Making the Most of the Summer Term

It’s been a long haul since September. For many of us, this year has been a tough one, especially with new specifications at GCSE and A2, to say nothing of bedding in the second year of the AS Spec and developing the Key Stage Three curriculum. Now the challenge is to make the best use of the summer term, which can often be a downtime with everybody feeling they deserve a bit of a rest! Yet this post-exam period can be one of the most useful in the department’s calendar with the potential to look to the future so you hit the ground running in September.

Time for some fresh approaches.

At this time of year the students begin to feel that they’ve had enough of being in Year 7 or 8 or whatever. How to deal with this will no doubt be high on the department’s agenda. At Key Stage Three, this is a great time of year for some adventurous, student-centred approaches. At the start of the week, put the students in teams, ask them to come up with a subject-based question they want answered. Why is English spelling so difficult, what makes plants green, what is rain...encourage them to think outside the box. It’s then their job to investigate the answers to their question independently, and present their findings to the rest of the class. We all know the dangers of them simply downloading unread material from the internet so this is a good time to reinforce the importance of books. Collaborate with your librarian to get in some good resources. You know that we always respond very quickly to your order!

And the exam classes...

Year 9 are apparently only interested in their Option subjects for next year, and Y12 feel that they should be on an extended summer holiday after the rigours of their AS level exams...we’ve all been there. The summer term is too good to waste, in terms of the exam curriculum. Go straight to A2 with Year 12. This is a really good time to launch any independent coursework, and also to have a blitz on some academic wider reading. Your librarian is really your best friend at this time of year. And Year 9? Identify the skills they need, the baseline knowledge and devise a GCSE induction project that will save you precious time in September. Never mind if they are not going on with the subject, education is education!

Enjoy the term and remember we’re here to help with the resources!