Prep Guidance

We believe that prep increases academic achievement and progress as well as building independence and organisational skills. This helps students to gain further knowledge and understanding, therefore we expect all students to complete prep work ahead of lessons.

At the start of the academic year, students are issued with a prep book for each of their subjects and a personalised timetable, indicating when prep work will be set and collected. It is expected that all prep work is completed to the highest standards in these books and that they are looked after and not lost.

In Years 7-9, students receive compulsory prep work for English, maths, science, Spanish and humanities which should take approximately 1 hour to complete each evening. In Years 7-9, students will also receive optional projects in the creative subjects which are set as prep which we encourage students to complete to ensure their best progress in art, music, drama, food and textiles. In Years 10 and 11, students receive compulsory prep in English, maths, science as well as their option subjects, which should take a maximum of 1 hour and 30-minute to complete each evening. Students are expected to complete prep by the deadlines set by their teachers. Students and parents can check deadlines for all prep work on Epraise.

A supervised club runs daily after school to support students with the completion of their prep, where they have access to ICT facilities. Students can expect to receive automatic Epraise points to their account for successfully completing prep work.  However, if students do not complete their prep, or it is not completed to the standard expected, a 1 hour detention will be issued on the evening of the day the prep work was due. The length of each prep detention is 1 hour for each piece not submitted at the correct standard.  In this detention, students will rework any prep work not completed to ensure they don’t fall behind on their progress. Students will not be detained any later than 5.00pm daily and parents will be notified via text in the event of a detention being set. Failure to attend detention will result in further sanctions. Parents and students can check all prep deadlines for all prep on Epraise and there is now an app available for download to electronic devices.

At Swindon Academy we use Knowledge Organisers in class and as prep to help students learn the essential knowledge they need for their subjects.  Securing this knowledge will allow students to develop their skills of understanding, analysis and evaluation in lessons effectively. You can access this term's Knowledge Organisers here.