Sixth Form

Mr Pearce, Head of Politics and our Apply Plus programme, offers some top tips for the art of revising well. As we approach Trinity Term and public examinations loom on the horizon, remember that lots of the keys to success are surprisingly simple and manageable. The top tips below come from a wide range of previous pupils who are now off doing brilliant things at university, the workplace, and beyond, but who were once nervously staring at fast-approaching exams just like you are now. Here are their pearls of wisdom on revision … Don’t wait until you feel like it: if you wait until you ‘feel like’ revising, it will likely never happen. Set yourself a start time, and then get cracking. As someone once said, “Just do it”. You’ll feel much more like it when you’ve made a start, and the sense of satisfaction and progress kick-starts an upwards progression. More often than not, positive emotions follow positive actions rather than other way around. Make a plan: having all your topics planned out and assigned to particular revision slots on particular days is really useful. This is the only way you can be sure that you have enough time to get through everything, so make a plan and do your best to stick to it. Be kind to yourself too – “no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy”, and precious few pupils stick perfectly to their revision aims: but the very act of making a plan helps you take control and measure your progress as you go along. Revise actively! My old biology teacher at school always use to say his number one, most magical, most sophisticated and most earth-shattering revision tip was… “use a pen”. Underwhelmed? So was I. But it’s fundamental: simply ‘reading over’ information is not an effective way to get it to stick in your brain. So use a pen – or whatever other format you’ll use in the real exam – and revise actively! One of the most effective ways to do this is to make a great set of notes on each topic, then make notes on your notes, then condense them down until the whole topic is summarised on a single side of A4. Other great active revision tools include the highly recommended “write, learn, cover, test, check, repeat as required" method, as well as good old flash cards, mind maps, posters and mnemonics. Find what works for you, but always revise actively . Sit at a proper desk: I once tried ‘revising’ in the sunshine because it was a nice day. It didn’t work. The temptation to revise on your bed or on the sofa can be strong too, but the only place for really focused work is a proper table or desk. After all, it also replicates the real exam situation better, so it’s win-win. Use a countdown clock: at the start of a work session, set a countdown timer for the amount you intend to do. Start the timer and start working, but STOP the timer whenever you do anything that is not actually revision… making drinks, organising your folder, going to the toilet, and so on. This will focus your work time on productive work more effectively, which, in turn, will also ensure you get better time off; work should be work, rest should be rest, play should be play. The more effectively and efficiently you work, the better your time off will feel too. Avoid distractions: we all know the dangers of procrastination, where we put off work until we’ve tidied our room or decorated our revision timetable. Outright distraction is even more dangerous, so you need to be ruthless: turn the music off (unless it truly helps you learn), leave your phone in another room entirely, and bring a supply of snacks and drinks to your desk so you don’t have to make that lengthy trip to the kitchen. And remember, if you find yourself getting distracted, stop the clock, because you’ve stopped working! Take short breaks: your brain can’t focus on difficult revision for any more than an hour in one go, possibly even less. Find out what works for you, but 30 minutes solid revision followed by a 5-minute break is often a good pattern. Practice papers / questions: this is crucial! You’re spending all this time gaining knowledge, but we all know the painful truth that your beautiful hard-earned knowledge isn’t worth very much if you can’t apply it to the exam questions. Like any great sportsperson, you don’t just need power: you need technique to enable you to get the most out of that power. In exams, knowledge is power, but we need to know exactly what the examiners want us to do with it in the exam. So: practise lots of timed exam questions, and use mark schemes to help you assess how well you did. Ask your teachers to mark them too – it’s the sort of thing we really like because it shows you’re doing all the right things! Stay healthy – sleep well, eat well and exercise: it can be tempting to go ‘revision crazy’ around exam time… “I’ll sleep when exams are over!” But revision is a very brain-hungry activity, and your brain is an energy-hungry machine: it needs servicing and maintenance to keep it in tip-top shape. The reality is that the right balance of sleep, healthy eating, exercise, connecting with friends and having some fun become more rather than less important during exams. Did you know that doing exercise makes the knowledge you’ve revised stick in your brain better, even if the exercise comes after the revision session rather than before it? Make these good things happen. You’ll be infinitely more effective at revising if you’re keeping yourself well. Balance is key: here’s the equation: rest without work is less fulfilling, less rewarding and less fun. Work without rest is less productive, less effective, and more stressful. All performers, from Olympic athletes on the track to world-class musicians on the stage, know that no success comes without serious hard work, but also that appropriate rest is essential for growth and strength. If it’s good enough for them… Not all of these suggestions will suit everyone, but the most important thing for everyone to remember is that you need to be organised, balanced and disciplined when it comes to revision. After all, revision lasts just a little while – but the qualifications you stand to achieve last a lifetime. Make the most of revision time, and we look forward to seeing your smile on results day. And if you need us before then, reach out – to your tutor, your teachers, your Head of House, or the Wellbeing Team: we’re all here to help!

This morning in assembly Head of UCAS, Mrs Warren, spoke to pupils about ‘squiggly careers’ and got them guessing as to what some of our the staff at Norwich School might have done before or since working at Norwich School… “I have three primary school age children. Sometimes they talk about what they want to ‘be’ when they’re older. This ranges from reasonably credible suggestions to totally unrealistic ones – my middle son currently plans to be a professional footballer and cricketer playing for England at the same time as also playing rugby for Scotland (and we’re not Scottish!). The reality is that most of you will be in paid employment for about 45 years. Technological advances and changes in society mean that it is unlikely that you will have one career, working in the same field for your whole working life as perhaps your parents and grandparents have done so. Further development of AI will mean that some current jobs are no longer needed whilst creating ones that don’t exist at present. As well as teaching Biology here, I am Head of UCAS so support Norwich School sixth formers as they apply to university. A phrase that I frequently hear on UCAS training events is ‘squiggly careers’ – this is the idea that most of your generation will move between different careers in your working lives. The idea is that you develop skills as you spend a number of years working in one field and then use these transferable skills whilst also developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge when you change to working in a different area. I’d like to encourage you to embrace this idea and explain what it might mean for you as you make decisions for your future in the next few years. My own career to date hasn’t been particularly ‘squiggly’ – apart from one year out to row in the Commonwealth Regatta, I have loved being a secondary school teacher for just over 20 years. However, several other Norwich School staff have had more ‘squiggly’ careers – I wonder if you can work out who each of the following are. I also wonder if you can pick up links between each person’s various careers, seeing how they will have been able to transfer skills acquired in their earlier career(s) to their role now at Norwich School: This teacher worked as a journalist, becoming a sub-editor for the Daily Telegraph. He then trained as a ski instructor then taught English in Italy before doing a History PhD. Now he is Head of History here …. Dr Cornell After university, this teacher got a place on the John Lewis graduate training scheme. This trained them to do various management roles, including running the perfumery and cosmetics department of John Lewis Milton Keynes. They then transferred to the John Lewis IT graduate training scheme working as an IT analyst and programmer before becoming a Geography teacher with various other positions of responsibility …. Mr Hopgood This teacher worked at the Met office after his Environmental Science degree but now teaches Maths and is Head of Valpy ….. Dr Richardson Another teacher was a youth worker before having various roles at Aviva such as call centre manager and community affairs manager. They’re now one of your deputy heads…… Mr Rowlandson This final one’s a member of support staff rather than a teacher; they worked at the Dorchester Hotel in London before working for Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley’s film production company, living in Dallas and LA. They then came back to Norfolk and started their own PR and Marketing agency before becoming Director of Marketing and Communications at Norwich School….. Mrs Stevenson There are others with squiggly careers who used to teach at Norwich School and have moved onto other careers after teaching: Mr Watts was a city lawyer, then taught Politics here and is now an army chaplain. After a couple of decades of teaching Maths and Sport, Mr Berwick converted several barns into holiday lets, doing almost all of the construction work himself and now manages the lettings. An ON, Miss Turner, taught Geography here but now lives in Greece where she is executive director of the Ionian Environmental Foundation. She works with NGOs to balance economic development of the beautiful island Paxos with marine and land conservation. So please don’t stress, thinking you need to pick one career for life now. Yes, you have to make decisions about your future – which GCSE options should I choose? which A level subjects? what work experience should I try and organise? what should I apply for after Norwich School? But you are just picking options for the next step, you do not need to choose one career now and you may well have a ‘squiggly’ career that involves working in a number of sectors. So, make one decision at a time and I would recommend bearing in mind three things when you do so: 1) What do you enjoy? 2) What do you think you’re good at? 3) What do those who know you well recommend – your subject teachers, your close friends and your family It’s exciting to think of what each of you will be doing in ten, twenty, thirty years time; I wish you all the best.