Structured Study Support

Time Allocation: 2 hours per week

Exam Board: N/A

Course Content:

This course will help students to ‘learn to learn’. During Structured Study Support, students will have their performance and progress monitored and they will be assisted in adopting appropriate study techniques to help enhance GCSE grades. The aim of this course is threefold:

to improve understanding of how to achieve greater success in all courses undertaken
to prepare for post-16 study and training through developing skills of independence, resilience, resourcefulness, reflectivity and teamwork to aid self-improvement
for those students who are likely to struggle to achieve a grade 'C' at GCSE in either Maths or English, there will be a particular focus on these subjects.

A summary outline of the course is as follows:

Year 9

Year 10 & 11

During Year 9, there will be a high level of structure to each lesson. Students will:

Learn about Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) and how they can be developed
Identify personal learning style(s) and identify and use appropriate study techniques related to dominant style(s)
Reflect on end of year reports and interim progress reports, identify strengths and weaknesses and set targets
Learn to make more effective use of resources available (physical, human and technological)
Work on improving literacy skills
Be mentored on a regular basis so that they can reflect on their performance and work towards improving it
Become more effective working in groups and independently
Practise making use to diagnostic feedback given by teachers in order to re-draft work
Develop skills of critical thinking
Practice developing written answers so that they meet the assessment criteria for the given subject

During Years 10 and 11, students will be given more independence to organise their own work, using the skills that they developed over the course of Year 9.

This will take place at different times for different students since they will be ready for this independence at different stages. This means that some students will experience a higher level of structure for longer.

Assessment:

This is not an accredited course and therefore there is no final exam in this subject. The value lies in helping to improve performance and achievement in the subjects being taken.

Why you should consider studying Structured Study Support?:

If you opt for Structured Study Support, you will be sitting a maximum of 10 GCSEs. We hope that by choosing this course, you will develop the skills needed to maximise your achievement in your other subjects and therefore be more likely to achieve grades which will give you more choices at the end of Year 11. If you are struggling with Maths or English, you will focus on these in Study Support.