Prepare to Perform

Supporting Year 13 students in preparation for A Level exams

26th February 2019

To begin: a few questions for you allStudents, have a brief discussion with your parents about the answers to the following questions… it is important to be honest!

★ How confident do you feel about your upcoming exams?

★ Do you feel you are managing to stay on top of revision?

★ How are you managing yourself? i.e. sleep, nutrition, exercise, hydration, etc.

Parents, now it’s your turn...I would like you to THINK about the answers to the following questions, you don’t need to share these:

★ Are the answers you have just heard as you expected? ★ Do they match your own feelings about your child’s wellbeing and

approach to exams? ★ Do you worry about their success or wellbeing to the point where it

makes you feel anxious or stressed? ★ Do you worry about projecting this onto them, adding to their own

stresses?

It is highly likely that everyone in this has some level of stress surrounding these things, ourselves included! However, the key is to think about how we channel that into something positive!

What is Prepare to Perform?

Staying calm, feeling good, being effective

✓ A toolkit to help your child control different aspects of their life to help them perform better when it comes to exam time

✓ It will allow them to focus, set themselves a plan and work towards being prepared in the best possible way

How can you help your child and prepare them to perform?

Each day you can support your child to

make choices which can impact how they perform during the exam period

These decisions are made across a wide range of areas including;

● Nutrition● Sleep● Exercise

● Methods of study

What doesn’t work is popular

• Rereading

• Highlighting & underlining

• Summarisation

• Keyword mnemonics

• Imagery for text

What works is less popular

• Self-testing

• Distributed practice

• Interleaved practice

The spacing effect

100% retention

50% retention

No retention

1st review 2nd review 3rd review 4th review

Optimal intervals for retaining information Time to test Optimum interval between study

sessions 1 week 1-2 days1 month 1 week2 months 2 weeks6 months 3 weeks

1 year 4 weeks

Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19, 1095–1102.

You have to allow the brain to forget information in order to be able to recall it more easily when you need it…

Some useful revision toolshttps://www.senecalearning.com/

https://www.senecalearning.com/

Being a role model As teachers we often model/demonstrate the ways we want students to write or approach a task...the same is applicable for you as parents:

• Planning for the week & being organised• Keeping hydrated & leading an active life• Staying calm & trying to sleep well

Share a strategy that works for you when you need a break or to decompress...

Goal Setting • Encourage them to keep their

goals planner visible – e.g. printed and displayed on their bedroom wall

• Help focus them and talk to them about their goals regularly

• Give positive reinforcement• Connect with them about ‘what’

and ‘why’ they want to achieve these goals

Keeping Active 60 minutes per day

After exercise the brain functions really well, so it is a great idea to plan short revision sessions around some form of physical activity.

• Encourage them to try to keep active on a daily basis & help them plan this around other commitments

• If possible plan to do something active together on a weekend, e.g. walk the dog, or jog to the shop

Healthy EatingAsk the students to talk you through what they have learned about brain food and the best nutrition to help them at this stressful time.

Use the Mark Lloyd recipes and meal planner as guidance

• Plan your family meals together for the week

• Aim to eat clean, fresh and healthy foods

• Have a couple or ‘treat’ meals per week if possible

• Encourage them to eat breakfast everyday

• Hydration is key to brain function so make sure students carry a bottle of water with them

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ug_W9HYHAyGqYUGtiQEEkxwihs98_IU1

Taking Time Out

Encourage them to build in opportunities to take some time out every week, away from study. For example:

• Going out for food• Seeing friends• Having a bath• Listening to music• Reading a fictional book• Watching Netflix!• Going shopping • Going to the cinema

Sleep PatternsYoung people need between 8 – 9 hours sleep per night and this has never been more important than around exams.How can you work together to help create a relaxing evening routine?• Make sure meal times aren’t too late at night• Avoid caffeine or sugary drinks late at night• Stop working/revising early enough to wind down• Encourage switch off from technology at least an hour

before bedtime

Unplugging

✓ Encourage them to unplug from technology everyday

✓ Make sure they put their phone away, & on silent, while they are concentrating on tasks / revision / homework

✓ Choose some time each day/week to switch off and unplug from technology with them

Staying Cool & Calm

Tensions are going to be high and this can make it tricky to negotiate the best approach with students, it can help to consider some of these things:

• Create a relaxing environment for your child, and one that is conducive to working effectively

• Share coping strategies to deal with their stress• Give them positive distractions away from studying to help promote a

balance• Help them understand their stress & to focus on controlling the controllables• Pick your battles!

Positivity

• Give them positive reinforcement and boost their confidence as often as possible.

• Celebrate successes and reward them e.g. if they have achieved their mini-goals

• Set achievable expectations• Show them how proud of them you are• Reflect on revision and mock performance in a positive

way - use everything as a learning experience and as a vehicle for progress.

Do what only you can do…

As much as we might want to (or not!) none of us can take the exams for them… however hopefully this evening has been useful in suggesting some other ways we can all work together to help them succeed.