How can a revision revolution transform your school culture?
I was delighted when the teaching staff at Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate, York, got in touch to explain what impact The Revision Revolution is having …
Here is a review from Rachel Smith, assistant headteacher at Tiffin Girls’ School, Surrey.
The story at Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate
During the academic year, a group of staff at Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate read a copy of The Revision Revolution. Like many schools, QE has emerged from the pandemic with predicted grades, remote teaching and unusual ways of working almost becoming the norm.
Student outcomes have, for many years, been very strong. Established in 1912, and home to both day and international students from 60+ countries, QE is one of the UK’s top 10 day and boarding schools.
The teaching staff, like all teachers, work tirelessly to support students to achieve academic excellence. Revision at QE features across our curriculum, with groups of students in key stages 4 and 5 using different revision methods.
However,
The Revision Revolution was a turning point in our approach to revision as a Collegiate.
Using techniques from The Revision Revolution
We used the techniques and advice that both Ross and Helen gave to make sure that we planned a consistent revision approach, this time across years 6-13, to complement our middle and senior school structure. This was a huge undertaking with over 1,000 students across these year groups!
Students’ perceptions of revision had changed…
We are still only six months into the whole school revision project, or WSR for short, but have seen a tremendous improvement in how students revise, their approach to examinations, assessments, and crucially, wellbeing!
Our recent cross-collegiate questionnaire provides a wonderful overview of the positive impact the WSR project is having. When asked how students’ perceptions of revision had changed since the start of this academic year (when the project started,) some of our students said the following:
“I do it more consistently, every day rather than only before the exam”
“I used to think of revision as a chore and something that I didn’t enjoy doing, but now I feel as though I see the benefits of doing it and it helps to achieve good grades…”
“Revision seemed like such a daunting task but now revising has turned into something that seems worth it and fun because of the methods.”
Our revision toolkit …
The project is being implemented in-house with help from every part of the school. It is centred around students building up their own ‘revision toolkit’, using retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, with dual coding and metacognition to follow. Here are some highlights of the project so far:
- Our middle school has over 45 student revision ambassadors and two senior schools. They often go into form time, supporting tutors to introduce new methods …
- We have dedicated website pages (Queen Ethelburga’s Revision Toolkit), a YouTube channel with Tik-Tok style videos of methods made by our students, shown in assemblies like this: Student thoughts on revision.
- QE’s revision project has a mental health Lead, videos and support for parents, with weekly meetings for boarding to support house parents with helping students to revise.
- It has been embedded throughout our schemes of work by our academic staff, and we have dedicated form time and assemblies to share effective revision methods. Form tutors are the driving force behind each method.
- Last term, for example, over 1000 students learnt about spacing and interleaving through the sessions we created for form time with alumni visiting the school to inspire students.
The Revision Revolution has shaped so much of our project. Our message to any school wanting to adopt something similar would be to spend time planning it across all aspects of school in phases … and go for it!
This is a shining endorsement of The Revision Revolution and its impact on school communities.
