There’s always a time in March when all of a sudden the promise of spring seems to gather momentum and become a promise rather than a distant hope. That time was last week for me and, although today's rains were rather persistent, we are definitely into the lighter nights and Mark Twain’s words ‘It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!’ have a particular resonance.
More prosaically, the forthcoming Easter holidays always have a whiff of the impending exam season. It’s the time for revision timetables and counting the days down to the first exam. We’re looking at revision in tutor time this week and next to try to share tips that actually work, but the bottom line is that without the initial and underlying graft, revision won’t be much good! I am forever sharing the old maxim ‘the harder I work, the luckier I get’ which has been variously ascribed to Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Goldwyn and Gary Player. Whoever said it first, there is an obvious slice of truth in the saying. There are lots of good sites which support revision but a good deal is just common sense. Do the work your teachers ask you to and, if you want to excel, do a little bit more. This site:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/student-support/for-students/revision
offers pretty sound basic advice. We also looked at the age old problem of procrastination and there’s no simple answer to this beyond ‘just do it!’
We’re also looking at elements of mindfulness. This has caused some controversy recently. Sir Anthony Seldon, the education guru, has called for ‘stillness sessions’ in schools and more than one secondary school has compulsory mindfulness sessions on the curriculum. The US Marines have mindfulness sessions before combat and Cambridge University is researching into how mindfulness can combat stress. However, Professor Frank Furedi has described it as a fad in an infantilising culture, suggesting that on the one hand we want students to be resilient and accepting of setback and on the other we mollycoddle them the minute we fear they are under pressure.
Whatever the reality we are trying it on a small scale if only to remind students that there can be a world without the clutter and buzz of mobile phone communication and social media. The ping of the notification is now the soundtrack to a lot of family, school and office life. So we continue to have our silent reading sessions and we will be exploring a few more mindfulness techniques. If you’re interested, have a look at this TED talk.
https://www.ted.com/talks/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes
I’ve made contact with another local company and I’m visiting Pinewood UK at their Birmingham Business Park to find out more about their software business and the potential opportunities for Coleshill Students. I find it really refreshing that businesses are reaching out to schools, doing their best to match student talents to their particular needs.
My Six Nations phrase last week was ‘wounded Irish pride’ and they certainly seemed to have the greater will and bite in Dublin on Saturday. The less said about Wales v France the better. Thanks for indulging my rugby comments and I will return to the theme during the Lions’ tour.
