Guest post by Jono Ellis, CPO at Cognito. DIsclaimer my children are not currently taking GCSE and do not require help with A-level and so have not tried this service myself. However, it is FREE to try and then there’s a 20% off code (PINKODDY20) for Cognito Pro.
Hi, I’m Jono. I run Cognito, a UK GCSE and A-Level revision platform used by about 1.5 million students. Joy very kindly let me write a guest post for Pinkoddy, because the school strikes this term, including the recent ones in Gloucestershire, have hit a lot of Year 11 families hard. The GCSE timetable hasn’t moved. Whether or not a school manages to teach the whole spec, those papers still get sat in May.
Here’s what we see working consistently in the families who handle closed-school weeks well, and what tends to make them harder.
Don’t try to recreate school at the kitchen table
The most common mistake parents tell us they made on the first strike day was trying to replicate a six-period school day at home. By 11am it had usually fallen apart. Teens don’t work the same way at home as they do in school, and forcing a school timetable onto a non-school day creates conflict without much learning.
Do build a clear, simple home plan
What tends to work instead is three blocks of 45 minutes with proper breaks between them, and one subject per block. Agree it with your teen the night before, so they have some ownership of it. Once the plan’s on a piece of paper on the fridge, the nagging mostly vanishes.
Choose the right subjects for a strike day
Strike days are brilliant for the subjects where teens need to consolidate independent learning. Science, Maths, anything question-based. They’re harder for subjects that rely on classroom discussion, like English Literature. So push towards the consolidation subjects on strike days and save the discussion subjects for when school’s back.
The platform that’s done most of the heavy lifting
This is the piece I’m slightly biased on, since we built it. Cognito is a UK platform for GCSE Science and Maths: short videos by topic, exam-board-aligned, with practice questions that show where the gaps are. It’s free to use (with some limits on the free tier), so you can have a go on a strike day before paying for anything. When school’s closed and there’s no teacher around, it’s the closest thing many families have to an actual lesson, and it’s become a quiet backbone of strike-day plans for a fair few of the GCSE families we hear from.
If your teen finds it useful, Pinkoddy readers get 20% off Pro with the code PINKODDY20.
Move the body before the brain
A strike day at home becomes a screen day very quickly. A walk first thing, even just twenty minutes before any revision happens, sets the tone for the day. It flows better when the first thing isn’t a screen.
Reframe the day for your teen
The thing nobody really says about strike days is that they aren’t lost time. School was going to be a normal Year 11 day, a couple of lessons, some social time, a fair bit of logistics. A well-run strike day can actually be more productive for revision than a school day. If you frame it that way to your teen, most of them rise to it.
Plan for the next one, because there will be a next one
The wider picture in UK schools suggests more disruption is likely, regardless of how the current local disputes resolve. The best thing parents can do is have a quiet, repeatable home plan ready, so the next strike day doesn’t catch you flat.
GCSEs are stressful enough without lost school days on top, but strike days at home don’t have to be a write-off. With a simple plan, the right tools, and a teen who knows what’s expected, families can come out the other end of a closed-school week genuinely ahead.
Guest post by Jono Ellis, CPO at Cognito. Partnered with Pinkoddy. Cognito is free to use. Readers get 20% off Cognito Pro with the code PINKODDY20.