Subject Knowledge Organisers
Subject Knowledge Organisers form an important part of life at The Prescot School. Subject Knowledge Organisers, or SKOs for short are given out to all students in years 7, 8 and 9 at the start of every term. Their SKO forms part of their uniform standards checks, so students should have their SKO in their bag every day.
The video below is of our students explaining why the SKOs are useful for their learning.
Transcript
Speaker 1
I use my sky home loads help me on the homework It's very helpful at school, it helps me complete my homework. It helps me revise for tests and it gives out ideas for me to improve my schoolwork.
Speaker 2
I use my sko home to help me revise for tests and exams and they help me get better to understand what they teach in class.
Speaker 3
We have SKU tests from time to time and we also use them to improve our writing. Let's say in English, and if you want to make your writing better, you also know what the words mean because they give you definitions.
A subject knowledge organiser contains all of the key information and knowledge that students will be taught in every subject for that term. The content of each SKO runs alongside the curriculum that is delivered in lessons and so students and parents/carers can see what has been taught, where students are up to and what is being taught next.
The SKO booklet will also form the homework for all of years 7, 8 and 9. The national curriculum contains a huge amount of information and if students don’t revise the new knowledge they have been taught, they will over time naturally forget it. To prevent this from happening and to help students store new knowledge in their long term memory, students are expected to use their SKO for homework to revise what they have been taught in lessons.
The videos below explain how you and your child can use the SKOs.
An Introduction to Subject Knowledge Organisers
Transcript
Subject knowledge organisers form an important part of life at.
Prescott School subject knowledge organisers or SK OS for short, are given out to students in year 7-8 and 9:00 on the first day of every term. Their sko forms part of their uniform standards cheques and therefore students should have them on them in their bags every day. Subject Knowledge organiser contains all of the key information and knowledge that students will be taught in every subject for that time.
Content of each sko runs alongside the curriculum that is delivered in lessons, and so students and parents can see what has been taught, where students are up to and what is going to be taught next. The SKU Butler will also form the homework for year 7-8 and nine national curriculum contains a huge amount of information, and if students don't revise the new knowledge they've been taught, they will over time, naturally forget it.
Look, Cover, Write, Check
Transcript
Getting into good habits of revising effectively will set students up for success throughout their school life and beyond.
It is important that students don't just read from their sko as this is not an effective revision technique and it can give students a false confidence that they have remembered the information. Instead, students might use the look, cover write cheque method. This involves students taking a piece of paper and covering up the key terms.
Students then read the definition and fill in the key terms. From memory. Students can then check their answers and self assess them, writing out any corrections.
One students have built up their confidence they may wish to cover up the definitions and try to fill them in by only looking at key terms.
Quizzing
Transcript
Students could also ask the friend or family member to test them on the specific terms they've been asked to revise. As a parent, you can help students keep on top of their homework by checking that they have done their self quizzing and use their sko every night.
Knowledge Dump Sheets
Transcript
Students may also be asked to complete a knowledge dump sheet. This scaffolded worksheet guides students through the steps of effective self quizzing that teachers can then check in lesson first, students fill in what they can remember from memory. They then check their sko for anything they've forgotten or anything they've got incorrect.
Students can then create a mind map using diagrams, pictures and colours to help them remember the key information that they need to know for next time.
Quizlet
Transcript
The final method of self quizzing that we recommend is students scanning the QR code and using QUIZLET.
Every sko has been uploaded to an online revision website called Quizlet, where students can interactively use the online flash cards to revise or play the various revision games.
To check students have completed their homework in lesson, students will be quizzed on what they have been taught and how much they have remembered.
Teachers will set particular sections of the sko for students to revise each week.
The Revision Folder
Transcript
At Key Stage 4 in years 10 and 11, students will not be given an SK booklet, but instead be given a revision folder similar to Key Stage 3. Students are expected to bring this with them in their bags every day.
Each department will hand out an SCO at the start of a new unit and shoot, and should keep this with their folder. This will help students organise their learning from the start of the GCSE course and ensure that they keep on top of their revision and not leave it to the last minute.
Students should use any of the effective revision strategies that were used at key stage 3 in the same way to revise this content.
Key stage 4 subject teachers may use the SKO to set homework as well as other various homework tasks.
