Student Thought: Why Choose Spark For GCSE?

Looking for tuition in your GCSE years can be a daunting prospect. Even at the beginning of Year 10, you might feel that you only have a short time before you will be sitting your exams. For this week’s student thoughts, we asked two of our Year 11 students to talk to us about why they chose Spark Academy.

When did they join Spark?

As you know, we have trials running fortnightly throughout the year. This is for Year 11 as well as younger years, so you can rest assured that our current Year 11s aren’t only made up of long-established loyal customers; we have Year 11 students joining consistently throughout the year.

Amisha and Bibi are two such Year 11s students. Both students joined during our Autumn term, choosing Spark as their tuition provider in the final run up towards their GCSEs. Both students attend our English, Maths and Sciences classes, proving that Spark is really an all-rounder when it comes to GCSE preparation.

Why did they chose Spark?

Bibi told us that one of the reasons she chose Spark was that we

Cover More Of The School Curriculum And Required Information

At Spark, we pride ourselves on keeping up to date with changes in the national curriculum. As far as possible, we also tailor our lessons to the exam boards. In English, we also study the specific texts our students are studying at school. This gives them an extra edge when approaching their exam revision.

Amisha also told us this was one of the reasons she chose Spark over her previous tuition provider, saying

I Prefer That They Cover More School Content

What else do they like about Spark?

Bibi told us that

Maths is one of my strong points and I enjoy calculations in both Science and Maths. I have learnt to enjoy English more as the teacher explains things if I don’t understand

The importance of explanation and ensuring that all of our students are on the same page also came across in Amisha’s thoughts what she enjoys about Spark:

teachers are willing to explain, like in school

It’s always great to hear that what we strive to do in our lessons is appreciated!

That’s great – but what about when it comes to GCSE revision?

Thinking about how tuition can help you with revision is really important and it’s actually something we think about when planning our lessons.

Amisha told us that

The Booklets Are Great Revision And There Are Plenty Of Exam-Style Questions

Our bespoke booklets are designed to continue supporting our students even after their lesson is over. The booklets have explanation and advice in them to help our students progress towards their target grades. We also understand that at this stage, being able to tackle exam-style questions is a significant part of our students’ revision. This is why they are a staple in our lessons and homeworks.

It sounds fantastic! But… wouldn’t one-to-one be better in the run up to exams?

One-to-one tuition can be a fantastic tool, but at Spark we are always striving to develop our students holistically as well as academically. To us, the value of group tuition is the confidence it can inspire in our students and the problem-solving and teamwork skills it promotes.

Many of our students actually choose us over one-to-one tuition because of the holistic package Spark offers. Bibi told us

I did one-to-one at home with a tutor but I work better in a group where we discuss and understand together

We’re always thrilled to have such wonderful things said about us here at Spark. Why not share your GCSE experiences in the comments?

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