Year 11 Support

At Rudheath Senior Academy, we aim to support your child throughout Year 11, helping them to get ready for their important exams, while also encouraging them to stay well and healthy. This page is designed to support you in preparing for the year ahead.

Included in this section of the website and under each of the headings below, there is detailed information to help you support your child. Please remember, parents/carers do not need to be subject specialists to help their child as that is the role of the teacher. However, they do need to be well informed about the school curriculum and the examination process and the important supportive role they can play within it.

Contact

You can contact any of the key contacts below by emailing admin@rudheathsenioracademy.org.uk and addressing for the attention of the member of staff you would like further information/support from.

  • Christine Williams, Deputy Headteacher
  • Amanda Cooper, Head of Year 11
  • Daniel Cooper, Key Stage 4 Pastoral Manager

Head of Faculty

  • Grace Lycett, English and Languages
  • Adam Wright, Maths, Business and Computing
  • Victoria Hudson, Science, Technology and Art
  • Guy Lambert, Humanities
  • Laura Pim, Creative Arts
  • Richard Russell, Sport

Form Tutors

  • Victoria Hudson, 11A-VHU
  • Grace Lycett, 11B-GLY
  • Adam Wright, 11C-AWR
  • Rebecca Rive, 11D-RRI

Please refer to your child’s timetable for names of subject teachers, however, if unsure then please contact their Head of Year for further support.

Useful Documents

There is a proven link between attendance and attainment at GCSE. Whenever a student is absent from school they are missing learning and feedback from their teacher.  We expect all students, including Year 11, to be aiming for 100% attendance.

We appreciate that there are odd days when your son/daughter will not be well enough to come into school, however it is crucial they catch up on missed work.

Talk to your son/daughter about how you can support them and what they will find helpful. If you are going to help with their revision then please source this information from the relevant exercise book or revision guide (if there is one), and use the Subject information under the headings on this page.  Below are some examples of how you could effectively support your child through the remainder of Year 11:

  • Helping them to create a revision timetable
  • Testing them on work
  • Sitting with them whilst they complete homework / revision
  • Making revision materials with them
  • Providing incentives for completing work to a good standard
  • Read through key texts / revision guides / text books with them. This could include asking them questions about it to help them explain things to you.

On a practical level you can also do the following:

  • Ensure they attend school
  • Agree the balance between work and social life and stick to the agreement
  • Show interest in what they are doing both in school and in revising for their exams
  • Make sure they get enough sleep (see below)
  • Make sure they take enough breaks to enjoy their hobbies and interests – they will focus much better with regular breaks
  • Provide a healthy balanced diet and ensure they drink plenty of water to stay hydrated
  • Provide materials for making revision materials (see below)
  • Provide a suitable place to study and revise – away from distractions

For revision For exams
  • Post-stick notes
  • A4 lined and plain paper
  • Flash cards and/or sheets of card
  • Bright coloured pens/pencils
  • Highlighters
  • Folders/plastic wallets/dividers to organise notes
  • Clear pencil case
  • Several black pens
  • Several pencils
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Rubber
  • Ruler
  • Highlighter (to annotate exam papers)
  • Scientific calculator
  • Other specialist equipment will be advised by teachers
If you need any assistance in providing these materials please contact your son/daughter’s tutor
If you need any assistance in providing these materials please contact your son/daughter’s tutor

Students should start revising early – the resources they make for the mock exams in November and March can be stored and used again. Revision for the main GCSEs should start (at the latest) in January, in order to give time and reduce pressure.

The key to good revision is active learning. This means that students are doing something other than reading through their notes. By being active they are more likely to fully engage with the information moving it into their long-term memory. Through active learning students create resources they can use to revisit information in the run up to exams.

Examples of active learning methods for revision include:

  • Reading through book and making summary notes
  • Completing past paper questions
  • Highlighting key facts in your work
  • Cover up work and test yourself or ask someone else to test you
  • Key word/ Definition Flash cards
  • Recording information in a different format e.g. PowerPoint presentation, Pictures, Sound clips
  • Concept mapping / Mind Map
  • Hiding parts of mind map and recalling information
  • Annotating blank diagrams to check for understanding
  • Playing Pictionary or Articulate with the key terms
  • Playing word association games
  • Playing visual remembering games – adding pictures that link to content and are easy to recall
  • Creating pneumonics
  • Classification exercises

We ask parents to support us in seeing that homework is done conscientiously and in the best possible conditions. To do their homework well students need somewhere quiet, where they can sit comfortably, at a table to work.

Children work at different speeds and so home learning tasks will take longer for some than for others. If there is a repeated difficulty, we encourage parents to contact the subject teacher or form tutor. Similarly we will make contact if we are concerned about home learning problems which parents could help resolve.

To help make sure your son/daughter is getting enough sleep try some of these tips:

  • Stick to regular bedtimes
  • Make sure they get regular exercise
  • Allow time to relax and switch off before going to bed
  • Don’t try to force them to sleep if they are feeling very active
  • Avoid caffeine after 6.00pm
  • Avoid ‘blue light’ devices an hour before bedtime i.e. Mobile phones, laptops, tablets etc.
  • Remove phones and tablets from bedrooms at night
  • It is generally recommended that teenagers aim for at least 8 hours of sleep a night

Rudheath Senior Academy is committed to supporting all students who feel unable to cope at times. Tutors, teachers and the pastoral staff are able to offer some guidance. There are also some online resources which can help:

https://www.studentminds.org.uk/examstress.html

https://stem4.org.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4a2A48DK2AIVzJPtCh3YVAmWEAAYAiAAEgIPAPD_BwE

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/my-feelings/

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/advice-for-parents/help-your-child-beat-exam-stress/