Mrs Grant, Assistant Head (Pupil Progress), offers some top tips for revision based on her own experiences! Two years ago I sat an English A-level – my first exams in sixteen years! It was time to put into practice all the advice I confidently give out to pupils every year. So how did I approach the revision? I certainly embarked on ‘proper revision’ too late. I’d been enjoying my lessons happily and writing interesting essays (even this essay technique I began too late really), but had not attempted to commit anything to memory as I went along. English is very different to Physics, which I teach, but the bottom line is that some stuff needs memorising in any subject. So far so not good in heeding my own advice. Once I engaged in the process properly, though, I’d say I did manage to make up for lost time a little! I started by deciding which quotations were worth learning from the texts and from critics etc. I tried to choose a sensible number I thought it would be achievable to learn, and which spoke to the key themes of the texts. If I had started earlier, I would have been able to be more ambitious in the breadth of what I learnt. I then grouped them by text and by theme on index cards and set about reciting them out loud repetitively every day. I would read it out loud, cover it up and try to read it without looking etc. This didn’t take too long so it meant I could try to do this every day in the couple of months leading up to the exam. Slowly I knew just from the heading of an index card that I could recite the whole thing without looking. At that point I put these cards in a different pile – not to be neglected, but ones I knew I had cracked and just needed to keep rehearsing. I was left, in the week before the first exam, with three or four stubborn cards which I was struggling to memorise, but this now felt more do-able. I would walk around countryside paths near where I live reciting them and this helped – walking at the same time seemed to stop me feeling fidgety at my desk and I felt less stressed too. Interspersed with the memorising, Mr Murray (my very patient teacher) also encouraged me to keep planning essays and writing bits of them too. The difference now was that I could try to do it timed, without looking anything up. I think a big danger in English was that, having learnt key quotations, I was sub-consciously very keen to use them and show off these interesting things I had learnt by shoe-horning them into potentially totally irrelevant contexts. This continued exam practice and Mr Murray’s patient feedback helped me to have an internal voice reminding me how counter-productive that would be. I needed to plan a good essay that was relevant to the question and only then reach for things I had memorised to support my plan All of this helped me to feel like the real exam was just this same process again that I was well rehearsed in doing. I had a good sense of how much time to spend planning an essay and knew this would make the writing time more efficient and effective. When using quotations in the real exams I could often picture the bit of my walk I was on when learning it which helped me remember it and helped me to feel calm. In summary then: - Consolidate as you go along. - Be in a room with no tech – a phone that is off but in the same room is still taking up ‘cognitive load’ research has shown. - Have a timetable that spaces different subjects and topics out instead of having whole days or just one subject or topic. - Don’t completely neglect past questions/essay planning when memorising material – interleave these activities. - Schedule breaks and get fresh air and exercise - If you listen to music it should be lyric-free.

Saturday 8 March saw the final race in the East Anglian League against runners from Gresham’s, Ipswich and RHS. The team travelled to RHS to compete in sunny but windy conditions. In the Intermediate Boys, Kort Tsui ran a controlled race to finish 5th and Edward Lott, who has competed in every race this season came home in 7th. For the Senior Boys, our first finisher was Thomas Chester, coming 5th, closely followed by Jeremy Lo in 8th. The team was completed by Arthur Chan, Jacob Stevenson, Ollie Price and Thomas Hsia. Saturday also saw the English Schools’ Cross-Country Championships held this year in Nottingham. Even qualifying for this prestigious event is an incredible achievement. Minnie Andrews raced in the Under 17s and finished in the top 150 runners nationally: the second runner home from the Norfolk team of 8. Samuel Trickey competed in the Under 13s and ran a storming race, finishing 204 th and 3 rd within the Norfolk team. Congratulations to Minnie and Sam.  Well done to everyone who has represented the Cross Country team this season.

It has been an action-packed term for the Netball Club, with a staggering 285 fixtures across the 2024/2025 season, which is testament to the commitment and enthusiasm of our pupils and staff. Lent term kicked off with the U14/U16/U19 National Schools squads preparing thoroughly for the Regional Finals on 1 st February. The U19 team battled to finish as 3 rd best team in the East Region and narrowly missed out on National Finals qualification. The U14 and U16 squads performed promisingly, being one result away from a semi-final place. This is an exciting performance from our Norwich School youngsters, particularly from the U16s, who were all U15 and eligible for next years competition. Post Regionals, there was no let up with weekly and block fixtures coming thick and fast. A particular high-light of the term was notching up victories across all of our A teams against a very competitive Perse School. The terms ends with a win ratio of 88% across our A team squads, and 67% across all teams. We have enjoyed hosting an U13 Development Tournament, U11 Tournament and U9 Netball Festival with nearly 50 teams taking part. The term ended with our usual Junior and Inters Netball Celebration events to recognise the impressive efforts of our amazing pupils this term.  Special mentions must got to the 1 st VII for having an unbeaten season across their regular fixtures, and the U13A team who have a perfect playing record of 24/24 and the U13 County Cup title