Year 10

Head of Year: Mr L Heavens

Assistant Head of Year: Mrs A Bukhari

Revision Guidance and Steps to Success

High quality revision is key to students’ success in their Year 10 exams and mocks and ultimately at the end of Year 11. Increasingly, qualifications rely on 100% examination which are all at the end of the course; students could be tested on content which they covered right at the start of Year 10 or in earlier years, so revision must be an ongoing and integral part of their approach to learning from the moment they embark upon their GCSE courses.

At Waterhead Academy, we provide a structured revision programme which is published so that students and parents are able to see which subjects are offering sessions at different times. These often take place after school, and are led by specialist staff who are able to work with individuals and small groups to ensure that understanding and application of key topics and skills are consolidated fully. In selected subjects, we will often offer additional sessions during school holiday time; this allows us to provide extended revision sessions where students can explore elements of their courses in more depth.

Whilst we encourage attendance at as many sessions as students are able to commit to, we also appreciate that high-quality revision can take place without staff input - and we provide resources to support independent revision. On the school website, there are links to a number of resources which the academy funds so that students can benefit from these programmes at home. SPARX Maths, Sparx Reader and Sparx Science and SAM learning are ones which we encourage and these are proven to improve grades.

We also recommend resources including revision guides for many subjects, and can often order these centrally so that we can offer them at a reduced price of £3 per guide and can be purchased online via Parent Pay. In Years 10 and 11, your child will be provided with details of these revision resources. If you require any additional information, please contact your child’s form tutor in the first instance.

Students have access to the revision resource area at lunchtimes and are receiving regular advice on revision during lessons and assemblies. Students should create and maintain a regular revision schedule and maintain healthy lifestyle habits to support effective study. Please see the BBC Bitesize Study Support for general revision and study skills including revision, memory, study-life balance, sleep and wellbeing.

GCSE Statistics Revision Resources

We strongly recommend students are revising key topics, appropriate to their tier. Below you will find key resources that will help to prepare you for your GCSE Statistics.

Revision notes by chapter

Past Papers

Higher Tier Formula Sheet

Exam practice questions

Full revision notes

Key GCSE command words

We would encourage students to start their revision each week by reading through their revision guide which has been provided to them. Students should aim to complete 10 pages per week in both their revision guide and workbook.

Students are encouraged to use past papers regularly as part of their revision and complete in three different colours: BLACK pen for the questions they can answer straight away, GREEN pen to complete using their revision guides or other materials and finally use the mark scheme or worked solutions to mark the paper in RED pen. Students should then identify topics they can do already and topics that need further revision. Use your revision guide, workbook and the above resources to aid you.

Mathematics Revision Resources

We strongly recommend students are revising key topics, appropriate to their tier. We have shared with students three revision topic lists; Foundation (for Grades 1 - 3), Crossover (Grades 4 - 5 - suitable for both tiers) and Higher (Grades 6 - 9). Please see links below.

Higher

Crossover

Foundation

Please see the six week revision programmes to support preparations for your final examinations:

The six-week revision programme works is by giving you lots of opportunities to work on exam questions and using the information to enable you to pinpoint topics that you need to improve. There is no quick fix, this will be hard work and there will be times when you will want to give up, especially as you progress and come across topics that you may need to work harder with. All of this is normal but remember that anything that is worth having is worth working for.

Foundation: Grades 3 - 5

Higher: Grades 4 - 6

Higher: Grade 7 - 9

Sparx Maths have also produced some useful crossover revision booklets, please access copies following the link:

Number (Answers)

Algebra (Answers)

Ratio & Proportion (Answers)

Geometry (Answers)

Probability (Answers)

Statistics (Answers)

We would encourage students to start their revision each week by completing their SPARX Maths Compulsory homework alongside their XP Boost and Target. This is rewarded by their class teacher weekly. Students can also access the full library of topics using the independent learning feature, they can edit the level to make topics easier or harder. SPARX Maths club is held daily 3pm - 4pm in F5. Login using their school email address and their school computer password: Login to Sparx Maths.

Students are encouraged to use past papers regularly as part of their revision and complete in three different colours: BLACK pen for the questions they can answer straight away, GREEN pen to complete using their revision guides or other materials and finally use the mark scheme or worked solutions to mark the paper in RED pen. Students should then identify topics they can go on Sparx and complete independent learning to revise topics and strands they are losing marks on.

Other useful websites and links:

Maths Genie

1^st Class Maths

Corbett Maths - Ultimate Revision Resources - This is an extensive revision video with the link to an accompanying workbook with questions on EVERY topic on GCSE Maths

Higher Tier

Foundation Tier

Please also see some revision posters students can use as reference tools during their revison :

Formula Sheet Poster

Maths Examiners Top Tip

Geometric Reasoning Poster

Command Words