So, my thoughts have settled, my plans are somewhat in place, and I'm hamstrung by events beyond my control.
Following their mock exams, I've seen my Year 10s once (immediately after their last exam, which was a maths paper) and they had a 'mock results day' on Friday (July 7). I had a timetabled lesson on that day and could not strike due to my union choices, but I was staffing a rewards trip for Year 7 and Year 8. My next lesson with them is on Tuesday (July 11) which is cut short by staff training, but I am also on an induction day at the school I am joining in September. I then have a lesson with them on Friday (July 14) and Tuesday (July 18) before we break up for the summer holidays.
The lack of time and a proper opportunity to follow up going into Year 11 has impacted what I intended to do, but here's the plan of action...
They sat two OCR papers for their mocks - a calculator and a non-calculator. They were given a revision list to aid their revision, a revision course on TUTOR, a practice paper geared towards their mock papers, and the opportunity to join us in the dining hall on the morning of their exams to settle their nerves. Paper 1 was the better-answered of the two papers, but both highlighted the need to revisit some key topics over the next year.
Due to the rewards trip and my induction day, I have had 150 minutes of cover to set, and I've been leaning on Backward Faded Maths, and the associated techniques, to resource these lessons.
The questions that I've chosen from paper 1 are questions on 'Reverse Compound Interest' (11% of the marks achieved), 'Angles in Polygons' (42%), 'Proportional Reasoning' (54%), 'Calculating With Bounds' (40%), 'Algebraic Proof' (36%) and 'Equation of a Circle' (39%).
The rest of the paper was better answered, but there are a few areas that I'll be reminded pupils about in a lesson (probably on Friday July 14), as well as a note that pupils need to revisit 'Circle Theorems' (26%) in more depth.
From paper 2, I'll be leaving backward faded activities on 'Writing Ratios in the form 1:n' (36%), 'Using Relative Frequency' (51%), 'Probability' (52%), 'Simplifying Surds' (18%), 'Multiplying Recurring Decimals' (51%).
These aren't the only needs, but they're the ones which are most suited to backward fading, and in my lesson on Tuesday, July 18 we're likely to spend some time looking at 'Calculating Percentage Increase' (51%), Indices and Powers (60%) and Rearranging Formulae (56%). I've also got more notes, with pupils needing to revisit 'Using Kinematics Formulae' (32%), 'Constructions and Loci' (37%), 'Enlargements from a Point' and 'Describing Transformations' (54% and 23%), 'Plotting and Using Quadratic Graphs' (28%) and 'Forming and Solving Equations' (14% and 10%).
The 100-minute cover lesson, with a non-specialist cover supervisor, that I set for Friday started with a 'Do Now' with solutions left, followed by six activities from Backward Faded Maths with 'follow-up' extension questions. The 50-minute lesson has been assigned with the same structure.
When I get back to seeing the pupils, I'll give them a 'Do Now' to be completed in exam conditions and then we'll mark them (comparing the mark schemes from their mocks to the 'shadow' questions), seeing the improvements made and adding these to their scores. We can then compare these to grade boundaries, to see if anyone tips over to the next grade. I've also, whilst marking, made scribbles of 'W' and 'M' within papers, where writing (more of) their Working would have had an impact, or where they've made a silly Mistake that they shouldn't be making. We'll add these to the scores we've just calculated and compare them to the grade boundaries again. The aim of this is to give them a confidence boost to increase motivation over the summer, as I hope that their first experience of sitting a 'formal' exam has been a learning process.
I'll finish up the lesson with a Q&A about their papers, where I'll answer any queries they might have about what they did in their exam and what they should have done, before sharing what this might look like as GCSE grades if they follow 'average models of progression from their Year 10 mock to GCSEs from our recent outcome data.
The lesson for their second paper will follow the same structure. This isn't what I'd liked to have done, but with time limited and a lack of an ability to continue this into next year, I hope that I've given it the best I can!
I might follow this up with an ideal structure for an assessment feedback routine, because I know that this is far from ideal!
