raye news no4

RAYENEWS

COCKSHUT HILL TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

Raising Achievement at Cockshut Hill for Year ElevenWelcome to the FOURTH edition of The RAYE. This fortnight we are focussing on time, with only 7 weeks left till the first exam and mock exams in between. Planning your time wisely is vital to avoid unwanted pressure and stress. Make sure you allow for breaks and rest periods as well as plenty of time to cover all your exam subjects within your revision. Those breaks and rests are just as important as time spent revising. During the actual revision time make sure you do not waste it by messing around and being unfocussed. Know excalty what you want to do with that time! Most importantly plan to reward yourself whether it be a trip to the movies, a chocolate bar or time on the x-Box. We wish you luck for the week begining 7th April as we have Maths, English and Science Mocks to really prepare you for, that final push of revision as we race towards the exams.

BE PREPARED - failing to prepare is preparing to fail

One last thing - over Easter there will be an extensive revision programme available for students to access .Please make sure you have the timetable and know when the classes are running. For some sessions a personal invite will be sent. Thank you for all your effort so far. There is a real improving picture as we head towards May. We are literally on the middle of the ladder - now lets get to the top! Ms Medare

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Watch the weeks countdown on our website.

The R.A.Y.E. News N0.4 - March 2014

‘let us shine’

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COCKSHUT HILL TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

Name: Form:

Passportto the Prom!

Prom:We are now through the first 4 weeks of ‘Passport to Prom’ and it should all be signed. Please keep on top of this. The Prom committee are working hard to make this the best prom ever. We need to do this as a team!!

HOLLYWOOD THEME Anybody who would like to contribute in anyway please see: Zidane, Leanne, Paige, Alisha, Kieran, Lewis, or Sam Wynter. They are our prom committee members and need your feedback and thoughts.

Raising Achievement at Cockshut Hill for Year Eleven

Mrs WilliamsCareers Advisor

Career Advisor Updates available - https://facebook.com/mjwilliamscareers

Student Tips:• Revision Cards are a big help• Colourful mind maps• Revision posters/post-its on my bedroom wall• Use your parents to ask you questions.• Plently of fresh air and good food to feed the brain• Find a way to reward yourself (2hrs revision = 1hr x-Box)

Thank you to students from11T



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Miss SheermanSHEE Faculty

‘With the GCSE practical moderation fast approaching, students have been preparing hard to be assessed by the external examiner. The practical moderation will take place on the 9th April and the theory exam on the 16th May.

Students will be involved in an all day intervention on the 31st March where there will be additional support to ensure they perform to the best of their ability on the 9th April.

It is important that students remember theory revision classes take place on Tuesday 3.10-4.10pm with Mr Coniff and Mr Croydon. Attendance will support students in understanding exam questions and familiarising themselves with exam literacy. There will also be opportunities to revisit topics where students feel they need a little more support understanding. This revision session is recommended to all students taking GCSE PE to give them the best opportunity of performing well in the written paper.

There is also a coursework catch up session on Thursdays 3.10-4.10 in the Learning Pad

Well done to all those students who have made the effort to come to revision classes, coursework support sessions and additional practical sessions after school to improve their grade. I am sure you will be rewarded in the summer when you open those exam results!!

Keep up the hard work and remember, 2 weeks till the practical moderation and 8 weeks to go until the theory exam!’



1. Plan your time left - 6 weeks before exams begin!

2. Attend every revision class available to us

3. Prepare and revise for Mocks w/c 7th April.

4. Know exactly where we are at in each subject and what targets we are aiming for.

What can parents/carers do this fortnight:

What should we do as students this fortnight:

1. Make sure your child is ready for the Mocks w/c 7th April

2. Help with the stress your child is now facing, talk to them about this and support with strategies

3. Make sure your child attends School every day, this is vital with such limited time

4. Discuss Easter revision classes and which ones your child will be attending.

What we are doing this fortnight...

Revision ClassesMONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

8:00

-8:3

5am

English 11T3 M29

Breakfast revision(Warwick Hall)

Maths (8:15 start)Music (G62/4)


Music (G62/4)

Maths (8:15 start)


3:10

-4:1

5pm

Media Centre

INT - History (OptionD)L.PAD

Art (W85/81)Maths (M13)ICT (W80)PE (M20)Y11 FitnessScience W74)Science (W75)

English (LP)Spanish (M23)H&S Care (G46)Leisure & Tour (G56)History (G57 + G50)Law G43English INT

Hospitality - (W78)Biology - (W75)Business (G41a)

Drama (M33)History (G50)ICT (W80)Music (G62/4)Chemistry-T1/2Science (W68)

RE (G53)Learning PADMedia CentreBiology - (W67)Science - (W71)


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Science Exam DatesScience – This only affects T1, T2, T4 and T5 students13th May AM B115th May AM C119th May PM P1

Additional – This affects T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 students6th June PM B210th June PM C212th June AM P2

Separates – This only affects T1 and T2 students16th June AM B319th June PM C323rd June AM P3

BTECYou should be well on the way to finishing all coursework tasks now. Speak to your class teacher to find out what catch up you still need to do. Arrange time after school with your teacher to complete it – deadline is May 12th for all coursework to be com-pleted.

GCSE Revision tips• Make yourself a revision timetable and stick to it! • Only revise for around 20 minutes with a 5 minute break, your brain cannot

process much more information than this. • Make sure you have a range of revision strategies – reading through your book or

revision guide and just hoping you remember it all is not good revision.• If you are a visual learner, ie you like to learn by looking at pictures and words, you

could produce posters, mindmaps, flash cards etc.• If you are an auditory learner, ie you like to learn by listening to people speak, you

could downloads pod casts, record yourself and play it back.• If you are a kinaesthetic learner, ie you like to learn by physically moving, you

could write your notes instead of using a computer, highlight and sketch key points, kinaesthetic learners often need visual hints as well.

• Get yourself revision guides, these are tailored to your exam and quite often provide hints and tips for answering exam questions. See Miss Godfrey if you don’t have one.

• Check the intervention timetable with your form tutor for days that Science revision is on.

• Harass your teachers for extra revision especially topics you don’t understand.• Ensure you are confident with exam literacy especially command words of exam

papers.• Complete plenty of exam papers so you are familiar with the style and layout.

Quite often extended answer questions are similar as well.

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Exam tips – Bought to you by an Edexcel examiner!• Read the instructions thoroughly before you start the exam.• Read the questions thoroughly, you will have enough time to read the paper

through and still answer all the questions. • If you are unsure of the answer, leave it and come back to it. Your subconscious

will mull it over whilst you continue working – ever racked your brain for the name of a song, decided you couldn’t remember, then 10 minutes later, it pops into your head? That’s the subconscious at work.

• Read through the paper at the end to make sure you haven’t made any silly mistakes.

• Don’t leave any gaps in your answer paper, if you don’t know the answer just have a guess; you won’t lose anything, you might guess right, and at the very least it’ll give the examiner something to chuckle over!

• Don’t waste time rewriting the question then leaving it blank – as an examiner this is my biggest bugbear, its a waste of your time and my time.

• Don’t write beyond the box for the answer. Completed exam scripts are scanned into a computer a question at a time, and the examiner only receives the question they are paid to mark – they do not mark a whole paper. Therefore the examiner will not be able to read what is written outside of the answer box and cannot credit you.

• Make sure you check your spelling and grammar carefully in extended answers, this could be the difference between scoring in the 3-4 mark bracket or the 5-6 mark bracket.

• Try not to contradict yourself when answering a question especially extended answer questions. The examiner can give you some credit for using science key words even if your whole anwer is not quite right, but only if you have not contradicted yourself.

• Show your working in questions involving maths, you can get credit for error carried through even if your answer is incorrect.

• You will get a graph interpretation question, make sure you know how to answer these, ask your teacher if you are unsure.

• Don’t waffle in answers, be clear, concise and to the point. The examiner will not credit your waffle, only the key words and the fact that you answered the questions.

• If you make a mistake cross it out and write your new answer. However, the examiner can only credit your new answer not the crossed out answer, so make sure you are 100% certain you want to change it.

• Lastly.....don’t panic! Everyone gets exam nerves, and feels like their mind has gone blank at some point, but just take a deep breath, have a sip of water, then open the paper and tackle it.

MATHS WEBSITE : REVISING

https://sites.google.com/a/cockshut.bham.sch.uk/maths-gcse-y11/

We are glad this site, offering you past papers, exam questions and advice, has been a huge success, with well over 100 students visiting the site. However that’s 170 in year 11 that haven’t

Don’t forget we have links to some great websites and details of how to access platforms like ‘My Maths.’

Where to find the link

PAST PAPERSEXAM QUESTIONS

TIPS + LINKS



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