Seminar Study is an integral part to our curriculum and non-completion means we are not completing 10% or more of our learning. Seminar Study prepares our students to learn new skills and knowledge or embed key skills and knowledge.
Seminar Study and Mastery Curriculum has been designed as a consequence of extensive research in to equipping students with the habits and skills to be able to learn, retain and recall knowledge.
Our short term memory has limited capacity and students find themselves unable to retain the information so they become stressed and often give up, convincing themselves they are no good at revising or that they “can’t do that subject”. The secret to success is to regularly revisit the knowledge to be learned. This helps transfer the knowledge from the short-term memory to the long term memory. This not only helps to make ‘learning stick’ but it also frees up our short-term memory for day to day learning and experiences.
A knowledge organiser is a set of key facts or information that students need to know and be able to recall in order to master a unit or topic. Typically, an organiser fits onto one page of A4, which helps students to visualise the layout of the page, which in turn helps them to memorise the information better. This information will expose students to a breadth of ideas and concepts and will be updated every half term so that the knowledge they need is current for their learning in the classroom. We expect students to keep their Knowledge Organisers each half term so that they have a comprehensive set of revision resources built up throughout the year.
Knowledge Organisers are all online and can be found here
Seminar Study does not have to be completed at home. We provide a variety of sessions for students to be able to complete their Seminar Study at school, either daily during Break 1 in our Seminar Study Café, or daily after school both of which are manned by our staff for extra guidance and support.
Students will be rewarded through the point system for their Seminar Study on Class Charts. On the occasion where students fail to complete their Seminar Study, then students will need to attend an after school catch up session. Parents/carers will receive an email home if this is the case.
If you have any queries regarding Seminar Study, please get in touch with Mr Matthews (Assistant Principal) at Will.Matthews@brixhamcollege.tsat.uk.