Thursday 26 March 2026

Dear parents/carers

The GCSE written exams start in just over 4 school weeks - effective revision is essential at this stage. To help students, please be aware of the following support:

The Final Revision Booklet

We have produced a Summer Exam preparation booklet, with details of revision for each subject, information on strategies to use when revising and an outline of an exam timetable, ready to be personalised. Please let us know if you would like a hard copy. The booklet is below and on the students' iPads (in the Year 11 Showbie class).

How You Can Support at Home

• Help your child plan their revision at home
• Provide a quiet environment, free from distractions (e.g. insisting they leave their mobile phone outside their room) to help them concentrate
• Ensure they get adequate sleep as well as eat healthily and get some exercise

Take an interest in your child's revision to help boost their motivation, e.g. asking questions about their revision topics, helping to test them on their flash cards etc

Past Papers

Completing past papers is one of the best things students can do in the run up to the exams to help improve their exam technique and identify the topics they still need to revise further. To save students searching for these, we will be printing hard copies of some exam papers for students to complete over the Easter break.

Easter Revision Sessions 

Several members of staff have kindly volunteered their time to run revision sessions over the Easter holiday, which will take place on: Wednesday 15th, Thursday 16th, and Friday 17th April - 9:00 AM – 12:15 PM (there are two sessions per day, each lasting 1.5 hours). Over a hundred students have signed up to these sessions already. If your child hasn't yet signed up, they need to do so by 4pm on Monday (30th March) using the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/RsyVRVVTWy

While we will do our best to accommodate each student’s preferred sessions, in cases where demand exceeds available spaces, we may need to reallocate students to different sessions to ensure effective group sizes and maximise learning.

After School (Period 5) Lessons 

We are really pleased with the response of the students to the additional revision lessons running after school. Whilst the quality of revision is as important as quantity, as a rough guide students should be aiming for at least 2 hours of revision or study per day in the run up to their GCSE exams. The sessions after school contribute to this. We expect all students to take advantage of these lessons and those choosing not to attend without good reason or agreement may jeopardise their invite to the Ball.

Study Leave

Study leave isn't really a thing anymore. There are barely any schools in the country that have study leave (and none that we know of in Cornwall). Students will be expected to attend school all the way through to their final exam. However, once the exam season starts, students' timetables will be amended to enable them to attend additional revision sessions prior to some key exams. During the latter part of the exam season, once many exams have been completed, there will be some days where students can leave slightly earlier to revise at home. We will let you know of any changes to timetables nearer the time.

iPad Return 

Whilst there are still a number of weeks to go before the exams start, I just wanted to raise awareness of the procedure for when they do eventually end. Once students have completed their final exam they should return the iPad, case, charger and cable to Mr Dudley, Miss Hawkey, Mrs Dyer or Ms Williamson who will be present at the end of every examination. The students continuing their education at Helston in Year 12 will be reissued with a device in September. There will also be a final opportunity to return the devices on the Year 11 celebration day (25th June). 

For any questions or further support, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Best regards

Yours sincerely

Mr A Lingard