Research School Network: Don’t stop believing. Metacognition in Key Stage 5. By Max Harvey, Deputy Headteacher at The Blue School, Wells

The Blue School is currently in the throes of the annual musical production. This year it’s Back to the 80s, a jukebox musical set in an American High School. It celebrates the music and culture of the decade with a plot which has its tongue firmly in its cheek.

The main roles are played by Key Stage 5 students, many of whom are attempting to juggle the demands of line-learning with their studies. At times I can visibly see them doubting themselves. My Sixth Form years were very similar.

At the start of my own A Level Physics course, when I was struggling with the content, I vividly remember my teacher chalking a graph on the blackboard. He said a good student will always copy up their class notes in 48 hours. An excellent student will then revisit these notes every week.

These words had a huge impact on my learning. I wanted to be that ​‘excellent’ student. I routinely revisited the content covered, actively engaging in my own retrieval practice.

Many years later, as Head of Sixth Form, I would refer to this graph as Woodend’s principle – in honour of Mr Woodend who first drew the image. It was only later in life that I realised he’d drawn the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.

There is often the assumption that Year 12 know how to learn; the process of revising for their GCSEs magically helped them to develop effective routines. And if it didn’t, they would be motivated to address this the following September. If only it were that easy.

The EEF guidance report on Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning addresses the importance of explicitly teaching students the skills they need.

In the Sixth Form at The Blue School, subjects are explicit about the behaviours expected of Key Stage 5 learners. Unsurprisingly, I share the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve in an early assembly. In addition, subjects outline the details of effective learning. In departments which require folders, students are advised exactly how to organise their notes. Early homework tasks are linked to timings – ​‘this task should typically take you this long’. Revision for assessments is broken down with students explicitly taught approaches for them to use.

Clearly, metacognition is a key part of the process. The EEF guidance (page 22) reminds us that students can often overestimate how effective their preparation and revision have been.

This planning fallacy needs challenging at the beginning and throughout the course. Subjects are starting to use different forms of exam wrapping to help address this. We support this holistically with a Sixth Form learning survey which is completed in Year 12 and repeated in Year 13; students are invited to consider how their answers have changed.

This self reflection is essential.

Back to Back to the 80s. (Michael J Fox would be proud.) It may be a simplistic parody but it contains recognisable teen issues with songs which capture a mood or thought process. The Michael Jackson lyrics at the end of Act 1 are a perfect example of this.

Students benefit from looking at themselves, believing in themselves and reflecting on what they need to change. We all do. And we find this change easier when there are individuals around us explicitly supporting us with this process.