Independent Study

What is Independent Study? 

Independent study is learning, that is set to be done outside the timetabled curriculum and is not usually directly supervised by a teacher. Independent study enhances student learning, improves achievement and develops students' study skills and as such is an integral part of the curriculum. 

Research shows that independent study has a positive impact on student progress. At MEA we believe independent study is an essential part of learning and expect all our students to engage with it in a positive way. 

Aims of Independent Study 

• Independent study enables students to: 
• Embed crucial knowledge in to their long term memory. 
• Build a greater knowledge base to which new learning can be anchored. 
• Take ownership and responsibility for their learning. 
• Enhance their study skills e.g. planning, time management and self-discipline. 

Independent Study Timetable 

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 should spend approximately 1 hour each evening completing Independent Study. This increases to 2 hours per evening for students in Years 10 and 11. 

Please see below for recommended quantity and frequency of independent learning in Year 11: 

Year  11	Frequency	Time
English	Weekly	60 mins
Maths	Weekly	60 mins
Science	Weekly	60 mins
History/Geography	Weekly	60 mins
Spanish	Weekly	60 mins
Option subjects	Weekly	60 mins

Revision Guides 

Curriculum areas will provide detailed knowledge resources for students to keep at home, for example, revision guides or booklets. 

Independent study is set regularly and is based on the content of the revision material. This will be a combination of retrieval practice and exam practice. 

Teachers will report on Independent Study completion half termly; this will be communicated to parents alongside Attitude to Learning within the classroom. 

Students can access support with their Independent Study as part of our MEA Xtras (extra-curricular) provision each evening after school in the Library. 

To ensure that students who have not attended lessons catch up with any lost learning, teachers must upload lessons resources to Microsoft Teams each week. 

Independent Study is published on the Academy website half termly for each year group. Paper copies if any resources are given out each in lesson to each student- this is to be returned to class teachers on the date they have given. 

Teachers upload all of the lessons for each subject onto our online learning platform MS Teams. Students can use these to help with independent Study and to prepare for any assessments they do in lessons. For each subject class, students have a MS Team. 

In Files tab there is a folder for each half term. In it is: 

Unit plan 

Knowledge organiser 

Lessons clearly labelled with topic and in order 

Students can use these to help with Independent Study, revision, and to catch up if they are absent 

How can parents and carers help with Independent Study? 

Parents and carers can support students by viewing independent study as an important part of their learning, by discussing Independent Study with them and encouraging them to be organised in completing it. Providing a quiet area at home for students to study in is also very helpful. 

For guidance on how to access MS Teams, please see relevant handout.