Honestly, where are you with your GCSE syllabus coverage?

[vintage66]

I'm a science teacher at a highly selective independent school and we have still not completed some of the course content. Normally, we would have finished most, if not all, by Christmas, with some topics still to gap fill up to Feb half term. Mock results weren't what we would have expected either and quite far off predictions.

I can't put my finger on why this is so (obviously there was Covid but I don't think it's the main issue, but perhaps it is?). Are others noticing the same?

English. We finished for mocks in January but other subjects not the same. Physics and Chemistry in particular

Interesting, yes seems English is OK at our school too.

Possibly because whilst we do two subjects, English Language has no specific content. Is there lots I can still do to improve their performance? Yes. But content is all done.
I'm not entirely sure how we manage it at A level though!

I teach science too, so hopefully a useful perspective. Mixed state school but (reasonably?) high performing. We have finished content for combined, but still teaching triple to Easter- this is about normal for us though! We do get extra time for triple but it never seems like enough!

Mock results were lower than hoped for Y11 and Y13 (feels like our Y13s still believe their exams may get called off last minute like when they were in Y11?).

My Y12s are also behind.

A few factors involved for us:

1. I know it doesn't seem like much but the unplanned bank holiday at the start of the year threw off our abilty to "hit the ground running". Snowy weather just before Christmas also impacted our ability to get things done- we were open but lots of our kids are rural and couldn't get in (and neither could some staff).

2. Student attendance is lower-as well as covid, strep A was a problem, and GPs locally were advising students to take a week off if they had any strep A symptoms.

3. Students coming in with a lower base of knowledge from prior years. Gaps from last year and the years before are really noticeable- e.g. even with a higher ability group I am having to go back and recap KS3 content- e.g. structure of the atom moreso than usual.

We're definitely relying on afterschool revision sessions to ensure students get in plenty of revision more than we would like.

I don't know if any of this is relevant or useful to you as it's a very different context but happy to discuss further.

BTW I do think science is super content heavy.

At my previous school, they wanted us to write SoW for 2 year KS4 that finished at feb half term and for science we could not do it (especially biology). It was a whole thing because "other subjects could do it".

Combined science classes 4 lessons off finishing spec, triples still some way off. The triples are always running really close to the wire,the first year of the new specs Ithink most of us had literally 2-3 revision lessons.
y12 and 13 on track, y13 will be finished before Easter.
they are supposed to be 2 years course though, not 75% 25% revision

It's all very well saying that, but the expectation of students, parents and in some cases SLT is that you finish the course by about February and have a decent chunk of time for revision/exam technique etc.

And that does seem possible in other subjects.

I do think part of the issue is that combined science is obviously 2 GCSEs worth of content, but often not given as many lessons as e.g. 2 full GCSE options.

Same here although in a challenging school. I am hoping to finish by Easter but I don’t think the kids have grasped the concepts. I’ve worked out I only have around 9/10 revision lessons with my classes between Easter and the exams too. 😳 The biggest issue is that the kids just don’t seem to care.

Just finished combined, will finish separates in a couple of weeks. Independent school, but not selective. We are lucky to get the ‘right’ amount of time. All GCSEs get 3 50min lessons a week. So double get 6 (2 for each science) and separates get 9 (3 for each).

I don’t get why the push to finish early, revising is harder to get engagement and I would rather build the revision into the topics and finish, as we are, just before Easter. Though I can appreciate that different subjects have different needs and I can see how essay/ exam technique can need the fine-tuning time.

Independent, not particularly selective - Drama. Pretty behind at both GCSE and A Level.

I agree @OhBeAFineGuyKissMe I have never understood the push to rush through the curriculum and imo good teaching involves continually revisiting points, maybe through starters, rather than a full stream ahead and job done approach @Postapocalypticcowgirl then you need to kick back against student/ parental expectation with rigorous explanation at to why your approach ( with continuous intermittent retrieval practice)

I agree with you that constant spaced practice, interleaving etc is better, but I'm new to my school this year and I'm not sure my HoD shares this view, and to be honest there are other things I would spend my limited (at this point) capital on first.

Because I've inherited some of my classes from other teachers, in some cases they haven't used this approach all through.

The school does get pretty good results from a mixed catchment, so it's also hard to make a case that what they are doing needs to change!

Excellent to hear from other weary scientists! There is just SO MUCH content!

We're in the same place we usually are. Physics and Chemistry content is finished, Biology still has a few lessons to go. I'm not worried by that, we never ever finish the Biology course that early, so the students are warned well in advance that there won't be much time in lessons for revision and they'll have to pull their finger out at home. We're constantly doing retrieval practice though, so most stuff has been revised at some point anyway.

You do have my sympathies @Postapocalypticcowgirl always hard inheriting classes.
what i do do is the first time a kid raises the “ when will be finished the spec miss question” is to give them the full speil on how good teaching involves consistently interleaving and spacing and so it will be about Easter or a bit later, and every time they mention it go back to said speil about how it is in their best interests, better practice etc

Thanks all, reassuring to hear your views. Yes it's Biology we're particularly behind with but it is the subject that we're always the last one to finish as so much content, but definitely later than normal.

It will be interesting to see how students fare. My guess is that, despite interventions, results will be lower than 2019.

That's completely valid, but I think there's an expectation from some students that they will be handheld through "revision" in class and in in school sessions.

I've got Y12s asking me this year when we will put "revision classes" on for them, and if we will do revision sessions over easter (to be clear this is something the school have never done but it's the norm in the schools they've come from).

It's a bit of a shock to the system for them to be told that they're expected to revise independently!

These Y11s have only really had (in my opinion) two "normal" years of secondary school- Y7 and this year. Obviously the situation last year varied, but I would imagine most students had periods of self isolation or their teachers spent time isolating etc. In some ways, it was more disruptive for some students than everyone learning at home, I think!

The idea we've all caught up and results are going to be back to normal seems optimistic at best!

State. Maths. Covering/finishing content as a usual year but mocks have shown some real weaknesses compared to a normal year. I think in many cases these are topics we couldn’t teach remotely like Transformations that need more in person oversight. I’m trying to plug these holes now but snow days, strike days (unavoidable I know) and an extra bank holiday in May is worrying me about the time we have to do this. It’s difficult to judge whether we have time to cover gaps or be sure we have found them all.

Just found this thread. Our school (selective grammar) decided relatively late that we would ask students to come in during the Easter holidays (this week) for half-day revision sessions. We still haven't completed all of the science syllabus. This is late for us.

Speaking to other state (both comprehensive and grammar), it seems quite a few of my colleagues' schools are doing similar. The only exception being my friends who work in independents.

Are / have you also put on extra revision classes during the Easter holidays?

I'm in a new school now so no exams this year. Last few years, I worked in a very 'bog standard' comprehensive school.

It was always a rush to finish in science! The content is massive and the practicals, if done properly, take a lot of time.

Last year, gaps from covid played a big part in struggling to finish.

More widely, I think gaps from KS3 are a problem at KS4. My personal view, as a science HoD, is that it can often be KS3 classes that end up with endless supply if there are staff shortages and KS3 is often last on people's list of priorities. I absolutely get it - I have been that HoD who has taken a strong teacher off a KS3 class and put them on a KS4 group due to shortages. It's robbing Peter to pay Paul but parental pressure and pressure from SLT often means you have no choice. Unfortunately, it then creates year groups coming through with gaps galore!

Thanks, yes definite gaps. And agree with focus switching and often KS3 being overlooked.

No holiday revision for us.
We stopped doing it a number of years ago for a range of reasons including funding and accessibility. From time to time, someone will "suggest" that the head thinks we should, and the head will remind them that we won't.

I'm jobhunting now. Is there a way of finding out which schools expect all these extras from staff without seeming lazy?
I saw a school with 'going the extra mile' in the job description. This is a concern after my last school, which seemed to expect the staff to work much harder than the students.

Before the change of policy, I got accused of not being a team player by the then deputy head because I refused to go in on a Sunday for revision. I actually had long standing plans... but I now refuse to do stuff like that on principle. Helps that I'm a union rep