We were very pleased to be able to award Haileybury Turnford funds for a subscription to Kerboodle online learning resources for science A level.
Kerboodle’s website summarises their resource:
AQA A Level Sciences Kerboodle provides invaluable support for teaching and learning, including resources to support independent study, differentiation, assessment and the practical endorsement.
- Student study guides for every topic linking to relevant resources, revision podcasts and checklists
- Maths skills interactives and paper-based worksheets provide full support and practice for Level 2 maths
- Full coverage of the practical endorsement, with a range of practical resources to support each Practical Activity Group (PAG)
- Prepare for exams with questions and quizzes reflecting the maths, practical and extension requirements
- Animations help to convey difficult concepts and consolidate learning
- Specially-commissioned extension tasks for students using exclusive extracts from best-selling Oxford Very Short Introductions
- Complete teacher and technician support, with teacher guides, schemes of work and practical guidance
- Includes access to online digital versions of the Student Books, giving your students access to their textbooks anytime, anywhere
- AQA A Level Physics Kerboodle provides full support for optional topics 9 - 13: Astrophysics, Medical Physics, Engineering Physics, Turning points in physics, Electronics
Sam Williams, Director of Science, explained the difficulties his A level scientists have faced during the COVID 19 lockdown and how the Kerboodle resources would help:
“Throughout the Covoid-19 pandemic all of our year 12 students have suffered with little or no face to face contact. This has meant that they have missed out on key concepts which cannot be easily taught online and all students have been unable to complete required practicals to attain the practical endorsement aspect of the A-level specifications. These resources would benefit all of our A-level Science students by helping them to understand these concepts with the support materials provided. It would also stretch our most gifted students due the range of activities and challenge available. This resource also includes extensive practice and examination questions to fully prepare them for exams next summer.
This resource would help to re-engage those students who have suffered throughout school closures but also extend those who have been working well throughout. ”
Although we are big fans of using different methods to effectively learn all subjects, we are wary of funding online subscriptions for the simple reason that the direct benefit often only lasts one year for one cohort unless the school can afford to renew the subscription. However, Sam addressed this problem well:
“Although the subscription would only last one year these resources can be downloaded and embedded into our current schemes of learning to benefit students in the future.
…These resources could then also be used to benefit future A-level Science students at our school which is increasing in popularity each year due to the journey of improvement we have undertaken.”
The resource downloading facility, added to this year’s extraordinary need for catch-up measures, enabled us to wholeheartedly pass this application.