ST. Antony's Catholic School GCSE pupils mastered the art of intelligent learning at the start of their GCSE revision programme with a pizza break to boost brain power.

When many families might begin thinking about booking a summer break, mums and dads from the rapidly improving Urmston school accompanied their sons and daughters to a special after school Exam Attack session, designed as the perfect preparation for their all important GCSEs.

Early indicators show that the Catholic school is on target to achieve a dramatic100% improvement in academic results this summer, but teachers, pupils and parents want to do even better.

St. Antony's Year 11 Progress Leader Claire Galbraith explained: “We held three sessions on 'Stress Management'. 'Revision Techniques' and 'Revision Timetabling'.”

She added: “We wanted to invite parents so they can help their children and prepare as a family. Importantly they need to be able to recognise the signs of stress such as a loss of appetite, regular headaches and chronic fatigue and be able to respond by dedicating time to leisure activities as well as work and making sure children eat sensibly, have a good breakfast and drink plenty of water each and every day.”

St. Antony's has seen a dramatic improvement in both performance and behaviour since new senior management took over at the end of 2013.

Headteacher Fiona Wright said: “It is a team effort and, as can be seen from this evening when we had over 180 people in the school, pupils, parents and teachers are all buying into the new approach.”

Pictured are Chloe Barlow, 16, from Stretford and Declan Fletcher, 15, both from Stretford. Chloe said: “I think it could get stressful so it is nice to know it's good to take a break.” Declan added: “I really want to do as well as I can, so learning how about best to prepare was very useful.”