5 ways to develop revision skills in primary

For teachers, one of the most challenging aspects of developing independent learners is teaching them how to retain knowledge and have it readily available for assessments.

And while the concept of revision may be more commonly associated with secondary schools, younger pupils still need to be able to retrieve prior learning effectively.

Teaching revision skills in primary school

So how can we prepare primary pupils for assessments and exams effectively?

1. Flipping roles

In this activity, pupils devise questions to test the teacher about the topic, and the teacher then models the answers. Pupils can also write key questions on cards and then take them home to ask their parents or guardians.

Young pupils love to play teacher: asking them to summarise a particular aspect or topic, verbally or in writing, offers a great opportunity to consolidate learning and bring knowledge to the front of their minds.

2. ‘How long is five minutes?’

One of the most challenging parts of preparing primary school pupils for assessments and examinations is exam technique. Simple activities can be hugely effective in this respect, such as asking your class to guess how long five minutes is.

Ask them to think of tasks that they do every day at home that they think take five minutes. Then show them tasks that actually take five minutes - by either doing them in class or showing videos perhaps - and ask them to compare that five minutes with their task at home. Are they surprised?

The aim here, over time, is to develop awareness of what is achievable in five minutes, so that when they hear the “you have five minutes” left call, they have some developing understanding and context of what this means.

3. Mark a minute

This is another way to help younger pupils stay focused on what they are writing in assessments. Give your class a familiar, informal assessment, such as your weekly times table test. Break up the questions into groups and allocate marks for each group of questions.

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By translating this to a longer time frame, you can begin to coach the idea of questions answered versus time spent, helping pupils to be more conscious of pacing themselves during assessments.

4. Active reading

Techniques can be simple, such as highlighting key language in the text and adding annotations, or more advanced, like summarising the text into five key points or challenging pupils to write their own assessment questions based on what they have just read. For more creative active reading, pupils can turn what they have just read into a summary poster or act out the text. This works for all subjects and topics and enables deeper engagement with the material.

5. Self-reflection and personalised revision

If you have used a self-reflection document throughout the term, or indeed the year, ask pupils to refer back to it to develop their own understanding of what went well, and what they needed additional support with at the time.

You can then tailor your revision lessons in a more personalised manner; for example, you may have some online resources set up for topic A, some worksheets prepared for any pupils that need to revisit topic B independently and you may reteach topic C to a particular group.

If you have not used a formal self-reflection document, asking pupils to look through their books and do some analysis of what they feel went well and what they would like more time on will help the idea of more personalised revision.

Jason Ford is the deputy head at Hampton Pre‑Prep and Prep School in Middlesex

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