St Sampson’s students sign up for ‘seventh lesson’ to help GCSEs

The new scheme sees students take on an extra sessions after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to encourage revision and exam practice for their upcoming mock exams and GCSE exams in the summer.

‘We have always done revision sessions, but we needed something more structured,’ said deputy head teacher Paul Smith.

‘There are six periods in a day so we are encouraging students to take on an extra session, their "seventh lesson", after school. Our aim is to get the students the best grades possible.’

The school is also offering evening classes for those who cannot attend straight after school, as well as additional classes during the lunch break.

‘Students who have a football fixture or something can still go to those extra curricular activities and then come back to school for revision in the evening,’ said Mr Smith.

So far 65% of Year 11 students have signed up to the scheme in which they get to pick which lessons they attend on a weekly basis.

The lessons are either subject-focused, with the support of subject teachers, or supervised revision in the school library.

‘The students can choose which subject every Tuesday morning and which subject they feel they need to work on more,’ said Mr Smith.

‘It is great to see so many of our students signed up. This week alone we have had 81 students take part.’

All subjects are available and Mr Smith said that the school was ‘really pleased with the commitment from staff’.

‘This scheme just wouldn’t work without the support of the teachers, they have been so supportive of this,’ he said.

The students either take part in guided revision, look at exam-style questions with the help of their teachers to learn how to achieve maximum marks, or work independently.

‘It’s good to get that extra revision time,’ said Afonso Moniz, 16, who was in an extra science lesson looking at past exam questions.

‘In our October mock exams there were revision sessions and the people who went to the sessions you could tell that they had been to them, as they did better,’ said Phoenix Mahy, 16.

States secondary schools have been struggling to maintain good grades, especially following disruptions in learning caused by Covid.

About 43% of students at St Sampson’s managed to get a level 4 – a passing grade – in English and maths last year. This compares with 51% in 2019.