Prep for success

At Meridian High School we fully support our students progress and attainment. We know that better academic outcomes lead to a more fulfilling and ambitious future. We also know the detrimental impact of poor academic performance on later life. Students who complete additional learning outside of the classroom achieve better outcomes. This is supported by research conducted by the Education Endowment Fund Homework | EEF. We believe in preparing for success.

Key Stage 3 (Year 7-9) Strategy

In Key Stage 3, we focus home learning on our core subjects. We believe that the essential and transferrable skills of core subjects benefits achievement in all subject areas. Following feedback from our students, their preference for home learning in KS3 is via online platforms. We have therefore significantly invested in SPARX Maths, Reader and Science as our chosen platform. All students have a log in for SPARX and are expected to complete their home learning via the SPARX platform. SPARX is an incredibly useful platform that personalises learning to your child’s ability and provides supportive videos to help students solidify their knowledge and skills.

All students in Year 7-9 are expected to complete their SPARX homework each week. The homework will be set on a Monday with the submission deadline on the following Monday. Positive points will then be awarded to those who complete their homework and additional prizes will be given to students who become the top scorers on the platform. Students who do not complete their home learning will be given negative points, if students miss all 3 subjects each week they will also be sanctioned with a 60-minute detention.

If you have any questions about home learning please contact Miss Wallace (r.wallace@meridianhigh.london)

Please watch this short video if you are having trouble logging in or you forget your password:

Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and 11) Strategy

In Key Stage 4, we focus on exam practice and closing gaps in knowledge as we prepare our students for GCSE success. Each subject has deliberately designed a booklet of exam questions that need more practice from our internal question level analysis. Focussing on what our students don’t know and practising those skills will have a significant impact on building their confidence and reducing stress in exams.

Students should complete their subject booklets each week and submit them to their teacher to mark them. This will be completed on paper so that we further practice exam technique and preparation. Subject teachers will outline what tasks should be completed and what the deadlines are, students should make note and take responsibility for deadlines set by their teachers and will be rewarded for completion of and submission of home learning. Students who miss these deadlines will be given negative points, if students miss 3 or more subject deadlines each week they will also be sanctioned with a 60-minute detention.

Knowledge organisers

A knowledge organiser (KO) sets out the important, useful and powerful knowledge on a topic on a single page (Kirby, 2015). With the content demands of new courses, and schools adopting a knowledge-based curriculum, these are becoming increasingly popular in schools at secondary and even primary level.

For students to succeed in a particular area, they must have a foundation of factual knowledge, understand those facts in the context of a conceptual framework and organise knowledge in order to facilitate retrieval and application (Bransford et al., 2000). We can see knowledge organisers as a way to enable this, in a much more systematic way than traditional revision guides and textbooks

EEF Knowledge organisers-  what they are and their purpose 
Our students will be given their KO at the start of the year. They are expected to bring them into school every day as they will be used in every lesson as an essential tool. Students who forget their KO will be issued with a same day 60 minute detention.

Please click onthe link below to access our knowledge organisers by year group: