Customer Story: The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College

Since starting the free trial, Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College students have watched over 1000 pods to grow their knowledge.

• Students accessed material on a wide variety of subjects, with the greatest usage appearing for Chemistry (505 total streams and downloads), Biology (248) and Combined Science (148).
• Since starting the program, GCSEPod usage has steadily increased month by month.
• To date, students have answered 228 Check and Challenge questions and handed in nearly 250 assignments, with this number only continuing to grow.
• The topics students engaged with most revolved around the Periodic Table Group and reactivity, Organisation Enzymes and Atomic Structure.
• While many students opt to watch GCSEPod videos midweek, Sunday proves students’ favourite choice for weekend revision.

Key Takeaways

• As part of its mission to help schools revolutionise their approach to STEM education, Access Education offered The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College a year’s worth of free content through its STEM Impact Program.
• They were taken through a nine-week expertly crafted program, featuring a personalised data report to help teachers maximise pupil attainment.
• As the GCSEPod content is easy to digest, it has proved to be a popular revision resource in the lead up to exams, as well as regularly being used in the classroom.
• Engagement across Chemistry and Biology immediately skyrocketed, with positive feedback from pupils and teachers.

The challenges engaging students with STEM

Engaging students with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects can sometimes feel like an uphill battle for teachers and parents, and there are many reasons why engagement tends to be lower.

From preconceived ideas that STEM subjects are difficult or inaccessible and the complexity of the concepts involved, to struggling to see how the topic will be useful to them in later life when exploring their career options, more needs to be done to tackle these barriers. 

The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College is filled with many practical, forward-thinking students, but like lots of teachers, Michael Whitehead, Assistant Department Head, knew they needed to truly see the subjects’ value. Michael said:

Too often, students struggle to grasp the relevance of STEM subjects until it's too late, realising what they learn in the classroom is important foundational knowledge for their future careers - such as applying concepts learnt in physics to a job in engineering.

This mindset can have consequences, with the shortage of STEM skills in the UK proving an ongoing problem - estimated to cost the UK economy £1.5bn per year.

There is also a noticeable gender gap between girls and boys that study STEM subjects beyond GCSE (35% of girls and 80% of boys) - demonstrating the need to put in place the means to ignite all students’ passion for STEM from a young age.

About Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College: A short overview

The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College is a mixed, non-selective secondary school in Rugby, Warwickshire, catering for students aged 11 to 16.

It’s committed to the development of independent, confident and motivated learners - who leave equipped with the qualifications, skills and attributes required to successfully take their place in the world.

Their vision is of a great learning community, where students, staff and parents work collaboratively to realise every student’s potential.

The ethos and culture of the school is unique and has been commented on during successive OFSTED inspections - meaning The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College has continued to be judged as a Good school.

Enter the STEM Impact Program

After signing up for Access Education GCSEPod’s STEM Impact Program, teachers at The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College witnessed first-hand the transformation in students’ level of engagement across the STEM subjects.

From Chemistry and Biology, to Statistics and Maths, students have enjoyed learning about a wide range of topics, with pods about the periodic table and plant nutrition proving particularly popular.

The short, bitesize videos mean students can recap key concepts in the classroom, and test their knowledge with ‘Check and Challenge’ assessments, receiving instantaneous, constructive feedback.

And, with short-form videos on platforms such as TikTok regularly capturing students’ imagination, interactive video content has helped to meet students ‘where they are’ - empowering them to revise in their own time.

The program aligned with the lead up to mock exams at The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College, giving students the opportunity to familiarise themselves with content that will appear on examination papers.

What the platform users have to say

According to Michael, students enjoy using the platform because it’s interactive, with some even using it to set up their own revision sessions outside the classroom. Michael said:

GCSEPod has been invaluable to our Year 11’s going through their mock exams, with many loving the interactive features enabling them to effectively self-mark, and not wait for a teacher’s feedback during their independent study.

We’ve had lots of positive feedback from teachers too, who have used GCSEPod to set homework and direct students to mock revision. There’s a lot of different software out there, but GCSEPod has really fit into our school ethos - creating independent, confident and motivated young adults.