Successful Learner Programme

All pupils at Fairfield are taught how to learn and how to revise effectively through the Successful Learner Programme. Over the academic year pupils receive sessions in assemblies, form time, lessons, and in curriculum enrichment sessions to support them to understand more about how to be a successful learner. Learning can be defined as “a change in the long-term memory.” Willingham’s Model of Memory below illustrates how we learn and the relationship between attention, working memory, long-term memory, forgetting and remembering. The document below ‘What is learning?’ explains more about the relationship between attention, working memory, long-term memory, forgetting and remembering within the process of learning.

Effective Revision Strategies

Encoding and retrieval are fundamental techniques in the learning and revision process, each playing a crucial role in enhancing memory and understanding. Retrieval practice is the act of recalling information from memory, which strengthens neural connections and improves long-term retention of knowledge. Encoding refers to the process of transforming information into a format that can be stored in the brain, making it easier to retrieve later. Together, these strategies not only boost academic performance but also foster deeper comprehension and the ability to apply knowledge in various contexts. The resources below share the most effective strategies for revision.

Advice for Parents and Carers

In September we hosted Year 10 and Year 11 Curriculum Evenings to give parents and carers information and advice regarding the English, Mathematics and Science curriculums, effective revision strategies, important GCSE exam and Vocational qualification information, assessment updates and lots of other updates about the year ahead. The presentation documents for both evenings can be found below. The two guides below from Tassomai and Elevate Education cover advice on wellbeing, mental health, supporting pupils with English, Maths and Science, top revision tips, supporting pupils with motivation and revision timetables, avoiding technological distractions, building resilience and overcoming stress.

Effective Revision Timetables

Effective revision timetables are essential to plan a schedule of revision. The aim is to avoid completing a whole day of revision on one subject. Ideally revision sessions should be planned in blocks of 30 minutes with specific revision tasks to complete. It is better to break a subject up into blocks to revise over a number of days. The blank revision timetable below can be used to create a fortnightly revision schedule.

Revision Websites

The following websites can be used for revision and independent learning. These websites offer excellent resources for quizzing and retrieval practice. It is important that you make sure you are revising content that is on your GCSE specification or KS3 course.
Quizlet – Provides a platform for creating and sharing flashcards, quizzes, and study games across various subjects, helping you with memorisation and review.
BBC Bitesize – Provides educational resources, revision guides, and interactive activities for most GCSE courses – make sure to choose the correct exam board for your subject.
Seneca Learning – Provides interactive revision resources and quizzes for GCSE subjects, with adaptive learning features and progress tracking. All Fairfield pupils have a Seneca account.
On Maths – OnMaths support pupils to learn GCSE Maths – it contains practice exam papers and revision materials for all topics.
Corbett Maths – Corbett Maths is a Maths revision website that supports pupils to understand mathematical concepts.
Sparx Maths – All pupils have Sparx Maths account and it is used for home learning and independent revision.
Language Nut – Language Nut provides online games and activities for learning French and German. All Fairfield pupils have an account.
Language Gym – Language Gym is an interactive website which enables pupils to practice their French and German.
Active Learn – GCSE MFL pupils have access to ActiveLearn for French and German to support the GCSE curriculum.
Educake – Educake is on an online assessment and revision platform that Fairfield pupils use for Science.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

For young people coping with the pressures of GCSE exams is a challenge for their mental health and wellbeing. At Fairfield we support pupils every step of the way with advice and guidance in form time, assemblies, Life Skills lesson, and through the work of our Pastoral team. Ofqual have published excellent guidance on coping with exam pressure and the mental health charity YoungMinds have produced guidance on how to overcome the pressure to succeed. There are two further guides on the importance of sleep in supporting mental health and wellbeing.