Case Study

GCSEPod brings Kellett School’s library to life

“The thing the students enjoy most about GCSEPod is the audio-visual nature of the GCSE/IGCSE resource. We have many students who enjoy reading and GCSEPod really compliments their learning. The pods have also had a big impact for more visual learners.”

Details

Kellett School

Lisa Share is the School Librarian at Kellett School, the British International School in Hong Kong which provides outstanding learning for children from Reception through to Year 13. 

Lisa has been working at Kellett School for 11 years and has watched the school expand from just primary to include secondary, growing in pupil numbers and size.

As the school grew, Lisa started to collaborate with the teachers to think of ways they could engage the older students, and encourage independent learning, in particular during their GCSE years.

As all teachers will recognise there are some subjects and learning objectives that are harder than others to both engage the students and teach. Having initially been trialled by the History Department, Lisa was given the task in 2013 to expand to use of GCSEPod to cover all subjects at the school. “In the digital, visual world in which our students operate it is great to offer students an accessible online resource to supplement their traditional textbooks,” explained Lisa.

Marketing GCSEPod, and providing training, to teachers was the first step to ensure student uptake of the product. “I can show the product to students, but what really encourages them to use the Pods for revision and homework is endorsement from the teachers of its worth, either through setting assignments or use of GCSEPod in class. Several of our teachers are now expert users who I can draw upon as exemplars.” Seeing the success of the history pods to engage and excite the students, other teachers came on board.

“GCSEPod is visual and informative. I see the value GCSEPod adds for children in all subjects from History to Maths, English to Chemistry, and it really provides a consistent approach to the students learning across all subjects.”

The solution

GCSEPod offers short three to five minutes videos to visually show a learning point. Whether it’s used as an introduction to a learning objective, a resource for teachers to set as homework, or as an additional revision tool to allow students to consolidate what they have been learning in class its versatility is ideal. The resource is tailored to 27 GCSE subjects, including maths, English, science, history and languages to name a few. All the students at the Kellett School who are studying for their GCSE have access to this tool in the classroom, on the bus home and at home.

Lisa explains in more detail, “GCSEPod is a key component of the range of revision tools we make available to students. I use the LibGuides platform to create resource collections for each subject which allows me to combine external links, library materials and books, as well as other subscription resources such as GCSEPod.”

Lisa holds sessions with each tutor group at the start of the year to show them all the benefits they can reap from using GCSEPod. This has proven to be a great way for her to get to know the children at the start of the year and build relationships with those students who use GCSEPod diligently and who need additional support with certain subjects.

In addition, Lisa acts as the central contact for teachers who wish to know more about the product or require training.

“I think the thing the students enjoy most about GCSEPod is the visual/audio nature of the resource. We have many students who enjoy reading and fully utilise our written materials, and GCSEPod really compliments their learning. The Pods also have an impact for those children who are more visual/audio learners and who benefit from a different style of learning. We even have students in Year 9 using the Pods to get them prepared for their studies.

The Results

When talking about GCSEPod, Lisa highlighted the benefit it has for her, in the role: “GCSEPod is visual and informative. I see the value GCSEPod adds for children in all subjects from History to Maths, English to Chemistry, and it really provides a consistent approach to the students learning across all subjects.

“It allows the library and my role to go above and beyond and connect with children across all students studying for their GCSEs.”

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