Why Knowledge Organisers?
Knowledge Organisers are now a key component of how we at Archie teach at KS3 level. They are a one sided, occasionally two sided, piece of paper which provides our students with key, non-negotiable, must know knowledge. This knowledge provides our students with the information needed to will allow them to transform how they think about their subject. This knowledge is more than just 'stuff.' It is a way of providing 'in depth' understanding of a subject which can be applied across the breadth of the curriculum through their years with us. Through focused practice, revision and application of this knowledge our students are developing their ability to retrieve information from their 'long term memory' to their 'working memory' which has never been more important given the challenging exams which await them in the future. By requiring our students to develop their ability to recall information from a young age we are giving them the best possible chance to succeed in their later Academic years.
Weekly testing
Across the vast majority of our KS3 subjects our pupils sit a weekly test on a particular amount of knowledge they have been asked to revise by their teacher. The amount of knowledge tested weekly may vary from week to week and from subject to subject. However, what is consistent is that by the last week of each half term each student should have covered all of the content on their Knowledge Organiser at least once in a low-stakes weekly quiz or in class.
Half Termly testing
As well as testing our students on their knowledge over the course of a week we test our students on the knowledge they have gained over the course of a half term. Students will be given a set of questions (up to 50) based on their Knowledge Organiser from the content they have most recently covered as well as questions (10-20) based on knowledge from previous half terms. This is an easy way to get students to revisit material we consider important as well as being a fantastic way of testing our students retention of knowledge. It is important they are able to apply their knowledge whenever it is required, not just when they have been recently working on it. This is particularly important for subjects such as Mathematics and Science. Importantly, as well as testing our students knowledge of content learnt over a half term we use the half termly score (what students' achieve out of 50) to help us report to parents how well our students are doing in class and what this means longer term at KS4.