Guidance, ideas and examples to support schools in developing their curriculum, pedagogy, enrichment and support for more able learners, within a whole-school context of cognitively challenging learning for all. Includes ideas to support curriculum development, and practical examples, resources and ideas to try in the classroom. Popular topics include: curriculum development, enrichment, independent learning, questioning, oracy, resilience, aspirations, assessment, feedback, metacognition, and critical thinking.
Claire Gadsby, educational trainer, author and founder of Radical Revision, shares five practical approaches to make your students’ revision more effective.
Did you know that 88% of pupils who revise effectively exceed their target grade? Interestingly, most pupils do not know this and fail to realise exactly how much of a gamechanger revision really is. Sitting behind this simple-looking statement, though, lies the key question: what is effective revision?
In my revision work with thousands of pupils around the world, I have not met many who are initially overjoyed at the thought of revision, often perceiving it as an onerous chore to be endured on their own before facing the trial of the exams. It does not have to be this way and I am passionate about taking the pain out of the process.
Revision can – and should – be fun. Yes, you read that right. The following strategies may be helpful for you in motivating and supporting your pupils on their revision journey.
1. Timer challenge
Reassure your pupils that not everything needs revising: lots is actually still alive and well in their working memory. Put a timer on the clock and challenge pupils to see how much they can recall about a particular topic off the top of their head in just five minutes. The good news is that this is ‘banked’: now what pupils need to do is to focus their revision on the areas they did not write down. It is only at this point that they need to start scanning through notes to identify things they had missed.
2. Bursts and breaks
It is quite common for young people to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of revision. Be confident when you reassure them that ‘little and often’ really is the best way to tackle it. Indeed, research suggests that a short burst of 25 minutes revision followed by a five-minute break is the ideal. Make the most of any ‘dead time’ slots in the school day to include these short revision bursts.
3. Better together
Show pupils the power of collaborative revision. Working with at least one other person is energising and gets the job done quicker. Activities such as ‘match the pairs’ or categorising tasks have the added advantage of also promoting higher-order thinking and discussion.
4. Take the scaffolds away
It is not effective to simply keep reading the same words during revision. Instead, ‘generation’ is one of the key strategies proven to support long-term learning. Tell pupils not to write out whole words in their revision notes. Instead, they should write just the first letter of key words and then leave a blank space. When they look back at their notes, their brain will be challenged to work harder to recall the rest of the missing word which, in turn, makes it more likely to be retained for longer.
5. Playful but powerful
We know that low-stakes quizzing is ideal, and my ‘lucky dip’ approach is helpful here. Keep revision information, such as key terms and concepts, ‘in play’ by placing them in a gift bag or similar. Mix these up and pull one out at random to check for understanding. Quick, out of context, checks like this are a type of inter-leaving which is proven to strengthen recall.
Following feedback from pupils and their parents that they would benefit from more sustained support and structure in the lead up to their exams, in 2021 I launched Radical Revision – an online revision programme for schools with short video tutorials (ideal for use in tutor time) to introduce students to our cutting-edge revision techniques. The online portal also contains a plethora of downloadable resources and CPD for teachers, as well as resources and webinars for parents. For more information please visit the Radical Revision website, where you can sign up to access a free trial version. We’re also offering NACE members a 15% discount on the cost of an annual subscription for your school – log in to the NACE member offers page for details.
Sources: National strategies GCSE Booster materials, DfES publications 2003.
For even more great practical ideas from Claire, join us the NACE annual conference on 20 June 2023 – details coming soon!
Rob Bick, Curriculum Leader of Mathematics and Assistant Headteacher, explains how the use of exit tickets has improved assessment (and teacher workload) at Haybridge High School and Sixth Form.
The maths department at Haybridge High School introduced exit tickets almost 10 years ago, inspired by a suggestion in Doug Lemov’s book ‘Teach like a Champion 2.0’. Here’s how it works in our department…
In general, students would be given a coloured piece of A5/A6 paper towards the end of a lesson. On the whiteboard their teacher would write a hinge question (or questions) to assess whether or not students have a reasonable understanding of the key concept(s) covered in that lesson. A shared bank of exit ticket questions is available, often using exam-style questions, but teachers are encouraged to use a flexible approach and set their own question(s) in response to how the lesson has progressed. We wouldn’t use a pre-suggested exit ticket for a lesson if that was no longer appropriate.
Students copy the exit ticket question(s) down on to their piece of paper and then write their answers, showing full workings. As students leave the lesson they hand their completed exit ticket to their teacher. The teacher will then mark the exit tickets with either a tick or cross, no corrections, putting them into three piles: incorrect, correct, perfect. Those with perfect (and correct if applicable) exit tickets are awarded achievement points. Marking the exit tickets is very quick and easy and gives the teacher a quick insight into the success of the lesson, whether a concept needs to be retaught, whether the class is ready to build on the key concepts, any common misconceptions that need to be addressed, whether students are using correct mathematical language…
After the starter activity of the next lesson, the teacher will review the exit tickets using the visualisers in a variety of ways. This could be to model a perfect solution which students can then use to annotate their own returned exit ticket, or to explore a common misconception. The teacher may display an exit ticket and say “What’s wrong with this?”. Names can be redacted but hopefully the teacher has established a “no fear of mistakes” environment where students are comfortable with their exit ticket being displayed. Students always correct their own errors using coloured pens for corrections to make them stand out. Annotated exit tickets are then stuck into books.
Exit tickets can also be set to aid recall of previous topics. This is particularly helpful when the scheme of work will soon be extending upon some form of previous knowledge. For example, exit tickets could be used to prompt students to recall how to solve linear equations in advance of a lesson on simultaneous linear equations, or to review basic trigonometry before moving on to 3D trigonometry.
Other than marking formal assessments, this is the only other marking expected of staff and the expectation is that an exit ticket will take place every other lesson. In sixth form we turn this on its head and do entrance tickets, so questions are asked at the start of the lesson using exact questions which were set for homework due that lesson. This gives teachers a quick method of assessing students’ understanding and identifying those who haven’t completed their homework successfully. It saves a great deal of teacher time and yet provides a much clearer understanding of how our students are progressing.
Obviously, exit and entrance tickets are just one approach to check for understanding. We also use learning laps with live formative assessment during every lesson. We make extensive use of mini-whiteboards and hinge questioning to quickly assess understanding. We also only use cold calling when asking for a response from the class – all students are asked to answer a problem and then one is asked to share their response – rather than choosing only from those with hands up.
Share your experience
We are seeking NACE member schools to share their experiences of effective assessment practices – including new initiatives and well-established practices. To share your experience, simply contact us, considering the following questions:
Which area of assessment is used most effectively?
What assessment practices are having the greatest impact on learning?
How do teachers and pupils use the assessment information?
How do you develop an understanding of pupils’ overall development?
How do you use assessment information to provide wider experience and developmental opportunities?
Is assessment developing metacognition and self-regulation?
This term’s NACE member meetup brought together colleagues from across our network to explore the theme “developing oracy for high achievement”. Following a morning of CPD presentations, the afternoon session was dedicated to sharing examples of effective approaches to developing oracy skills, to support cognitively challenging learning and high achievement.
Here are some of the approaches shared:
1. Get all staff members on board
One common theme from the event was the importance of getting all staff members on board, through a shared vision and whole-school approach. Salusbury Primary School has approached this using the Voice 21 oracy benchmarks, and developed specific inset sessions based on priorities identified through a staff and student survey.
A similar approach – again starting with staff and student surveys – was adopted at Maiden Erlegh School, and you can read more about this here.
Alongside a shared vision and framework, members highlighted the importance of opportunities for flexibility, innovation, collaboration, feedback, and sharing what’s working across the school.
2. Set and model high expectations for spoken responses
Another recurrent theme was the setting and modelling of high expectations for spoken responses. This could include insisting on the use of full sentences, accurate grammar, and appropriate tier 2 and 3 vocabulary.
To support students with this, approaches include sharing sentence starters with learners, using a “bounce it on” model to collaboratively build discussions, and the use of ethics debates to help learners develop confidence in expressing opinions.
There was consensus that such techniques have led to students becoming more confident and accurate in both spoken and written communication.
3. Word(s) of the day
At Haybridge High School, a dedicated section of the board is used to share key terms relevant to the lesson – including challenging vocabulary and discourse markers to structure talk. The meaning of the words is taught explicitly, with call-and-response vocalisation to aid pronunciation. Learners are then challenged to use these words during discussions within the lesson.
Similarly, Harris Academy Beckenham uses a “word of the day”. Students start by vocalising the word together, then using it in a sentence. The word is then revisited throughout the lesson, so all students use the word multiple times in different contexts.
Again, members reported increased retention, confidence and accuracy. In addition, the additional vocabulary can open doors for learners to think abstractly or conceptually about a topic.
4. Vocabulary bullseye
Another approach to developing vocabulary was shared by Brook Field Primary School, where learners play “vocabulary bullseye”. In this game, key words are shown within a bullseye diagram. Children are challenged to use the words to explain a concept – gaining one point for words in the outer ring, two for the middle, and three for the inner circle. Points can be deducted for “umms” and other filler words.
This game can be played either with the bullseye diagram visible or hidden, depending on the stage in the teaching sequence. It has led to learners using higher-tier vocabulary more confidently and effectively, in both spoken and written communication.
5. Public speaking clubs and competitions
Several schools shared the use of public speaking clubs and competitions, providing further opportunities for learners to develop oracy skills. At Pangbourne College, this has been approached in several ways, including public speaking workshops as part of leadership training for sixth-form students, as well as integration within the Year 9 English curriculum.
As part of the latter initiative, learners are taught rhetorical devices, and have the opportunity to plan and delivery speeches, culminating in “The Declamations Cup” competition – complete with prizes and a trophy for the winner.
6. Be consistent (but not “perfect”)
Finally, members agreed on the importance of consistency across the school, and ensuring oracy is embedded into everyday routines so that staff and students alike have ample opportunities for practice.
Alongside this, several emphasised the importance of ensuring students know they don’t need to be “perfect” when speaking – and that in fact, the more opportunities they have to practice, the more comfortable they become with taking risks and making mistakes. Practice doesn’t make perfect!
In the opening weeks of this term, we held two online meetups for NACE members – focused on exploring challenges and opportunities in the current context, sharing ideas and experiences with peers, and identifying priorities and core principles for the coming weeks and months.
While acknowledging the significant differences in the experiences of both students and staff members over the past six months, the two sessions also highlighted some strong common themes and key messages:
1. Humanity first and teaching first
While wellbeing is and should remain a priority, NACE Associate Neil Jones makes the case that for more able learners, study is in fact an intrinsic part of their humanity. The meetups highlighted the need to focus on restoring learners’ confidence and self-belief; reinstating healthy and effective learning routines; showing care, calm and confidence in learners’ abilities and futures; continuing to consider the needs of the more able in planning and practice (and supporting colleagues to do so); maintaining high expectations and ambitions; and being aware of the risk of learning becoming “endless” for the more able (particularly in remote/independent learning).
2. Assess, but don’t add stress
While meetup attendees agreed on the importance of understanding where students are and identifying gaps in learning, they also emphasised the importance of achieving this without creating additional pressure, either for staff or learners. Take time over this, building in low-/no-stakes assessment, regular verbal feedback, and involving students in the process of identifying where they feel more/less confident and what they need to do next.
3. Stay ambitious in teaching and learning
A recurrent message from the meetups was the importance of remaining ambitious in teaching and learning – balancing the need to pare back/streamline without narrowing the curriculum or lowering expectations, and auditing deficits without leaping to remedial/deficit thinking. Key ideas shared included a focus on meaningful tasks; teaching to where learners could be now; choosing language carefully to inspire, excite and set high expectations; finding ways to incorporate hands-on as well as theoretical learning; finding opportunities for collaboration; and prioritising dialogic teaching and learning – recognising the loss of rich language exchange during school closures.
4.Continue to build on “lessons from lockdown”
Both sessions also highlighted the many innovative practices developed during school closures, many of which will be retained and further developed. Examples included the use of technology and/or project-based learning to support learners in working both independently and in collaboration with one another.
Finally, the meetups reinforced the importance of engaging and listening to students – involving them in conversations about their experience, interests and passions, and making them part of the creative, innovative thinking and discussion that will help schools and individuals continue to move forward positively. Or as NACE Associate Dr Keith Watson has written, “Not merely recovering, but rebounding and reigniting with energy, vigour and a celebration of talents.”
For more on these key messages and other ideas explored during the meetups, watch the recordings:
NACE member meetups are free to attend for all NACE members, offering opportunities to connect and share ideas with peers across the UK and beyond, as well as hearing from NACE Associates and leading schools.
Not yet a NACE member? Starting at just £95 +VAT per year, NACE membership is available for schools (covering all staff), SCITT providers, TSAs, trusts and clusters. Members have access to advice, practical resources and CPD to support the review and improvement of provision for more able learners within a context of challenge and high standards for all. Find out more.
Robert Massey, author, teacher and lead for high-attaining students, shares his “three Rs” for the return to school.
The ‘new normal’ is full of contradictions. As teachers and students prepare to return to schools this September, we face a unique set of challenges. Much will be new, but some of what we do will look familiar and reassuring; a lot will be strange as we navigate physical barriers such as one-way systems and Perspex screens and the technological challenges of virtual meetings, but at the heart of what we do will be lessons and learning. Same old, same old.
Some schools have used the work of Barry Carpenter on a ‘recovery curriculum’ as a helpful way of thinking about the new term ahead, and I hope that the points which follow about language, mapping and high expectations are useful as suggestions towards a way of thinking about what the ‘new normal’ might mean.
Recovery: words matter
The language which schools and teachers use in the first term back will be vital in setting the tone for learning. It will be so tempting to resort to good old standby phrases used in the past following, for example, periods of pupil illness or teacher absence.
“We’ve got tons to catch up on!”
“We’ve missed months of learning since March.”
“You’ve had all this lockdown time to get the work I set you done.”
This is unhelpful for many reasons. It will serve to heighten anxiety among students, some of whom will already be worried about what they’ve missed, and more nervous than they may let on about what the future may hold. It will imply that responsibility for the ‘lost learning’ somehow rests with them. It will depersonalise the classroom experience: we’re all in this together, and we’re all ‘behind’.
Heads and senior leadership teams can take a lead here by sanitising such language from the classroom, and by sharing more positive phrases with parents. A recovery curriculum might be framed around metaphors of building:
“I’m just checking that we have strong foundations of learning in biology by revisiting cell structure.”
“Now we’re reinforcing the use of key terms in poetry that we’ve used before.”
“How as a class can we build upon last year’s work on Tudor monarchy as we move on to look at revolution and civil war?”
Reassurance: mapping the learning journey
This is not mere window dressing and pretty words. I’m going to be spending time with Year 9 mapping where they are as learners. If I don’t know where they are now, I can’t set out a learning journey for this term, still less beyond. Each pupil will need individual reassurance that I know where they are and where they can get to. This will take time and will mean less time to deliver content, but that is a sacrifice worth making this term of all terms. Reassurance, reassurance, reassurance is what I’ll be offering to my Year 13s faced with the traditional UCAS term on top of uncertain A-level assessment outcomes. Small steps will be my building blocks, starting from the here and now rather than what might have been, with big topics broken down into smaller and accessible chunks of learning which can be more easily monitored and supported should lockdown return.
A recovery curriculum is a joined-up piece of collective thinking shared across a school. There has never been a greater need for departments to look closely at how they link with others. Pupils and parents will be confounded if, to take a very simple example, the English department puts in effort to focus on the wellbeing of students by revisiting key skills and encouraging the articulation of doubts and fears about the current situation, while in maths the emphasis is immediately on tests just before half term and ‘filling in gaps’ missed in past months.
How will your department work together to share approaches to recovery and reassurance?
How will your faculty and school build shared attitudes and actions to support pupils’ return?
Remarkable students
I’m therefore emphasising for September the importance of pupil wellbeing and the reassurance of parents and colleagues. This does not mean a lowering of expectations. As children learn from our modelled attitudes and actions that the ‘new normal’ is more normal than new, they will understand that it is natural for us as teachers to set the bar of learning high, just as we used to do.
We are not revisiting, rebuilding and reinforcing past learning in order to stand still and stagnate, but rather are doing so as a springboard for the skills and content still to come. Think of it as recovery revision ready for new challenges ahead.
If I am teaching to the top with my Year 10s this term, as I hope I am, I will be doing them no favours if I simplify core content or fail to stretch them in discussion. The challenge for me will be to do this alongside the mapping and reassurance they need. So:
I’m building in more signposting: this is where we are, and the next three weeks will look like this.
I’m increasing ‘hang back’ time as the lesson ends, so that students can catch me or I can speak to them individually.
I’m reviving a pre-lockdown good habit of three Friday phone calls home to spread the message of reassurance, praise and high expectations.
Summary
The three aims stated above will need careful balancing and blending. Context is everything, and you know your students better than anyone else, so you can judge and provide the scaffolding and support needed for each class and each pupil. This will be a rollercoaster recovery term, where the language we use to map our learning journeys will matter a lot. Equally, the one-to-one reassurance we offer has never been more important. This recovery curriculum needs to remain ambitious, with teachers teaching to the top – combined with a culture of high expectations continuing from pre-lockdown days. Remarkable teachers will model this curriculum for our remarkable students.
Robert Massey is the author of From Able to Remarkable: Help your students become expert learners (Crown House Publishing, 2019). For a 20% discount when purchasing this or other Crown House publications, log in to view our current member offers.
NACE Associate and R&D Hub Lead Laura March explains how Southend High School for Boys (SHSB) is ensuring learners continue to encounter “desirable difficulty” during the current period of remote learning.
In a recent ResearchEd presentation, Paul Kirshner delivered an insightful presentation based on the book Lessons for Learning. In one of his tips, he highlighted the need to avoid offering too much new subject matter during remote learning and to instead use this time to focus on maintaining the skills and knowledge that have been previously learnt. We know how easy it is to forget this learning without regular retrieval practice – we see this happen every year over the six-week summer break. Sometimes we underestimate the power of revision and repetition and this is a good opportunity to encourage pupils to consolidate knowledge from prior learning (see example retrieval grid).
For effective independent learning to take place, it is helpful to provide step-by-step worked solutions and provide alternative routes for all learners so they are offered support during their practice. On the other hand, we want there to be some form of “desirable difficulty” – not too hard, not too easy. Desirable difficulties are important because they trigger encoding and retrieval processes that support learning, comprehension and remembering. If, however, they are too difficult (the learner does not have the background knowledge or skills to respond to them successfully) they become undesirable difficulties and pupils can become disengaged, especially when working from home without teacher instruction and regular prompting (Bjork, 2009).
As time goes on, students’ internal resources start to increase as they begin to learn the content. At this point students are in danger of finding the task too easy. If there is no difficulty involved, then learning is less likely to occur. The best choice here is to start reducing the amount of support so pupils can achieve independence.
To help us reflect on this research, departments at SHSB have used two frameworks when considering and reviewing the tasks and activities being presented for remote learning:
Fisher and Frey: the gradual release of responsibility
In Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility (2008), Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey probe the how and why of the gradual release of responsibility instructional framework – a model which is deeply embedded across SHSB (see this summary of how we are using this model to inform our approach to remote learning). To what extent have we been providing tasks that fit into each of the four stages of effective structured learning? Is there a gradual shift in responsibility from the teacher to the pupil, moving from “I do” to “you do together” and “you do alone”?
Sandringham Research School: the memory clock
We also wanted to think of simple ways to continue to achieve the interactivity that is crucial to teaching and learning. The “memory clock” shared with us by Sandringham Research School has helped pupils revise and consolidate their knowledge. To avoid offering too much subject matter at once, the clock prompts pupils to structure learning into chunks and to always end with ‘assessing’ to self-regulate their own learning (see this example from SHSB Business department). It is important to ensure each study session has targeted questioning to check content is understood before moving on.
Ensuring learning is transferred into long-term memory
A wealth of research tells us that delivering new information in small chunks is more effective for working memory – the type of memory we use to recall information while actively engaged in an activity. The capacity to store this information is vital to many learning activities in the classroom and just as important for remote learning. Presenting too much material at once may confuse students because they will be unable to process it using working memory. We can observe when this happens in the classroom and respond by explaining and repeating the material. It is more difficult for us to identify this in remote learning.
In both models outlined above, you will see recall and retrieval plays an important role. This has been embedded in our SIP over the last few years and departments at SHSB have been creative in revisiting material after a period of time using low stakes quizzes, retrieval grids, multiple choice questions and images. This review helps to provide some of the processing needed to move new learning into long-term memory and helps us to identify any misconceptions before introducing new material.
Fisher, D. and N. Frey, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Virginia, 2008.
Kornell, N., Hays, M. J., & Bjork, R. A. (2009). Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 989–998.
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