Ryedale School Year 8 Information Evening 2017

1. Aspire and Achieve
Evening
While you wait:
Learn as much information
on the knowledge organiser on your seat as you can…

2. Senior Leadership Team
• Robert Pepper – Assistant Headteacher Raising Achievement
• Carolyn Williams – Assistant Headteacher Inclusion
• Luke France – Assistant Headteacher Whole School Organisation and
Standards
Email addresses for all Ryedale staff can be found on the website

3. Whole School Priorities 2017-18
Communication – ‘Enhancing systems of communication between staff,
students and parents which support learning. Further develop formal
and proactive communication with parents.’

4. Contents
The years ahead
• Reformed GCSEs
• Our response in supporting students
What to expect in books
• Types of assessment
• What does the feedback mean?
At home
• Environment
• Revision
• Parental strategies

5. The reformed GCSEs: what happened? What will happen?

6. Reformed GCSEs (9-1 GCSEs)
• Increased content
• More rigorous and challenging content
• Linear exams
• Longer exams
• Increased number of exams
• No tiers (maths, science some MFL)
• No controlled assessment
• Increased theory weighting

7. End of Year Exams for Year 8 (11th June)
Benefits:
• Demystify the examination process
• Subject specific exam practice to support
understanding of knowledge and skills
• Provides valuable feedback

8. Feedback and Assessment

9. What is assessment?
•Summative: make comparisons between
students and inferences about subject
knowledge – Progress Tracking Report.
•Formative: to find out what the students don’t
know so we can plan our next lesson better –
this may or may not be visible in the books.

10. Effective
Formative
Assessment
Low Stakes Testing
Questioning
Whole Class FeedbackIndividual Written
Feedback
Self/ Peer Assessment

11. History fun(ish) Quiz!
1) Was Charles more Catholic or Puritan?
2) Who did Charles marry that upset Parliament?
3) What kind of war against Spain did Charles want to fight that Parliament
didn’t ?
4) What was the name of the tax Charles raised by himself without
Parliament’s permission?
5) In 1629 Charles dismissed Parliament and ruled by himself for how
long?
6) What did Charles try and force the Scots to use in 1637?
7) What did Parliament demand from Charles in return for helping him?
8) How many MPs did Charles try and arrest in 1642?
9) Who won the battle of Naseby in June 1645?
10)Who did Charles surrender to when he knew the war was over?

18. Effective
Formative
Assessment
Low Stakes Testing
Questioning
Whole Class FeedbackIndividual Written
Feedback
Self/ Peer Assessment

19. Three year KS4
• GCSEs to be delivered across three years rather than
two
• Your child will be choosing their GCSE options at the
end of this year!

20. Challenges
Is two years enough time to cover the KS3 curriculum?
• The KS3 curriculum guidance doesn’t stipulate number of
hours, but content and skills. Our Heads of Department
have planned to ensure students get a great experience at
KS3, develop their skills and knowledge and are well
prepared for KS4.
• Skills and cumulative knowledge are already developed
across five years.

21. Challenges
Is Year 8 too early to be choosing options?
• What they enjoy and excel in doesn’t change in one term
of Year 9
• Careers guidance
• 1:1 options interviews
• Options evening for parents
• Year 9 two terms of studying things they haven’t chosen
for options

22. Challenges
Doesn’t it narrow the curriculum?
• We encourage a broad and balanced curriculum for all students.
• Options grid enables and allows for this.
• Free choice/ guided options means that the curriculum isn’t
narrowed.
• Maths, English, English Literature, two sciences, P.B.E, P.E, PSHE,
citizenship are all mandatory and so whatever students choose,
they will still have a broad complement of subjects.

23. LINE 1 LINE 2 LINE 3 LINE 4
Spanish History History History
French Geography Geography Geography
Design and
Technology
Art Language GCSE P.E
Art Triple Science Computer Science F.P.N
Drama Support Design and
Technology
Art
F.P.N Music

24. Benefits
• More time to cover increased content to ensure it is delivered to the same standard as the
old GCSE.
• More time to develop and refine skills required for the new courses.
• For students that find the reformed GCSEs particularly challenging, it gives them more time
to develop their skills and knowledge. Allows teachers to re-teach concepts and topics in a
different way.
• The opportunity to learn broader and deeper- the new spec is so content heavy that
without an additional year we would be purely teaching to the test.
• Planned time to consolidate and over-learn: this is important for memory and retention
which is crucial as exams and theory make up a higher proportion of the marks.

25. At Home

26. Low Stakes Test!
1. What was Operation Overlord?
2. What was ‘appeasement’?
3. Give two reasons in favour of appeasement
4. Give two reasons to oppose appeasement
5. When did Anschluss happen?
6. Who was in charge of the Luftwaffe?
7. How many BEF casualties were there at Dunkirk?
8. When did Germany invade France?
9. What was Operation Barbarossa?
10. In which year did Hitler invade the USSR?

27. RE-READING
SELF-TESTING
MAKING FLASH-CARDS
CREATING A MIND-MAP HIGHLIGHTING KEY TERMS
Which tasks help you learn most effectively?

28. Home Learning in Year 8
• 30 minutes per subject
• Two subjects per night
• Write it down clearly
• Make sure you understand it,
double check and ask questions
• If you don’t understand it… don’t
panic, find your teacher.
• Once you’ve done an hour: stop.
Draw a line. Get it signed by
someone at home.
• We don’t want anxious young
people working until midnight.

29. Evan Williams
Co-founder of Twitter
Chris Anderson
Tech journalist
Steve Jobs
Apple founder

31. Parental Strategies
“I’ve got (…) to do and I
DON’T GET IT!”
“I’m stuck!”
“I got 12/30.”
When is it due?
Do you have a WAGOLL?
Is there a mark scheme?
Have you ever
done a question
like this before?
What are the command
words in the question?
Explain the task to me in
your own words
Can you break the task
down into smaller tasks?
Is it content or technique that
you are finding difficult?
Find Miss/Sir tomorrow with
a precise question
What did you do well?
Where do you need
to improve?
Could you improve the way you
approached this task?

33. What You Can Expect as Parents….
• 3 termly summative progress tracking reports (with attendance)
• Year 8 Parents’ Evening December 7th 2017
• Termly subject specific feedback on strengths and areas for
development (marked for your attention in exercise books)
• Any additional communication is likely to come in the form of email
from subject staff

34. What We Expect of You as Parents……
• Check your email regularly
• Contact appropriate member of staff
• Support the school’s policies
• Sign planner and termly feedback/report page in exercise books
• Take an interest in child’s learning – ask questions - support study
clubs