The GCSE Toolkit is exactly what it sounds like. A collection of tools and resources that will help your child build great learning skills.
Yes, they’ve been learning since they started school, but learning is a skill. It needs to be developed in order to do it well.
Think about it in terms of actual tools. If I had a hammer, nails and a saw, I could probably make a chair out of wood. But…. would you feel safe sitting on it? I wouldn’t.
You can get by with the basic tools, but you could make your life a whole lot easier by expanding your toolkit. An electric saw is much faster (and easier) than a manual one. A power sander is going to get the job done much more efficiently than a sheet of sandpaper.
So let’s give your child those more powerful tools for learning.
Take the tour:
What’s in the Toolkit?
The revision plan generator is the ultimate power-tool. Gone are the days of spending 4 hours on excel, or drawing out a plan on paper using 14 different colours!
With the revision plan generator, you can create a study plan for the whole year in under 10 minutes. It’s printable, it’s pretty, it can even be added to your phone calendar.
You can prioritise subjects, block out busy days, and it’ll add up how many hours they’ll have done for each subject by the end (assuming each block is 30 minutes).
The GCSE Toolkit will talk your child through the process of setting their plan up, taking it for a ‘test drive’ for a week to check it’s going to be manageable, and then adding topics to it, so that they can be sure they’ve covered everything by the time exams roll around.
The plan goes hand-in-hand with the checklists for every subject, where they can track their progress, see what they’ve learned already, and what they still need to revise.
It makes the seemingly enormous task of revising much easier, by breaking it down into bitesized chunks to be done through the year.
The Toolkit also supports them in their revision by first showing them exactly where to find great online resources with our CheatSheets, and then by teaching them the study skills that will help them to learn effectively and efficiently.
The CheatSheets have a list of the best free online revision resources, so you don’t have to worry about the quality of the resources they’re using, and they don’t have to waste valuable revision time trawling the internet.
Many of the sites we list are created by actual teachers with years of experience helping students understand their subject.
The CheatSheets also contain posters with the maths and physics formulae and equations to be learned. These are set out really visually to aid memorisation, and there are tips for memorising them too.
In the study skills section, we’ll talk your child through the different methods they could use to revise, along with which are more effective (and which ones frankly are a waste of time).
We’ve then got a bonus overview of the main subjects.
Each one is a short (up to 10 minutes) video covering everything you need to know about the subject and how to revise for it.
It’s all the stuff you wish there was time to hear about at parents evening (but there never is, because there’s a growing queue of parents behind you and everyone’s running late…).
The first thing they’ll do in the Toolkit is the thing that’ll actually motivate them for the rest of it.
We know that motivation (or a lack thereof…?) is one of the most common problems for teenagers facing GCSEs.
If they know what’s in it for them, they’re much more likely to care, so you’re much less likely to have to nag!
Our Motivation Masterclass has been designed to help your child find their ‘why’. What’s the point of all this? Why is it worth their time and effort to get good grades? What difference will it make to their future?
When they know the answer to those questions, it means they can be motivated by the bigger picture. If they’re working towards their dream career, then GCSEs are a stepping stone along that path.
If they haven’t thought about the future, then it might come as a nasty shock when they decide they desperately want to do a degree in, say, Physics, but can’t because they didn’t do maths A-level. Or that they want to become a PE teacher, but can’t because they didn’t pass their English GCSE.
The masterclass itself is a 17 minute video with a workbook. They’ll be encouraged to pause the video and complete the workbook as they go along. The whole point is to get them to think about what they love doing, and how that could be turned into a job they love doing.
That’s why it’s first. They need to know what they’re building with all these tools!
What happens when you buy the Toolkit?
First, you’ll be taken directly to the Toolkit. No waiting around for emails.
There’s a video for you as a parent to explain what it’s all about, and then a video for your teenager to watch.
Spoiler alert: The video for your child starts with ‘So, your parents have bought you this toolkit, and you’re probably feeling pretty annoyed that they’re interfering, right?’ ?
We have not only spent over 30 years between us teaching teenagers, we also have 19 year old twins and a 12-going-on-23 year old daughter.
We know this isn’t going to be like Christmas morning for your child. ?
That’s why we’ve built in points, and gifs, and aliens, and dancing monkeys.
It’s not boring! Promise!
There’s a lot of power packed into these tools, and they’re best when used together.
Give your child a huge headstart by investing in the GCSE Toolkit today.