5/5/13 Issue 1 JAN 2017

YEAR 11 NEWSLETTER ‘PREPARING FOR YOUR FUTURE’

A Happy New Year to all families at Perryfields High School. As part of maintaining and enhancing the fantastic support the school has from you, we are introducing a new Year 11 only newsletter that gives parents/guardians updates for each subject. These will include: revision tips, resources/websites for support, homework, exam infor-mation etc. We hope that you find the newsletter useful in helping you to support your child at home in these crucial last few months before their final GCSE exams. Headteacher’s Address We hope that both pupils and parents will benefit from our new Year 11 newsletter. As you will see the purpose is to ensure you are all kept informed of important information, revision tips and any updates related to what support is being given to Year 11 pupils in school. We hope this gives pupils more information and parents a better oppor-tunity to be aware of what is happening so that they can support during a very stressful and difficult period. Year 11 Reports and Parents’ Evening - Thursday 9th February Following the mock exams in December subject teachers have made new GCSE predictions for all Year 11 pupils. These, along with attendance and SHARP reports, will be shared with you prior to Year 11 Parents’ Evening on Thursday 9th February. As part of this evening you will be able to discuss your child’s progress with each subject teacher and targets for improvement in the final few months can be set. As part of our continuing development, Year 11 will receive specific curriculum reports for each subject as well as the progress reports you receive four times per year. These reports aim to give you more specific information based on your child’s progress and, most importantly, specific targets to improve. These reports will not be dis-tributed in the traditional way, but will be published according to the needs of each individual department. There-fore, the reports will be staggered at three points between February and May. The reason for this is because the information and targets that teachers want to share is more relevant at different points for different departments. We will contact you with specific dates of when these reports will be published, but below is the half term that you will receive them. As always, if you have any questions regarding your child’s progress, please do not hesitate to contact the school office and the relevant parties will contact you.

Term Subject

Spring 1 Science, Geography, MFL, Art, PE, Drama, Psychology, Dance BTEC, Business Studies, BTEC

Spring 2 English, History, ICT , Music, DT Subjects, RS, Computer Science

Summer 1 Child Development, Law, Business Studies GCSE

ART

AQA Exam Deadline Dates GCSE Art pupils have now been given their exam paper which will represent 40% of their overall grade. The remaining 60% has been completed as coursework. Students have between now and their exam dates (4th and 5th May 2017) to prepare for their chosen question - their final piece will be done over these two days. Students need to ensure they produce work to cover the 4 assessment objectives. All pupils have been given a detailed booklet covering expectations, Artist resources and listed work required. Please help us by supporting them to meet the follow-ing deadlines. AO2 Tue 31st Jan (4 weeks) Initial Research and Observational drawings AO1 Tue 7th March (4 weeks) Artist research and Artist experiments. AO3 Tue 4th April (4 weeks) Intentions—2 x ideas for final piece AO4 Fri 7th April (day we break up for Easter) A2 final piece outlin - done in own time anytime you are ready (in lessons + lunchtimes) Final Piece—completed in10 hour exam Thurs 4th and Fri 5th May

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY GCSE Practical Dates for Catering Wednesday 18th January Thursday 19th January Friday 20th January Please support pupils to ensure they have practised their menus and have the correct ingredi-ents. If you require any further information please contact Deborah.mahon@perrys.org.uk

ICT Please see below key information for ICT exams Exam Board - OCR Controlled Assessment - BO64 deadline March. A453 deadline March Computing → Database topics (A451). Exam feedback Homework - theory computing and ICT Good websites/resources for revision - Teach-ICT.com (computing and ICT). BBC.bitesize.

www.tinyurl.com/perrysictb061 (link for B061 resources online) ICT Scratch research exploring different games

School holidays in between

Half term 1 week 18th—26th Feb

Easter 2 weeks 8th—23rd April

ENGLISH

All Year 11 pupils are studying Macbeth at the moment. They are given a copy of the text but cannot make notes in it. If you would prefer your child to have their own copy to make notes in, the details are below - Macbeth Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9781107615496 Websites to to help with Macbeth revision:

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/ Revision guides (York notes if possible but any revision guide on Macbeth would be useful).

MUSIC We are pleased to say that the majority of pupils within the GCSE group increased their listening exam grade by a minimum of two grades since the start of September in their recent mock exam, which is a fantastic achievement, but they are still capable of doing even better. Pupils spent more than the exam controlled assessment time focusing on performance in Year 10 and so therefore we will be focusing predominately on composition, written work and the listening paper during the next term. Pupils are more than welcome to come up to the department to rehearse their performance pieces during lunchtimes and after school as priority will be given to Year 11 GCSE pupils. They are also encouraged to come along and continue with any composition or written work as staff will be more than willing to help and support them to achieve their potential. Year 11 GCSE Music dates - Solo Performance (15% of GCSE) Friday 13th January 2017 by 21.15pm Composition 1 (10% of GCSE 10 hours Controlled Assessment Thursday 16th February 2017 by 4.00pm Commentary (5% of GCSE) Friday 17th February 2017 by 3.30pm (must be handed in as a print out and an electronic copy Final Ensemble Performance Friday 10th March 2017 by 1.15pm Composition 2 (10% of GCSE 10 hours Controlled Assessment Wednesday 5th April 2017 by 4.00pm Log and Evaluation (5% of GCSE) Friday 7th April 2017 by 3.30pm Must be handed in as a print out and an electronic copy Creative Task Exam: External Exam worth 20% of GCSE Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd May 2017

To help with Macbeth plot

And themes etc

MATHS Pupils will now have had feedback from their mock exams and should know their areas for improvement. Pupils have access to the vle.mathswatch.co.uk website to support their independ-ent study towards the exams. If pupils have forgotten their log in they can get these details from their teacher. The current Year 11's will be the first to sit the revised GCSE exams, meaning they will sit 3 papers and the questions will contain more problem solving elements. This was an area which a lot of students struggled with and so many found the exam difficult. We will be supporting Year 11 in accessing these new style of questions throughout their revision, ensuring they have access to these new style of questions to build their confidence. Please support and encourage them through this difficult time as they adapt to the new GCSE exam style. Revision sessions for both individual groups and all pupils will be shared in January/February. For their exams pupils will be required to have their own equipment. The equipment they need is a scientific calculator (we recommend the Casio scientific calculators), protractor, a pair of com-passes, ruler, pen and pencil (this will be covered by a standard geometry set). These can be purchased from the school. Pupils should have all this equipment available in lessons as we are now moving into a time of revision and it is important for pupils to become familiar with their equipment (in particular calcula-tors)..

DRAMA

BTEC and GCSE Drama students have an extremely busy half term ahead with final exams scheduled for the forthcoming two months for both qualifications. Once the students have com-pleted their studies in this subject the time will be used for ‘catch up’ and revision in other curricu-lum areas. BTEC Year 11: Unit 1 external exam (30% of final BTEC qualification) 26th January 1.30pm - 3.30pm (presentations) 27th January 8.45am - 3.45pm (monologues) Students have received a schedule for these exams detailing their 30 minute slot and should ar-rive at U13 15 minutes prior to this time. GCSE Year: Unit 3 externally assessed exam (40% of final qualification) 1st and 2nd March (all day) GCSE students will also be invited to attend school for three days of February half term to re-hearse for their exam due to how tight the deadlines are. A letter will follow if this affects your son/daughter.

MFL

Updates Students are currently completing gap-tasks following completion of their mock exam. They will then be continuing controlled assessment preparation work in French and Spanish as well as vocab tasks for the listening and reading papers.

Good website/resources for revision- www.linguascope.com username: perryshigh password: oldbury1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/french/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/spanish/ www.samlearning.com

Content for next two weeks French: completion of mock exam gap-tasks/preparation for next CA on town Spanish: completion of vocab related tasks, including past paper gap-tasks, for the listening and reading components of the GCSE/preparation for next CA

Homework ALL students, as an on-going homework, should be taking the time to revise vocabulary, in or-der to ensure thorough preparation for the listening and reading components of the GCSE MFL exam. In addition to this other homeworks will include - - revision for spelling/meaning tests - translation exercises - reading and written tasks - revision for written/spoken CAs

Exam board Edexcel GCSE in French (2FR01) http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/french-2009.html Edexcel GCSE in Spanish (2SP01) http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/spanish-2009.html

Revision techniques and advice Revision tip of the fortnight for MFL - Ensure revision for CAs or vocab is done little and often, using revision booklets to help stu-dents. Failing to ensure a variety of revision techniques are undertaken could mean failure to achieve the target grade. See MFL teacher if this is missing.

Information on upcoming assessments Students will be completing a past listening and reading paper as part of their Spring Term as-sessment. Revision for this is essential and using the above websites, together with their vocab revision booklet will help with this.

Controlled assessment info: French: following completion of mock exam gap-tasks, students will be working towards completion of a written CA, on town. Scheduled to be completed by the end of January. Spanish: Preparation for the formal spoken CA on free time on-going

Exam info Formal MFL spoken CAs scheduled to take place from 3rd - 5th April (inclusive)

Expectations Completion of all classwork and homework to an acceptable standard in line with target grades expectations is vital, together with attendance at after school Wednesday revision sessions (as per students’ timetables), as well as lunchtime revision sessions, in order to ensure success in the MFL GCSE

Intervention offer Students are able to see MFL teachers/Foreign Language Assistants at lunchtimes and after school, as appropriate, to seek help or catch up on any work. NB: this is vital for any outstand-ing CAs.

HISTORY

Exam Board info - Specification: History Modern World B - 1418 Website: http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse-history-b-modern-world-j418-from-2013/ Paper 1: A011 Aspects of International rElations with Germany 1918-1945 2 hours. A mixture of source based questions and source question based on the Cold War 1945-75 and Germany 1919-1945 Paper 2: A021 How far had British Society changed 1890-1918 1hr 30mins. A source paper. Pupils will have to answer 5 source based questions on one of the following topics - Liberal Reforms, Votes for Women or Britain during WW1 Purchase a revision pack from Mrs Parker for only £2! This includes three re-vision guides, Cold War, Germany and Britain and two step by step exam guides. They give you tips and examples for each individual question. Content for the next two weeks Pupils will begin looking at life in Nazi Germany. In class we will be focusing on how Hitler con-trolled the workers, women and young people. Homework Pupils will be set a practice exam question for homework every week to allow them to practice their exam technique. Revision tip of the fortnight! Annotate the key words in the question and identify the trigger word. Is it identify, explain, mes-sage? Then use that word in the first sentence of your answer, eg - Q. What is the message of this source? A. The message of the source is………...

REMEMBER…

BUSINESS STUDIES AND LAW

Good websites/resources for revision - GCSE Business Studies

Controlled Assessment preparation begins in lessons

Homework - BTEC Business, Revise for approaching BTEC Unit 2 exam

GCSE Law - additional revision material available, please email Michael.glattback@perrys.org.uk

CHILD DEVELOPMENT We are in the final weeks of Child observations, at least two observations should have been com-pleted with an additional 4 required by 27th January. Revision focus this month is ‘Healthcare professionals’ and ‘Childcare Provision’. All Child Devel-opment pupils have access at home to a textbook and a revision workbook.

PROM

6th July 2017 - Edgbaston Palace Hotel 7.00pm - 11.00pm Tickets on sale from Parents’ Evening £25 (or £10 deposit) from the Parents Association and then in school from Mrs Parker. All pupils are entitled to attend providing they meet the following criteria: Good attendance over 90% Good punctuality, no more than 10 lates Good behaviour Attendance at Wednesday, Period 6 sessions Any pupil who is not yet eligible will be informed and set targets to be achieved if they would like to attend. Targets will be reviewed at Easter. The school reserves the right to withdraw any pupil from the Prom guest list if there are any significant issues before the Prom.

COLLEGE APPLICATIONS Pupils need to ensure that their post-16 applications have been submitted to their chosen institu-tions. If pupils need any assistance with these, please see Miss. Beardmore in the Sixth Form Centre or Mrs. Hinkinson on the senior corridor next to the Pastoral Office. Pupils need to con-sider all of their options and allow themselves several choices for September.