Parents – Your child in year 11 has been off of school for 3 days because of COVID-19 and now without the GCSE exams to motivate them, they are bored.

Students – you have just had the rug ripped from under your feet. Some of you are sitting happy that you will get your expected grades / some will be wondering what these may be / some will be kicking themselves for not starting their revision sooner.

So what to do next? See our suggestions below:

1. Take stock – go over your reports, mock grades, predicted grades. Although your grades are being decided by your teacher,they aren’t just going to give you a 9 because you were nice to them in class. Be honest with yourself – what would you be likely to get? Consider your work in class, as well as your mock exams – that one flukey 6 won’t get you the grade you want if you haven’t ever turned in work above a grade 4.

2. If you are thinking about ‘re-sitting’ don’t give up on revision yet – Note that the universities are unlikely to care if you ‘re-sat’ but they will not take the CoronaVirus an excuse. The top universities look for high GCSE grades.

3. If you are ‘re-sitting’ – delay your revision schedule – you have just gone from having 8 weeks to prepare to having 5 months minimum. If you follow your Easter revision schedule you will burn out.

4. Get ahead – if you are stating A levels, IB or a college course, use this time to get ahead. Some of the subject will be completely new (Psychology, Sociology, Law) others will require really strong foundations (Chemistry, Math, English)

5. Find your passion – use this time to see where you want to go in the future – consider universities, courses, careers, problems you may want to work on or places in the world you may want to work. Work out what matters to you.

6. Do a project –  now is the perfect time to do a personal project. It will help solidify your passion, fill your time with skill based learning and help your personal statement stand out when it comes to university applications.

   • Start your own business online

   • Learn a new language

   • Take a course

   • Learn to code

   • Set up your own youtube channel

   • Write your own book

   • Write a blog

   • Set up a charity

   • Write a research project (bonus points if it can count towards an EPQ)

   • Learn to knit