First Year 11 Revision Residential a Resounding Success!

Last weekend, 30 students and 9 staff were in school to take part in our first Finborough Year 11 revision residential. We were delighted with both how productive and enjoyable this was for everyone involved.

Students were served a broad programme of sessions, carefully curated by Mrs Hepworth-Bond and all designed to enhance the students exam preparation process for this year. They covered, among other things, revision strategies, metacognition, retrieval practice and how to build study habits, as well as exploring the power of the past paper.

Charlie commented “the residential was great, it made me realise how much more productive I need to be with regards to effective revision at home. Listening to Mr Collins explain the metacognition behind successful revision was one of the most useful parts for me.”

The students took part in yoga and breath work classes, wellbeing walks and optional gym time, designed to help them identify ways of maintaining their mental health during times of increased stress.

As independent study is such an important part of the exam preparation process, the residential concluded with a student-led workshop for parents. The Year 11s gave advice and guidance to their parents and key adults, relating to the different ways they would like to be supported, the techniques they had learnt about and how they are going to structure their time.

One parent said “It was extremely supportive for parents in terms of how to manage our teenagers at such a sensitive time for them…we can get stuck in ‘traditional’ ways as parents and this opened our eyes to supporting them in a modern world where there are forward thinking ways ahead when it comes to revision and exam preparation”.

Throw into this fireworks, movie night on the big screen and a sleepover in boarding and the weekend was a resounding success!