Bauhaus News
3 Dec 2025
December 2025 – As students across Northamptonshire digest their mock exam results and face the Christmas holidays, an education leader is warning against panic revision and urging young people to take a strategic approach instead.
Tutu Alaka, CEO of OFSTED-registered of Bauhaus Education, which has centres in Northampton and Nottingham, says the key to improving grades between now and May isn't working harder – it's working smarter.
"Every December, I see the same pattern," said Tutu, who has over 20 years of educational experience. "Students get their mock results, panic, and either give up completely or try to revise round the clock over Christmas. Neither approach works.
"What works is being strategic: understanding exactly where you lost marks, prioritising the areas that will give you the biggest grade improvements, and working with how your brain actually learns. Two focused hours of targeted practice beats eight hours of vague 'revision' any day."
Tutu emphasises that mock results aren't verdicts – they're detailed feedback showing exactly what needs fixing, with five months still available to make those improvements.
"The students who make the biggest improvements aren't necessarily the most naturally brilliant. They're the ones who analyse their mocks properly and create realistic action plans they actually stick to."
This approach is grounded in cognitive science. At Bauhaus Education, the team uses cognitive assessment to identify how each student's brain processes information best, then builds revision strategies around their natural learning style.
"Some students are visual learners who need mind maps and diagrams. Others are auditory learners who benefit from explaining topics out loud.,” Tutu explained. “When you work with your brain's natural style instead of against it, everything becomes easier.”
Real results from strategic revision
Tutu's strategic revision tips for Christmas:
Stop looking at just the overall grade: Examine grade boundaries – if you got 54% and need 56% for the next grade, that's literally 2%, a few marks. Identify specific question types where you consistently lost marks, check your exam timing strategy, and find genuine knowledge gaps versus technique issues.
Understand how your brain learns: Your working memory has limited capacity, but your long-term memory is unlimited. The key is moving knowledge between them through retrieval practice – actively testing yourself, not passively re-reading notes.
Be ruthlessly specific: Don't say "I need to revise maths." Say "I need to master solving quadratic equations and rearranging formulae." Specific problems need specific solutions.
Two focused hours daily over Christmas: That's the realistic target. No phones, no distractions, specific tasks based on mock analysis. Take Christmas Day and Boxing Day off completely – your brain needs actual rest too.
Identify quick wins first: Some fixes take an hour (learning a formula, understanding question structure). Others take weeks (mastering a whole topic). Do the quick wins first – they boost confidence and grades immediately.
For parents: How to actually help
Tutu also has advice for worried parents: "Before you book 10 different tutors or create detailed revision timetables, stop and ask your child 'What do you need from me?' not 'Why didn't you do better?'
"Understand that predicted grades assume zero improvement – they're not final verdicts. Focus on your child's progress since September, not comparison with their classmates."
Tutu warns that some situations need immediate intervention:
Complete inability to attempt whole sections of papers (suggests fundamental gaps)
Anxiety preventing any effective revision
Consistent time management failures across all subjects (usually an exam strategy problem, not a speed problem)
Tutu added: "At Bauhaus, we offer intensive December and New Year programmes for students who need to completely reset their approach. We don't just tutor subjects – we teach students how to learn strategically and create revision plans they'll actually follow.
"You have something invaluable right now: detailed information about what needs fixing and five whole months to fix it strategically. That's not a crisis. That's actionable data with plenty of time to act on it.
"Every year at Bauhaus, we take December's 'disasters' and turn them into May's success stories. Not through magic or endless cramming, but through cognitive science, strategic planning, and working with how each individual student’s brain learns.
"Mock results don't define you – they inform you. Every disappointing grade is a specific problem with a specific solution. Your potential isn't limited by one set of November mocks."
Bauhaus Education is now recruiting additional tutors across Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire for in-person tuition, and nationwide for online teaching, to meet rising demand for intervention, tuition, and alternative provision. The organisation continues to work closely with Local Authorities, mainstream schools, alternative provision settings and Virtual Schools.
The centre is an approved AQA and EDEXCEL examination centre and provides tuition from Key Stage 2 to A-Level, including support for home-educated learners, SEND provision and private exam entry. Services include cognitive assessment, brain training, one-to-one careers guidance and specialist teacher recruitment for schools with staffing challenges.