GCSE Science Revision Game SEND, Foundation and Higher
Looking for a GCSE revision activity that’s for ALL students? This works with all abilities, SEND, the quiet, the chatterboxes and the reluctant workers.
This revision game is an excellent way to really consolidate and assess learning at the end of each key topic. They don’t need to write anything to play, just talk!
I’ve been working on this for a couple of years now, and it is most definitely tried and tested. I’ve never played a revision game that has students thinking so hard and covering so many ideas in such a short amount of time. My students love playing it and ask when can they play it next! What’s even better is that it is so very simple, anyone can play it. It works for all, from the super bright grade 9 students to the quiet Foundation students, those with ADHD, Dyslexia, ASD, SEMH, or are just low in confidence.
Once the game is in play, the engagement, thinking, conversation is just amazing. As you circulate the room you can assess how well students have learnt the key knowledge.
The resources you’re buying cover all of GCSE Combined Science and the Separate Sciences (‘Triple’), Biology, Chemistry and Physics. There are almost 60 Game templates. All ready to play, or can be adapted easily for your own classes.
My students call it the ‘Keyword Game’ - do please message me if you come up with something a more catchy!
Basic Game:
Choose a game template and print one copy between 2 (3, or 4 also works)
Students cut it up into the 32 playing cards. This takes about 4 minutes. I use a rotatrim to do this before the lesson if they’re a class that will drag this bit out!
Round 1 - Keep the cards face down in a pile. One person picks up the top card and without showing the other player has to give glues to what is on it. The other player has to guess and say what is on the card. Nothing on the card can be read out ie no first letters, parts of words or sounds like
Once the person guesses what’s on the card it goes on the points pile
if the pair a struggling on a card they can discard it and move on
Set a time limit. 90 seconds seems to be the sweet spot but I’ve also done 60 seconds for really strong classes (or I’m short on time) and 120-180 seconds for weaker groups
After time, count the number of cards on the points pile and record on the results table (it does the adding up for you as the rounds progress)
Round 2 - players now swap roles and repeat the game
Making it more fun
Once students get used to the game (I recommend 4 rounds of switching) ramp things up by putting a word limit on the clues. I recommend starting with a 5 word limit. You can then bring this down to 3.
Once they know the game template from multiple rounds, reduce the limit to 3 words, and then go to 2 or even 1!
And if they are really getting confident with the game, I absolutely recommend going to zero words. the charads that will be played out in front of you is alot of fun to watch!




