They Got In. Now What?
This week’s reflections 11 plus results came out this month. In grammar school areas, some Year 6 children are celebrating and some are in tears. In the same towns, Year 13 parents are looking at predicted grades and asking how a child who got into grammar school is now on track for a C. I […]
On Autopilot? That’s OK
This week’s reflections The clocks go back on Sunday 25th October. Half term is nearly here and most of the students I speak to are tired. Their parents are tired too. Everyone switches off a bit at this time of year. I want to tell you why that is fine and what to do instead […]
Why Do You Really Want to Be a Doctor? Medicine Applications Close on 15 October
This week’s reflections UCAS applications for medicine close at 6pm on Thursday 15th October. If you’re applying, or if your child is applying, you’ll have gone over the application many times. Before you press send, I want you to ask yourself a harder question. Forget whether your statement sounds impressive. Do you actually want to […]
What TikTok Doesn’t Show You About the PPP Method for A-Level Revision
This week’s reflections There is a trend on TikTok at the moment called the PPP method. Students who got an A* film themselves explaining that they did nothing except past papers. The comments fill up with younger students saying they are going to do the same. I actually had a chat with one student this […]
Would You Say That to a Friend? How Solomon’s Paradox Affects Students
This week’s reflections Have you ever noticed how many people give great advice and then do the opposite themselves? There are doctors who eat too much and never exercise. There are dentists who don’t floss, police officers who speed and financial advisers in debt. There are life coaches and therapists whose own lives are a […]
They Are Not Cleverer Than You. They Just Turn Up.
This week’s reflections I finished my classroom career at a grammar school and people make assumptions about what that is like. They picture a room full of tiny professors. They are children. I spent as much time telling them to clean their shoes and tuck their shirts in as I did anywhere else I have […]
Anyone Can Be a Tutor. Can They Teach?
This week’s reflections Term is underway and the search for a tutor starts. Names gets passed round on WhatsApp groups, a profile looks impressive – loads of A* grades, a price gets agreed and that is it. Very rarely does anyone ask the one question that matters. Can this person teach? Knowing a subject and teaching a subject […]
Something Will Go Wrong in the First Fortnight. And?
This week’s reflections A new academic year starts this week for some of you and the week after for everyone else. Something will go wrong in the first fortnight. A teacher will be absent, a friendship dynamic will change, a lesson will be harder than expected, a sporting injury may happen and many other scenarios. […]
The Mindset Shift That Gives You a Head Start at A Level
This week’s reflections The GCSE results are in and whatever they said, that chapter is closed now and the marks are what they are. The useful question from here isn’t about the grades you just got, it’s about the ones you’re about to go after, because A Level starts in a few weeks and it […]
What an A* at A-Level actually tells you
This week’s reflections Results arrived on Thursday. Some students got exactly what they needed. Some did not. Almost all of them have spent the days since doing the same thing, which is measuring themselves against somebody else. That is the first habit to drop. A friend’s grade tells a student nothing about their own. It […]