Phoenix
Here at Avon Valley, we believe that ensuring our students have a good understanding of British Values is an
important part of their education. Each half term, students focus on a particular British Value and explore what it
means. This half term our focus is on Democracy and, over the next few weeks, students will hear talks from
the Newbold local councillor Adrian Warwick, the Mayor Cllr Belinda Garcia and our Member of Parliament
Mark Pawsey. Furthermore, on Thursday we took a group of students to the Houses of Parliament for a tour
around the Palace of Westminster and a visit to Downing Street, Whitehall and the Churchill War Rooms. All
students in school have been finding out about the voting system and the role of our elected officials.
On Friday 10th November we held our annual Remembrance Assembly where students reflected on the
sacrifice the soldiers within the armed forces have made for us. We were fortunate once again that the local
flag bearer Mr Terry Aspland, was able to attend this thought provoking morning.
Year 11
This term is an important one for Year
11 as they start to think about their
choices at the end of the academic
year. To aid this decision making
process they have been hearing about
the Post 16 opportunities at local
schools and colleges. Additionally,
some students will be visiting Lawrence
Sherriff later this month to explore the
opportunities available for further study
that they provide. All Year 11 students
should take the opportunity to visit Post
16 providers on their open evenings to
enable them to see if it is the right
place for them to continue their
education.
To aid Year 11 students with their
revision and preparation for GCSE’s
they have all attended a seminar that
provided them with three revision
strategies promoted by the Learning
Scientists
(http://www.learningscientists.org).
Spaced
practice
–
Create
a
revision plan. Plan opportunities to
revisit topics.
Retrieval practice – Create revision cards and test your self. Look at your work, cover it and try to recall it. What
you can’t remember is what you still need to learn. Use Doddle quizzes and past papers.
Duel coding – Don’t just write lists. Put the information you need to learn into diagrams, charts, flow lines or
timelines. Interchange the way you present your notes.