Our current year 11 and 13 students have had a tough few years, with Covid impacting their flow of learning.  As a result, the government has allowed GCSE students to use an exam formula sheet in the past, and for summer 2025 the Department For Education has decided that students will have access to these formulas again.  However, students still need to remember a number of common formulae and methods, so revision is largely unchanged as a result. 

Year 11s are now in their final learning months (we try to finish all new curriculum content by the end of the December), and from January onwards students will switch to revision mode - with teachers using the November trial exam results to shape the lesson content from January up until the exams in May/June. Teachers will deliberately focus on filling knowledge gaps and weak areas revealed in the December and March exam trials. 

Trials are mostly sat in the sports hall in exam conditions, and students entitled to extra time or additional support will receive that support in a similar way to the summer arrangements. So if you are a parent/carer, please ensure that students are fully equipped as needed.

For the Nov/Dec trial exams, you can find a revision topic list below. Students should use this as the structure for their revision for at least 4 weeks leading up to the trials. 

Year 11 students are encouraged to purchase revision resources including a workbook and printed past exam papers. These can be purchased through the school (to minimise costs) and contain Edexcel exam practice questions for either the Foundation or Higher paper that they are sitting. We support students through December trials especially, providing detailed revision topic lists that match the content of the papers, along with MathsWatch video clips, practice questions and even page numbers to use in the revision resource book.

We have now spent time in class teaching revision skills, and you can view the revision strategy slides below.

As year 11s approach their final exams in 2025, they will receive their printed 9 week revision schedule which outlines what subjects that students need to revise during their personal time.  Five nights a week, a number of MathsWatch clips need to be worked through by students - they need to attempt the MathsWatch questions, (using pen & paper) and if necessary, they can use the teaching video(s) for that subject to fill any evident knowledge gaps, eventually ticking off that topic and moving on. During these final weeks, intervention groups are also set up by the school, to support selected students to achieve their target grades through directed revision activities.  

The GCSE revision schedule will be issued to students in due course, but we've also provided links to recordings of GCSE Maths exams being answered, and they can be found HERE.

Year 13s will sit new year trials but due to the curriculum demands, teachers need to keep teaching content up until exam time 2025, so a significant emphasis is placed on students being independent and reflective in order for them to use their personal time to fill in evident knowledge gaps.   As exam time approaches, we will distribute their 8 week revision schedule, which in a similar way to year 11s, outlines what topics they need to revise each week between then and the exams.  Students really need to grapple with as many past paper questions as possible (papers are available on demand from the Maths room). 

Your son/daughter's Maths teacher will keep an eye on their electronic revision progress, and will be in touch if we need to work together to get a student back on track. 

As parents/guardians you may need to encourage (nag) your son or daughter to engage with the personal effort required for revision (at the right time) and help them gain the necessary discipline. They will thank you for it, because their confidence will grow and they will not feel stressed if fully prepared.  They will also get a very long summer to look forward to!

Our emphasis for year 11 and 13 students is that their final grade is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY. Our teachers always go above and beyond to support students in a wide variety of ways, but students get the grade they deserve. We expect them to put in significant revision effort as exams approach, seek out teachers for help (during breaks and lunches when we deliberately make ourselves available) and wrestle with challenging content rather than focus on content they already grasp. If they do this, they will succeed, but just turning up to class isn't enough around exam time. Students will need to put in significant personal revision time in order to achieve those target grades, and no teacher, friend or family member can do revision for them - it has to be them working to fill the gaps that exist in their brain. 

If you have any questions about exam support for your son/daughter, please contact Mr Jones (s.jones@denemagna.gloucs.sch.uk) or contact your son/daughter's Maths teacher.