Camp Hill Interview 2017

I've seen that already, was wondering whether they were open to all years including sixth form.

Some are KS3/4 only and others are KS5 only.

Also, what is Five Ways like in general? There's a lot of bad reviews lately, but honestly my current school still seems worse so I don't really have a problem, but have you been to the induction day etc? I'm going to the open day which is a week after school starts lol

You know, I've been scouring the internet trying to find a bank of reviews, (the stuff I have found has been very mixed) for the school; what have you heard about it? (Their results are excellent though, CH's are slightly better however).

I have been to the induction day and it was good. The pupils were friendly, they definitely didn't reflect the stereotypical grammar school students stigma, and the teachers that I had for Further Maths, Chemistry and French were all helpful, good at what they do, and just seemed nice. Big grounds, a centre solely for sixth formers; the current students were very honest - i.e. one told us he taught himself the half of Physics A-Level that year because his teacher wasn't doing it for him, and told us to avoid a particular teacher, which was funny - so you can trust what they say to you; the school I've just left values it very highly, one teacher (Maths) is actually working at both schools (mine and KEFW), and says the maths department is brilliant - the only downside she said was walking around between lessons because the school has a lot of students. My science teacher highly values the science there, she has worked with one of their Chemistry teachers, and takes a group to do GCSE Astronomy there each week.

Well, I go to a large comprehensive (1000+ students), so I'm used to that crowded feeling. As for the mixed reviews, there's a lot on google maps, one of them makes the school seem really bad but honestly, the "bullying" seems to be just negative comments, well just to compare it to the grade 2 comprehensive I go to, people get beaten up and there are fights everyday, I still get low-key bullied but I have learnt to just ignore the stupid comments. The only lesson here where students are teased by each other for being of low ability is in PE, well the academic standards are very low (lives up to the comprehensive stereotypes),so only one class actually cares about getting above a grade C. And "bad reports"? Oh please. I have already explained the case with my reports, literally the grades are given with no explanation whatsoever and in most cases, we have to come up with the 'target' ourselves.
Also, GCSE Astronomy is offered? Sounds interesting.

1) KE Camp Hill
2) KE Five Ways
3) KE Aston
My goal is to get into one of these schools. As for the reason why, well, let me start off by explaining my current situation at school. Back in Year 9, I wasn't the top student. but I felt as if I was amongst them. I had a bad revision strategy etc. and I wasn't used to past papers and real exam questions, which was the End of Year exam. It was a past paper, so half the students cheated on the test (And half of them either dropped out or didn't pick Triple). Of course I didn't get into Triple, as my exam technique was terrible (and still is pretty bad, even though I did better than last year). In Year 10, all of the Triple Science students were taken to the band I used to be in, and I was taken to the other band of "set 1 double science" but honestly it was nothing like a top set. I decided to put in a lot of effort that year to hopefully get into triple (and I did!), but during that I just felt really awkward being there as I was the only one who actually cared about completing the work. Since the set changes were a long process (and still didn't happen?!?!?), for half of the year I went to the after-school lessons for the students doing Triple. I felt right in place there! So I would say that I perform best in the lessons with the brightest people, as the teachers can teach at the same pace. I know that my maths class was absolute trash, it felt like a set 2 class (Most of the people there were in set 2 back in Year 7), and the class was so disruptive that I would barely learn anything, so I would have to ask the teacher for help and even then it would take ages for him to get to me as he had to deal with the rest of the class. I love Computer Science, I am passionate about the subject but since it's an option subject and there's no sets, half the class is outright stupid and the other half is actually bright, people from the Triple set are in there. I am friends with them of course, and we compete in the half-term assessments which is pretty fun. I'd like to be in that type of atmosphere minus the dumb people, as they are simply a distraction. And it's not that they have learning issues, they are the type of people to mess about the entire lesson and use the last 5 minutes to plagiarise off the next person. Also, I work better in a pressurising environment. I remember in Year 9 there was the pressure to stay in Set 1, in Year 10 there was even more pressure to move up to Triple (on the last month I noticed my effort slightly deteriorated... not enough to drop down to a 6 though xD), I am more of an academic student so yeah I haven't experienced the environment of King Edwards' but I like how it seems.
4) UoBS
I want to go to UoB so a school that's made with links to that Uni sounds great! The new building looks nice, and there is a lot of enrichment... Maybe too much? Well, there is a lot of Science opportunities and lectures which is what I'm interested in. Another school that I wouldn't mind going to.

Also, I haven't heard of anyone in my current school who's applying here (or King Eds), but I want to meet new people and when I moved from primary to secondary, I only received a place at far schools so I didn't know anyone in Year 7 to begin with, so the cycle is going to start all over again. That can be both exciting and worrying, since Year 7 was very difficult for me to make friends as people who I had tried to be friends with turned their backs on me pretty quickly (I remember once, before all the bullying happened, they had framed me into something I didn't do. -_-)

5) SSFC
Seems like a safe choice. The people from my school who want to go there, are actually the best people I have met at the school, haha. Should I not get into the above three or four, I would be disappointed but not distraught, as this is a good option.

I don't really want to go to the bottom two. I don't know why I'm applying to them, Solihull SFC is my go-to backup.

6) HGS
Handsworth is a bad area, or so I've heard. The school seems decent, but there are barely any extracurricular opportunities, so ehh...

7) JCC
This is where most of the people from my school want to go. That's a deal-breaker for me and I'm not interested in it, anyway.

IDK what grammar school students are like, I remember going on a trip and some students from a private school or something were also there, funny story, they seemed intimidating at first, but I was at the back of the room so the lecturer couldn't hear me, but they did, so they plagiarised exactly what I said (It's French, I wouldn't say I'm bad at it but the tests always break my confidence!) and they were correct, and there were only 3 people (including me) from my school and a full class of them. That's my impression, they don't seem like bad people, I mean what they did was annoying but apart from that, they were just minding their own business? I would say they are more focused, which is what makes them seem all intellectual, but grammar schools/independent schools have the sort of pace where you have to be focused, I assume.

Chem, Biology, Phys - each A*
History - A*
R.S. - A*
English Lit - 8
English Lang - 8
(but got a 9 in my Jan mocks for both of them - fortunately)
Maths - 9
Computing - A*
French - A*

(and I applied for Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry & French)

I have chosen to go there (because A-Level results are considerably better than UoB School, and Camp Hill is an all boys school which would feel weird to me), but I am not there yet, getting GCSE results on 24th.

But have a look here:

http://www.kefw.org/enrichment

and at the attachment.

So there is a lot of stuff there and I think you can create clubs too.

I know this is late but did you get your offer?
And what grades did you actually get?

Yes I did. I've been at Five Ways for 4 days now and it has been brilliant so far.

GCSEs:

English Lit - 9
Eng Language - 9
Maths - 9
Computing - A*
Chemistry - A*
Biology - A*
Physics - A*
French - A*
History - A*
Religious Studies - A*

Congrats! How did you revise for the new GCSEs?

Maths - I bought practically all the revision guides, workbooks and practice paper sets available to practice, practice and practice. If you're good at it, teaching others is good too. In addition to using:

CorbettMaths
MathsGenie
OnMaths
JustMaths
MrBartonMaths
Mathswatch
MyMaths

And the PiXL papers my school printed off further to the Churchill Papers my school subscribed for (very challenging).

English Literature - Create very detailed sheets (mind maps, powerpoints, bullet points &paragraphs, timelines, sheets with just coloured information in some format etc.) on individual characters and themes for each text, including, key quotations and discerning quotations found by myself or very obscure interpretations, with those interpretations written down next to them; also creating themes is a good idea because the exam could choose something totally different to what you've seen. Think deeply! As well as doing practices to perfect exam technique. Always be prepared to offer something in your class (read around! You want to show off by being very perceptive, don't just stick to the powerpoint) discussion because then your peers and teacher can build on it.
Poetry included sheets per poem with detailed points on language, structure and form, then sheets comparing all the poems with each other, which condenses the points you're making making sure you firstly remember them, and have points to compare on lang., struct., form and context. CONTEXT may not seem in the mark scheme to offer that many marks but it is needed to get into the top bands and what many people do is just literally learn historical facts. Do not just do this. You must, yes, know the facts of the authors life, social and political status of the time, perspectives of different groups of people at the time and how that's changed to modern readers (in some cases), ensure, that you link the context directly to the text. "Priestley's deliberate portrayal of Sheila's maturing throughout the play indicates the younger generation's....". NOT "Sheila has matured. The younger generation at this time were...", you must link it directly to why the author was writing. Be perceptive about this too and find some subtle contextual points not many people will know. Same for poetry. Always check what the mark schemes want, similarly for language.

English Language - Resources were scarce at the beginning of Yr 11 so this was difficult, but one day I said I was going to just keep looking for resources and I found quite a few. Then all it is is skills practice with a workbook that you can buy, and then all the resources I found were practice exam questions separate to the workbooks, so, I would answer them and get my teacher to check most of them, some you can self assess to the marking descriptors and compare to model answers. Do this without being timed. Then time yourself. Ideally you want as much detail as you would have whilst not being timed, when you are. Be sure to practice your writing ability: coming up with ideas and practising techniques, I did this with about 10-15 different writings for both transactional and fictional, get teachers to mark these. Also, review mock papers and find improvements. Like maths, practice, practice and practice but with experts checking.

Maths - I bought practically all the revision guides, workbooks and practice paper sets available to practice, practice and practice. If you're good at it, teaching others is good too. In addition to using:

CorbettMaths
MathsGenie
OnMaths
JustMaths
MrBartonMaths
Mathswatch
MyMaths

And the PiXL papers my school printed off further to the Churchill Papers my school subscribed for (very challenging).

English Literature - Create very detailed sheets (mind maps, powerpoints, bullet points &paragraphs, timelines, sheets with just coloured information in some format etc.) on individual characters and themes for each text, including, key quotations and discerning quotations found by myself or very obscure interpretations, with those interpretations written down next to them; also creating themes is a good idea because the exam could choose something totally different to what you've seen. Think deeply! As well as doing practices to perfect exam technique. Always be prepared to offer something in your class (read around! You want to show off by being very perceptive, don't just stick to the powerpoint) discussion because then your peers and teacher can build on it.
Poetry included sheets per poem with detailed points on language, structure and form, then sheets comparing all the poems with each other, which condenses the points you're making making sure you firstly remember them, and have points to compare on lang., struct., form and context. CONTEXT may not seem in the mark scheme to offer that many marks but it is needed to get into the top bands and what many people do is just literally learn historical facts. Do not just do this. You must, yes, know the facts of the authors life, social and political status of the time, perspectives of different groups of people at the time and how that's changed to modern readers (in some cases), ensure, that you link the context directly to the text. "Priestley's deliberate portrayal of Sheila's maturing throughout the play indicates the younger generation's....". NOT "Sheila has matured. The younger generation at this time were...", you must link it directly to why the author was writing. Be perceptive about this too and find some subtle contextual points not many people will know. Same for poetry. Always check what the mark schemes want, similarly for language.

English Language - Resources were scarce at the beginning of Yr 11 so this was difficult, but one day I said I was going to just keep looking for resources and I found quite a few. Then all it is is skills practice with a workbook that you can buy, and then all the resources I found were practice exam questions separate to the workbooks, so, I would answer them and get my teacher to check most of them, some you can self assess to the marking descriptors and compare to model answers. Do this without being timed. Then time yourself. Ideally you want as much detail as you would have whilst not being timed, when you are. Be sure to practice your writing ability: coming up with ideas and practising techniques, I did this with about 10-15 different writings for both transactional and fictional, get teachers to mark these. Also, review mock papers and find improvements. Like maths, practice, practice and practice but with experts checking.

Also, what other books would you recommend?
I have the:
CGP GCSE Maths 9-1 Revision Guide
CGP GCSE English Language & Literature 9-1 Revision Guide
For the Sciences, I have a 'CGP Complete Revision & Practice' for each.
My school also gives us a free digital books for each of the sciences (actual student books which I might go back to using).
Oh and another revision guide for Maths which I bought is 'GCSE Maths in Four Weeks', it may be of some use but it is worse than the CGP Guide, which doesn't explain maths particularly well. I find that online videos help me understand the topic best.
I was thinking of buying the Pearson GCSE Maths Workbook, and are there any other forms of practice books that you would recommend? There are also 'Target Grade' books by Pearson, are those useful? There are also Practice Papers Plus?
A similar dilemma goes for English, and the rest of my subjects.
Basically if you don't mind, please list the names of the books you bought for every subject? xD

Books that I bought:

Pearson Higher Reasoning and Problem Solving Book
Pearson Extension Higher Reasoning and Problem Solving Book
REVISE EDEXCEL GCSE 9-1 Maths Revision Guide
REVISE EDEXCEL GCSE 9-1 Maths Workbook
REVISE EDEXCEL GCSE 9-1 Maths Practice Papers Plus (very useful)

CGP Grade 9 Targeted Workbook
CGP GCSE Maths 9-1 The Workbook
CGP GCSE Maths 9-1 Exam Practice Workbook

REVISE EDEXCEL GCSE 9-1 English Language (they have one for AQA and WJEC if that's your board)
REVISE EDEXCEL GCSE 9-1 English Language Workbook (similarly they have one for those two other boards, not OCR though)
Target Grade 9 for GCSE English Language Reading and Writing - this came out late and I bought it towards revision time, and it gave me a much more sophisticated outlook on how to answer the questions and I got a 9 after it all)

York Notes - An Inspector Calls, A Christmas Carol, Romeo & Juliet (obviously correspond them with your texts, if you're on AQA they have one for poetry too. If you like CGP they have them too for the texts and AQA Poetry but I think York Notes' books are better)
York Notes - they have a series of books for English Language, I bought the general ones because I wasn't on AQA.

Even though I didn't do 9-1 Science, I can tell you all of CGP's revision guides are fantastic, they're GCSE Science, Additional (or Chem/Bio/Phys)'s bible. Pearson has good ones too (I think these are fantastic too - I was loaned these for my course and I valued them and CGP's ones equally, however, Pearson's are much better for exam style practice.).

History - Hodder Education (OCR) [but Pearson's looks good too for the new one].

French - Pearson's Revision Guide and Workbook


Recommendations:

Every book above obviously.

The Maths in 4 weeks will be limited in its use.

The student books that your school has given to you is will be very useful.

You can also get the CGP's sets of practice papers for maths.

For maths in addition to the books use the websites I stated in one of the previous replies and look into Churchill Maths for your school.

Look around on the internet for practice papers for English Language & Literature (in addition to York Notes' books on these).

How did you revise for Computing and Religious Studies?

For Religious Studies we had the most fantastic teacher for it. Genuinely, he was that good, by the time exams came, that was the subject we revised the least. We always did recall of Bible quotes in lesson, we had ZigZag Education booklets that were basically revision guides, but we also had the hodder education one too as a print out. He was so good for resources (A3 sheets with boxes on for loads of things, linking sheets, tables galore, passing books around and sharing ideas and so much more it's really hard to remember) and homework tasks as well as perfecting exam technique that the exam was so easy for all us. Our class almost got 100% A*- B in R.E.

But what I would recommend (and what I did) is flashcards with key facts and quotes from religious scripts. Opinions you form on the spot. Exam technique can only be revised through practice, so do that too; and get your teacher to mark it. My most frequently used piece of revision for the exam though, was taking a question paper and planning most of the possible answers for those questions by annotation. This was successful because you could see what you did or didn't know and was a good way to express your arguments for and against.

Learn all key terms.
Have tables for for and against all over the place.
Learn all relevant references to scripture, so you know it like the back of your hand.
Practise exam technique.
Learn key facts, like laws, names of charities, events etc. like the back of your hand too.

PRINT OFF THE SPECIFICATION (RE did it for us, in fact we used it at the beginning and end of every lesson) AND USE IT TO CHECK YOU'VE LEARNED EVERYTHING (this goes for Computing too)

For Computing I had the coolest teacher, the lessons were relaxed for those who didn't need incessant teacher input (like me!). The majority of the two years was spent doing coursework, but he was good at stopping that and focussing on theory.

For revision, we used doddlelearn, SAM Learning, he printed off ZigZiag Education's revision guide which had questions in. I like to make A4 sheets of paper that condense a lot of information onto that one page. E.g. I would have all of Chapter 3 (Software [for my GCSE]) on one page as a way of reading and rewriting the information as well as being able to re-read it in a condensed format. We also did exam-style questions out of the revision guide.

6-A-DAY SHEETS ARE FABULOUS (I don't know if you're on OCR but they make sheets with 6 exam questions on, and as I'm sure you've guessed, I did this daily as the exam approached, around April-May time.

If you're not on OCR then past papers, same for RE - PAST PAPERS (I know this is much harder for you but try looking for created papers online or steal qs from other exam boards).

Conveniently enough, I am on the OCR specification for Computer Science!