(Ad - Gifted) Curriculum based topic packs for GCSE's from Oaka Books.

Ellie is in year 10 at school and is working towards doing her GCSE's next year. The last couple of years have been a struggle for her, she is deaf in one ear and partly relies on lipreading. With home learning then returning back to school where everyone was wearing masks was tough on her. Thankfully she didn't fall behind but has had to work extra hard to keep up with her peers. Recently we were asked if we would like to have a look at the topic packs from Oaka Books and we jumped at the chance, anything that would help Ellie with her GCSE's would be fantastic for us.

Oaka Learning Resources are ideal for any children who struggle with their reading or processing, find it hard to move information from their short term to their working memory or simply prefer to learn in a visual or more active way. They provide a different style of presentation for curriculum based topics so all the information in our packs is exactly what your child needs to learn, whatever their ability, just shown in an accessible format. In fact, we have plenty of scholar sets in schools who also use our packs for revision just because the children enjoy them and they provide a much quicker, more effective revision system.

Ellie is a visual learner, she really struggles to take a lot of information in when it's just text based so pictures and bright colours make it much more appealing for her. To be honest if I had a book with just words I would find it pretty boring to revise and learn too.

Oaka Books have learning resources for all ages right from 5 to 7 years olds in key stage one right up to teenagers studying for their GCSE's in key stage 4. At the moment it is science where Ellie needs to revise and be able to take more information in so we chose five of the packs to have a look at:

Biology: Cell Biology

Biology: Osmosis

Chemistry: Working Scientifically

Chemistry: The Periodic Table

Chemistry: Writing Word Equations

Each of the packs come with a revision booklet with a glossary of key terms, a write your own notes illustrated booklet and question and answer flashcards.

I was very interested in the Biology: Cell Biology, topic pack as since Ellie started secondary school it seems all she has done in biology is cells!! I suppose a lot of biology does come down to cells but I don't remember doing as much when I was at school. Considering Ellie has been learning it since year 7 not much has sunk in, I am hoping these booklets really help.

I think all of these books will be a fantastic in the long run. They are laid out beautifully and cover every aspect of the topic. They are bright, engaging and are just simple to understand.

 Ellie has already had a good look through all of the books and already she has understood things from them that she has never understood at school. The writing word equations booklets have already been a brilliant help. They have even helped me understand so I can help Ellie more.

As well as the topic booklets there are the Write Your Own Notes booklets which let you write in what you have learned and Ellie is writing them lightly in pencil so she can rub them out and then have another crack at them when she thinks she has learned more.

I am a big fan of the question and answer flashcards included in the topic packs. I have kept them near where I sit in the living room and keep pulling them out when Ellie looks the tiniest bit bored I ask her a question. The other day we had a bit of a challenge where I said she could have 2p for every question she got right, she ended up with enough money to go to the shop and buy some sweet treats. 

As well as the topic packs Oaka Books sell a range of board games. As we had chosen to review the topic packs I did not expect a game too but there was one in the Chemistry: Working Scientifically pack. It wasn't a proper board, board game just a sheet but there was a dice and playing pieces included. It seemed like a brilliant bonus. 

If you want to read a review of one of the proper board games from Oaka Books go and have a look at what Raisie Bay has to say about the Physics: Science Scramble game. 

Oaka books started with the aim to help struggling readers access the curriculum and it quickly became clear that their unique way of presenting information was great for ALL pupils. Each topic pack costs £7.97 and I would say they are well worth the money!! They have changed Ellie already, she hated the idea of doing any revision for her GCSE's, I'm not going to lie and say she loves revision now but it has made it a lot easier and a lot more fun!

Have you heard of Oaka Books? Do their topic packs sound like something your child would benefit from?

We were sent the topic packs from Oaka Books free of charge in exchange for this blog post.