Recently I was asked “how you do intend the 5-a-day to be used?” I began to explain how I created them to use as starters for Year 10 and 11 classes and then I thought of all the excellent ways in which colleagues on Twitter had used them. He then recommended I blog about it…. so here goes nothing!

So firstly, what are the 5-a-day? why did I make them? where can I access them? I’ve made a small video answering these questions (has this become a vlog now instead of a blog?)

Excellent “GCSE Revision Boards” have been created by Jonathan Hall (@Studymaths and creator of the simply amazing http://formtimeideas.com/) and also @DunclugCollege an excellent school very near my hometown in Northern Ireland. They use the Foundation and Higher 5-a-day to help GCSE students to prepare for their exams. I particularly like the use of plastic wallets to ease access and also the way @DunclugCollege have printed two per page, which I have found make it easier to put in to and remove from the plastic wallets.

As well as using the 5-a-day as starters and for GCSE revision boards, many colleagues have used several of the 5-a-day to help with the preparation for upcoming exams. @LynnBowie from South Africa tweeted about using the 5-a-day with her students every day in the lead up to exams.

Another way in which so many schools use the 5-a-day is to retweet the daily tweets so that their students can independently complete them as part of their revision.

I have also added a bit of an incentive for students to complete the 5-a-day on Twitter. Students put their completed 5-a-day in very large ballot box with their names on, and each fortnight, prize draws take place. “The more you complete, the more chance you have of winning…oh and you’ll get a better grade too!”

I hope that helps explain how the 5-a-day can be used, but if you use them in any other way, I would LOVE to hear.

Thank you to Miss Skinner for the lovely mention about the “5-a-day” in her blog

Read about it below: