If Year 10 pupils are swifter than ever completing their homework, it could be due to the acquisition of excellent techniques from The Life Skills Company who fired their enthusiasm for independent learning on Tuesday 4 November. On a half-day course, girls were taught memorising techniques such as mind mapping and encouraged to be open-minded about trying new methods. They can condense using the Trident method (colour, capitals and underlining to enhance the effect).  They considered how best to review notes for 5 minutes, the same day, the next day, 7 days and 30 days later and the effect it has on the amount of information you remember. The year group and tutors also discussed ways of dealing with stress, distractions when working and what they could do about it.

There were many lovely comments in evaluation:

I liked the balance between the teacher talking to us, activities and films because I learnt effectively like this.

It was fun and inventive – made us think and do things in a different way.

It was great – made learning fun!

It really focused on what we need help with.

It was interesting and informative – I learnt a lot about how to improve my studying

It helped me realise what helps me revise and what doesn’t!

It gave me new and easier ways to revise as usually I find revising difficult

I liked the way we got try out all the techniques we learnt

Showed lots of different methods so that you could find several good methods that suit you

It made me think about new ways of learning effectively

The teacher was really enthusiastic and there were lots of useful tips

Speed reading this will have been good practice, and there will be plenty of opportunities to develop all these skills in the months ahead.