It’s the final countdown to Y13 exams. For most, these are the pre-requisites for your desired university place; for all they are the end result of two years of work and the gateway to the rest of your lives.

15 months ago, at the start of Y12, your teachers set out on an educational journey with you. This journey has been informed by their subject expertise and driven by a shared end goal: your A Level results. Your teachers have planned, reviewed and refined their courses to put you in the strongest position to ensure your success.

In the upcoming weeks before study leave, when we do want to give you some time to study independently if you want, the final stages of this meticulous planning will come to fruition. Revision is an essential part of the learning process, enabling you to revisit and commit to memory key concepts and subject content, as well as practise fundamental exam skills.

In lessons right now, your teachers are designing lots of opportunities for you to do just this. Their planned activities will include:

• Revisiting course content - especially things you learnt in Y12;
  
• Expanding your knowledge further by making wider and more conceptual links to push you even further;
  
• Sharing revision methods that have proved successful in their subject;
  
• Showing you how to answer exam questions;
  
• Setting mock exams and marking these with you.
  

To further support you, we have built in Tutorial sessions recently, focused on subject specific revision. In Tutorial currently we are sharing different revision strategies and also giving you freedom to try these out. We have also worked with many of you on an individual basis to help you target your final exam preparation most effectively.

Now of course everyone revises differently. Some of you thrive when working collaboratively with friends and study groups; others prefer to work independently away from the buzz of others. However you revise, it will be the perfect complement to the activities provided in lessons. We encourage you to find the best way for you to revise outside of lessons, whether that’s in the study room, at the university library or at your dining table. We continue to support you when you need it, for example with additional resources or giving you some breathing space when you just need to pause. We also expect you to stay focused in all of your lessons until study leave, which starts after Friday 25th May – and of course would love you to come in for lessons after this – but realise that you may wish to use that time more independently.

So do use your final three official weeks of school to soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can from your fabulous teachers. Work with them to maximise your chances of success. And, most importantly, enjoy the last days of your journey in High Storrs Sixth Form.