GCSEPod is for the year, not just for cramming!

When GCSEPod was first launched back in 2011 it was adopted almost entirely as a GCSE revision tool to be used in the weeks immediately before examinations. Today, however, GCSEPod has become an integral part of many schools’ GCSE schemes of learning.

With greater functionality than ever before, our platform is the ideal companion for teachers and students looking to close knowledge gaps and make learning accessible, concise and available on the go.

If you are a school lead looking to make changes at your school for the new academic year, here are some of the GCSEPod benefits you could be enjoying from September:

Create a launch plan with your Project Manager

Launching GCSEPod in your school can be a flexible experience, tailored to suit your needs and preferences. One of the first discussions you will have with your dedicated project manager is whether you want to embed our platform in at grassroots level among your students or whether you would prefer to train your teachers first and let things trickledown through the school.

You may wish to pilot GCSEPod with starter groups of teachers and students or lead with one particular subject. Alternatively, you could aim to make a splash on day 1 and launch GCSEPod explosively into your school.

However you choose to launch GCSEPod, we’ll be with you every step of the way, with advice and guidance based on the experience of hundreds of other leads like you. Over time we hope you see our platform as so much more than a GCSE revision tool that can only be used from May onwards.

Introduce new topics

GCSEPod is focused on building student knowledge, which makes our Pods a great way to book-end lessons. Whether you choose to show a Pod at the start of a class to introduce a new area of study, or play them at the end of a class to recap on what’s been discussed, the concise audio-visual material is immediately memorable.

Flipped learning

The popularity of flipped learning has grown in recent years. Teachers understand the many benefits of welcoming students into the classroom, already primed with core knowledge on a particular subject.

Thanks to GCSEPod, flipped learning doesn’t need to be a labour-intensive process. Students can simply watch one of our 3-5 minute Pods for a short burst of information anywhere and at any time on their personal device. This enables less confident students to watch, rewind and pause as they wish until they have a clear grasp of a topic and it will also make them more likely to come to the class with pertinent questions to share with the rest of the class.

This mode of teaching has been found to significantly accelerate learning and move students forward to the point where they can begin answering exam-style questions much sooner.

Create playlists

Preparing for the academic year is made easier with GCSEPod’s My Courses playlist tools. These are pre-prepared Pods that meet a precise specification linked to a particular exam. You can also create your own additional playlists featuring Pods on topics that you see that a class is struggling with.

Homework made simple

Educators don’t work alone. We’ve created an incredibly useful community questions bank, which now features more than 25,000 questions written by teachers like you. These can form the basis for homework assignments and make marking and assessing progress both simple and straightforward.

A detailed report for each assignment enables you to analyse how students are faring and identify students who may need extra help. Where a student answers a question incorrectly, the teacher can easily assign a boost playlist to help that child revisit the topic and close any knowledge gaps that may exist.

Added Extras

We understand that there are many GCSE learning resources at a teacher’s disposal – all of which have something positive to offer students. This is why GCSEPod is geared towards collaborative use rather than use in isolation.

The Xtras tool within the platform enables teachers to add links to other web pages, GCSE revision resources and online study tools, such as YouTube videos.  This helps students to explore subjects in greater detail and develop a deeper understanding of themes and topics in order to close knowledge gaps.

And for everything else…

Your dedicated project manager will be on hand, whenever you need them to give you further advice and support. We can help you to monitor usage and adapt your strategies based on the data you collect, the anecdotal evidence from students and teachers, or simply the time of year. After all, we want you to get the best from your investment.

Ready to subscribe to GCSEPod? Why not call us today on 0191 338 7830 and we’ll explain how you can get started.