Teaching & Learning
EXAMS:
Exams for Years 9-11 will take place on the following dates:
Year 11: Friday 7th – Thursday 13th November.
Year 10: Monday 17th November to Friday 21st November. Please note Year 10 students General Maths Unit 2 students will also be required to sit papers on Friday 7th and Thursday 13th November
Year 9: Friday 21st November to Wednesday 26th November.
Exam timetables and revision guides will be placed on SIMON Daily Notices for students Wednesday 22nd October 2025.
How can you help?
Being prepared for exams is a skill which students learn and develop. Spacing out studying for exams, rather than trying to cram it into the evening before is vital. Organising and mapping out available time is key for our young people as they juggle the demands of school, work, sport and family commitments. Have a conversation with your child about which subjects they may be finding more challenging, these will need more repetition and revisiting in the lead up to the exam period. This gives opportunity for the brain to forget and then retrieve key ideas, which helps to embed the learning into the long term memory.
Focusing fully on a study session rather than trying to multi-task is vital. We can help by using timers on mobile phones, putting it on silent or keeping it in another room. If a mobile phone can be seen it grabs attention away from the key task of studying.
Providing a quiet spot for study is always really helpful. If your child likes to listen to music, try music without lyrics as this can be calming and aid focus.
We encourage our students to speak with classroom teachers regarding topics that they may need extra support with. Preparation also includes having the correct equipment. Students need to ensure that they have pens, grey leads, rulers, highlighters and erasers for the exam period. They should also ensure that they have their calculators every day.
The Learning Model – a focus on checking for understanding.
This year our staff have continued using evidence-based research to undertake professional development that widens our understanding of how our students learn. Our teachers have collaborated in teams across the College to implement this learning into lessons. This work will continue into 2026 and beyond.
Checking for understanding techniques are all part of evidence-based classroom practices that help teachers - and students - track learning as it happens. As well as supporting in the classroom they are also great ways of supporting our students at home as they start on their exam revision. Regular conversations with your child at home revisiting and discussing key learning topics helps with retrieval and can alleviate some of the nervousness young people have as the exam period approaches.
Julia Wood