As a qualified teacher and former Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCO) in a Secondary School, I’ve witnessed first hand the difficulties many visual learners face preparing for tests and exams. Quite often, children are expected to rely on their class books and large subject revision guides to prepare. Whilst these methods can work, unfortunately, in my experience, they can prove very challenging for some children, in particular for some children with Special Educational Needs such as dyslexia.

We were therefore excited when we were introduced to Oaka Books*, who create fantastic revision packs for KS1, KS2, KS3 and Common Entrance Exams- designed with children with Special Educational Needs in mind.

Their colourful, fun revision packs cover topics from a whole range of subjects from KS1 to KS3, including French, History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

Each pack follows the same, well planned format: children read the topic revision guide, actively learn and revise using the map or game then apply and consolidate their understanding to write in their own revision booklet.

They also have a FREE guide to Effective Revision that can be downloaded here.

What do we like about them?

• Engaging– From the minute we opened to packs and saw that a dice and counters were included we realised these were going to be a fun and engaging approach to revision. And let’s face it- this will be what children will see first too and first impressions count! I’ve heard the (all too familiar!) groan when I’ve told classes of children to revise, many children truly dislike revision. I genuinely believe these packs can change the way children see revision and make it engaging as well as productive. The packs are bright, colourful, full of images and include fun games for children to play.

• Support Dyslexic Children & Visual Learners – Oaka Books Revision Packs are a fantastic resource for all children. However, there are a few features that make them particularly brilliant for dyslexic children and visual learners. Dyslexic children can find pages of lots of written text challenging to access therefore Oaka books have ensured that their text is always concise and to the point. They also create revision guides for topics instead of the subjects- which helps children who would be put off by a large revision guide full of pages. To help dyslexic children and visual learners engage with the information, they split up the text in their revision guides into short, snappy bullet points and utilise colourful, cartoon-like pictures to helps children remember key points.

• Consistent Format– I’ve spoken to many children who feel stressed when they are revising for exams and tests. Often it’s not because they struggle with the subject, but are stressed because they don’t know how best to revise and if the way they are revising is enough. Oaka Books provide children with a consistent format for revision, that they can apply to a range of subjects. This I believe, should reduce a child’s stress/anxiety over revision. This is because the consistent format gives them the confidence that their revision is sufficient and ‘will work’. If they use it for Biology for example, and they achieve well in their test, they will feel empowered that using the booklets for another subject will also help them achieve. This allows children to focus on the revision without the added stress and anxiety.

• Understand that one Approach doesn’t suit all– Because all children are unique, one revision method won’t work for everyone These revision packs embrace this and provide 3 different ways of revising within one pack. Not only does this ensure that different ways of learning are catered for, but it helps children to retain the information easier by using more than one method.

Where can you buy them?

Oaka Revision Packs cater for KS1- KS3 and cover topics including French, History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Oaka Books Resources are also designed for Common Entrance exams. Their resources can be found on the Oaka Books website here.

Download and Try their FREE Guide to Effective Revision here

*Please note, this post is sponsored and we received samples for the purpose of this review. However, all thoughts and opinions are our own.