want to manage student fatigue by establishing clear routines and patterns on the day of an external assessment
We want to prime our students to perform in the minutes/hours before an assessment
I’ll outline our approach below, please take and steal any ideas you like and please share any improvements with me via Twitter! This will be targeted at Year 11 (I work in an 11-16 school) but can be adapted to Y11, Y12 and Y13 also. In the first instance, I will confess that this approach does impact Year 7-10 day to day lessons to an extent.
The timetable
Early in the academic year, we map the examination timetable from the Easter Break onwards. We ensure all staff are aware of when the exams are, which exams will take place on the same day and what each student’s day before / after will look like. This is important so that staff can tailor their conversations with students and be aware of the ‘big picture’ facing Year 11.
We then map each Year 11 days including different sessions which will be running. The different sessions are as follows:
We then map every day that a student will face and provide this to staff in advance so they can plan their curriculum time and know which students will be in masterclass sessions as opposed to their normal lessons. On the below figure each day is represented by a row. We then have each day split by the tutor; Period 1; Period 2; Period 3; Period 4; Period 5 and Boost.
Every child then has a mail merge email outlining their weekly timetable for the upcoming week.
Pre-exam briefing
Logistics
We are fortunate in my current setting that we have a large ‘lecture space’ alongside a large main hall where exams take place. This can be replicated if you have a main hall or drama studio and run your exams in the sports hall. Alternatively, for mock exams, we have run our briefings virtually via Microsoft Teams in every classroom.
We expect all students to be in the lecture space 20minutes before their exam sat in silence.
Before entering this space, they store their bags, coats and phones in lockers / the bag storage location.
Students sit in this space in their exam seating plan for the upcoming exam. Each row is marked with a letter.
A teacher presents a briefing to all students for the exams.
Briefing content
The focus here is to prime students for the upcoming assessment. Teachers will share a few key facts but not enough to overload students. The teacher will also discuss what to expect, what might be needed and common errors to avoid. A great example of this is in science exams whereby the teacher will remind students of the formula sheet or periodic table and how to use it.
The departure
Students then move in silence from this lecture space, one row at a time, to the exam hall. All free (PPA / gained time) members of staff are requested to be on the route to wish students good luck and maintain student focus.
Walking Talking Mock
You can find so much information on these online I won’t go into detail on them. However, we ask all staff to put together a ‘predicted’ paper of key content. This will potentially be easier to do this year with Advanced Information. We run these sessions the day before or morning of each exam.
The focus is not to teach knowledge, though this does inevitably happen, it is to teach exam strategies. There should be nothing new in this session, just reiterating the strategies shared throughout the year.
Half-term Academy
This one is definitely dependent on budget, but, we pay staff to deliver holiday revision sessions. These are not expected though many of our staff take advantage of the opportunity to support our students, others choose not to, that’s fine.
This year due to the additional bank holidays we will run 3 days (Mon-Wed) and offer 2 sessions per day. Each session lasts 2 hours from 10-12 pm and then 1-3 pm. These are optional for students.
We do not allow for ‘clashes’ so students do not have to choose between sessions. At this stage, these sessions focus heavily on past paper practice. Read about the ‘practice gap’ by David Thomas for more on this!
Daily breakfast
Every day when there are exams, we provide breakfast for students. This is a mix of fruit, and croissants, ranging up to a cooked breakfast sandwich if requested. Working in a truly comprehensive set with a >30% disadvantaged cohort, it is unknown what morning interactions with adults and breakfast each student has had. Our morning breakfast sessions are used to settle nerves and ensure all students are going into an exam satisfied.
All breakfasts are cooked by the senior leadership team and head of the year in the food technology rooms to reduce costs.
Motivational cards / notes
We are fortunate in my current set to work with one of the most selfless staff members I’ve ever met. Every year this staff member has written countless cards and messages for students in a continual shower of support, motivation, and confidence-building.
In recent years we’ve now asked every member of staff to support in this way. In the staff room, we print a card with every child’s name on it. We ask staff to write personalised messages for every child.
We’ve also expanded this and over the year we’ve asked students to write a message to their future selves via Microsoft Forms. These are stored and then using mail merge from Excel and displayed on cards for every child to read.
Finally, we ask parents/carers to do the same. Their messages are collated onto cards and handed to all students at different times.
We do not hand these out at set times. We hand them out before the exams which we know each of them will find most challenging. We also hand them out when we see their stamina waning. To do this effectively, you need to know your cohort.
Summary
Ensuring students remain focussed through an exam season can be incredibly daunting for schools. I always come back to the Elephant, Rider and Pathway analogy referenced in the book Switch. For students, exams are an incredibly emotional and stressful time and at some point, every one of them will no doubt want to ‘give up’ or take the easier option of doing less. By mapping out the exam period explicitly for students we can ensure the rider sees the pathway they need to follow and by utilising motivational and short-term reward strategies we can do our best to motivate the elephant.
Richard is an Assistant Vice Principal and Science teacher at a large 11-16 secondary in the South West. He has successfully led two Science faculties in multiple roles and since becoming a senior leader, has held responsibilities for Teaching and Learning and more recently Outcomes and Assessment. Passionate about sustainable school improvement and ensuring that all staff has the opportunity and capacity to thrive in their roles. Follow him @jamesrsci
I love how considerate your school, providing pre-exam breakfast as a way to help students settle their nerves on exam days, and ensure they are fed before an exam. I'm curious to learn if you've also tried teaching GCSE students grounding and breathing exercises they can practice to help them maximize calm and focus while waiting for the exam to start?