13th October 2015

Welcome / purpose of event

Received feedback from parents – how complicated things have become

Attempt to resolve this

Confidence to contact those relevant to your concern.

Who’ll you be meeting?

Miss T Young - Head of Year 10

Miss L Banks - Head of English

Mrs L Lloyd – Head of Mathematics

Mrs D Conway – Head of Science

Mrs N Jennings – i/c Welsh Baccalaureate

Pupil Targets We set individual targets.

Use FFT targets – we set the most challenging targets for our girls

Most recent set of targets were in their end of Year 9 report – Grades now not levels

A new interim report will be with parents mid November

Please speak with myself or the team if you have any concerns following

Why is attendance important? Research shows that just 17 days missed from school can

mean a drop of a GCSE grade across ALL subjects 90% Attendance may sound good, but over a year it actually

adds up half a day missed each week. Schools are open to pupils 190 days of the year which leaves

175 days for holidays and visiting family. Holidays can no longer be authorised during the school year.

All pupils should be aiming for an attendance figure of 95% - 100%. Please help us to achieve this for you Daughter.

Please contact us straight away if you have any concerns over your daughters desire to come to school. It is easier to solve any issues earlier rather than later.

Wellbeing

Form tutors

Head of Year 10

Pastoral Support officers – Mrs Homer

Additional external specialist support if required

All Year 10 pupils will also have access to a mentor

Mentoring

Each Form Tutor has an hour a fortnight formentoring. All Year 10 pupils will be mentored by theirForm Tutor.

Additional mentoring will be put in place for pupilswho have been identified as borderline C/D in Mathsand/ or English after half term.

All staff will be aware of the pupils being mentoredand will update Form Tutors.

Thursday 15th October 2015 Physics Revision techniques and coursework catch up

Friday 16th October INSET Day

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Physics Revision techniques and coursework catch up

Before Half Term Geography Coursework Deadline

Monday 26th October to Fri 30th October 2015Half Term

Attendance leaflets

Thursday 19th November 2015 Form tutor Parents Evening

Thursday 26th November 2015 Form Tutor Parents Evening

Monday 21st December to Friday 1st January 2016Christmas Break

Attendance leaflets

Monday 15th February to Friday 19th February 2016Half term

Attendance leaflets

Monday 7th March to Friday 18th March 2016 In class mock examinations

Tuesday 22nd March 2016 Year 10 Parents Evening with Subject Teachers

Friday 25th March 2016 to Friday 8th March 2016

Easter Break

Attendance leaflets

Revision Week

Friday 15th April 2016 Year 10 reports

May 2016 GCSE Examinations start

Monday 30th May to Friday 3rd June 2016Half Term

Attendance leaflets

June 2016 GCSE Examinations finish

Monday 18th JulySummer Holidays start

Attendance Summary Leaflet

August 2016 GCSE Results

Key Dates 2015/16

Finally from me…

If you have any individual questions please see Miss Young or myself this evening or contact us via the school phone number.

Alternatively, I can be emailed on cbrown.bhcs@valelearning.com if this is easier.

Thanks once again for your continued support and for attending this evening.

Miss L Banks Head of English faculty

TWO SEPARATE GCSE QUALIFICATIONS

English

Language

English

Literature

English

Literature

Unit 1 35%

Of Mice and Men: One

extract and one essay

Unseen poetry: One essay

Jan 2017

Re-sit in May 2017

Unit 2 40%

Blood Brothers: One

extract and one essay

Lord of the Flies: One

extract and one essay

June 2017

ENGLISH LITERATURE – TWO EXAMS

ENGLISH LITERATURE – ONE CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT

25%

Shakespeare and poetry:

1. Pupils study the presentation of a specific theme in a Shakespeare play

2. Pupils write a comparison of two poems by Welsh writers.

Spring term 2016

English

Language

UNIT 1 (ORACY) 20%

Half of all available

marks will be for choice

of appropriate register,

grammatical accuracy

and range of sentence

structures .

Individual

Researched

Presentation

Group

Discussion

UNIT 2 (DESCRIPTION, NARRATION AND EXPOSITION ) 40%

Reading

• Short story

• Play

• Comic strip

• Geographical map

• Catalogue

• Diagrams

• Essays

Assessed through a range of

structured questions;

editing task focusing on

understanding short texts at

word, sentence and text level.

Writing

One writing task to be

selected from a choice of two

that could be either

description, narration or

exposition;

one proofreading task

focusing on writing accurately.

Half of all available

marks will be

awarded for writing

accurately (language,

grammar,

punctuation and

spelling).

UNIT 2 (ARGUMENTATION, PERSUASION AND INSTRUCTIONAL) 40%

Reading

• Letters promoting a PoV

• A report/article giving opinion

• Persuasion: subjective

• Speech

• Review

Assessed through a range of

structured questions;

Writing

• One compulsory

argumentation writing

task;

• One compulsory

persuasion writing task.

Half of all available

marks will be

awarded for writing

accurately (language,

grammar,

punctuation and

spelling).

TIMELINE

Year 10

Autumn term Spring term Summer term

• Lord of the Flies

whilst practising

language skills

too.

• Shakespeare and

poetry:

1. Pupils study the

presentation of a

specific theme in

a Shakespeare

play

2. Pupils write a

comparison of

two poems by

Welsh writers.

• Blood Brothers

(and language

skills)

• Individual

presentation

Year 11

Autumn term Spring term Summer term

• Of Mice and Men

and unseen

poetry

• JAN: OMAM exam

• Language

preparation and

revision

• Group discussion

• Language

preparation and

revision

• LOTF&BB exam

• 2 x Lang exams

FINAL NOTES

• The best way to revise for English is to read. READ

everything – papers/graphs/maps/letters pages etc.

• Accuracy of spelling, punctuation and grammar is

worth a significant number of marks. Get practising!

• Websites that prepare for the grammar school 11+

exam will help.

• Don’t watch any Lord of the Flies films! The black

and white version is the closest but it’s still quite

different.

• Follow me on twitter: @BHEnglish (#LOTFprep)

Mrs L Lloyd Head of Mathematics

faculty

All pupils are preparing for the new WJEC mathematics GCSE.

There are two GCSE’s:

• GCSE Mathematics Numeracy

• GCSE Mathematics

There are 3 tiers of entry:

Tier of entry Higher Intermediate Foundation

Grades

available

A*, A, B, C

(U)

B, C, D, E

(U)

C, D, E, F, G

(U)

Each GCSE has two examination papers:

paper 1 is a non-calculator paper

paper 2 is a calculator paper

The length of each paper varies according to the level of entry

There is NO coursework / controlled assessment – the grades are from the examination paper ONLY

Examination dates

Pupils will sit the GCSE Mathematics Numeracy

examination in November 2016

Pupils will then sit the GCSE Mathematics

examination in May / June 2017

Pupils will also have the opportunity to resit the

Numeracy paper in the May / June 2017

What help does the Mathematics department offer?

‘Maths watch’ website

‘My maths’ website

‘Drop–in’ sessions every Tuesday lunchtime

In year 11 there will be revision sessions

What can you do to help your daughter?

Ensure she is completing all classwork and homework exercises

Ensure she seeks help when difficulties arise

Ensure she catches up any work missed due to absence

Ensure that she has the correct equipment including a calculator

Mrs D ConwayHead of Science faculty

Yr 10

Science

Our Success story!

96% of all Yr 11 pupils 2015 gained at

least a C grade/equivalent !

We run 3 courses:

OCR GCSE Science – pupils gain 1 Science

GCSE at the end of Yr 10 and another at the

end of Yr 11.

• OCR GCSE Triple Science – pupils gain a

GCSE in Biology, Chemistry & Physics at the

end of Yr 11.

• WJEC IVQ Science – pupils gain 1 Science

GCSE equivalent at the end of Yr 10 and

another at the end of Yr 11.

OCR GCSE Science and Triple

Science Assessment

GCSE Science: All students will sit 2 external examinations in June 2016 and also in June 2017.

Triple Science: All students will sit 2 external examinations for each subject in June 2017.

All students will have Mock examinations beforehand to practice techniques.

All GCSE students have a controlled assessment on Monday 14th December (all day) and another in June.

OCR GCSE Science & Triple Science

Homework & Testing

Pupils are set homework regularly

from their Black Collins Revision

Guide (s). They mark and correct

this themselves with a green pen

and bring it to class by a set

deadline.

Pupils also have regular tests set

throughout each Topic These tests

are made up from past examination

questions.

OCR GCSE Science/Triple ScienceRevision Sessions

We Revise in class before tests and we put

on Revision sessions in the weeks leading up

to the external examination at

lunchtimes/after school/breakfast!

We also hold Revision Sessions at Easter and

Whitsun Half Term holiday

The students will be given this information

nearer to the time.

OCR GCSE Science/Triple ScienceResources to aid Learning/Revision

If any pupil is experiencing difficulty with any area of the work

then then should seek help from their teacher.

We have lots of resources available on the Science subject area of

the school website. These include:

the PowerPoints used to teach the lessons.

Revision Summary Specification sheets for each Topic.

Practice examination papers with markschemes.

Revision games/cards.

We also recommend that pupils use GCSE Bitesize to aid

Learning/Revision

WJEC IVQ Science

Assessment Double Award

This course is mainly assessed through coursework assignments. All students will sit 1 external examination in June 2016 and another in June 2017.

All students will have a Mock examination beforehand to practice techniques.

The students complete 5 coursework assignments during lesson time. The deadline for the completion of all Yr 10 assignments is the beginning of April 2016.

WJEC IVQ ScienceHomework & Testing

Pupils are sometimes set homework

to help prepare for part of an

assignment .

Pupils are regularly assessed during

and on completion of each

assignment.

WJEC IVQ ScienceRevision Sessions

Once the assignment deadline has gone at

the beginning of April we revise in class and

complete Practice questions and papers in

preparation for the examination.

WJEC IVQ ScienceResources to aid Learning/Revision

If any pupil is experiencing difficulty with any

area of the work then then should seek help

from their teacher.

We have lots of resources available on the

Science subject area of the school website.

These include:

Practice examination papers with

markschemes.

Changing from one course to

another.We always try to select the best course for each

individual pupil as we want them to get the maximum

grades/points possible to help with their future

choices. Some pupils struggle with the way that the

GCSE course is assessed but won’t know that they are

going to struggle until they give it a try. A few pupils

have found their first Science GCSE tests difficult.

The GCSE Science pupils have their next test on Wed

21st Oct . If they are still having difficulties after this

second test then we will be recommending that they

change to the IVQ course while there is still time. The

points for a C grade GCSE and a Pass at IVQ are

identical.

Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification

The following video clip was shown as Mrs Jennings was

not available–

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCvGYSNYdg&list=PL

briNiwy3zKpAH1xCQwOivCM9OM3ySkan