The Examination Season (and tips on how to do well)

It’s that time of year again when students across the country are busy revising for their examinations. GCSE and A level students (as well as university undergraduates) enter the examination room hoping for successful outcomes. So I read with interest an article recommended by Kate Kieres from Pennsylvania (@KateK76) highlighting the benefits of drinking water in exams. A study by the University of East London of 447 students indicated that those who took water into the exam  room— and presumably consumed the water — did better in the exam than those who did not. Chris Pawson from the university, who led the study, comments “The results imply that the simple act of bringing water into an exam was linked to an improvement in students’ grades”. He suggests that water consumption may have a direct physiological effect on students’ thinking skills as well as alleviating anxiety during the examination. Of course good preparation is also the key to success.  Do have a look at our revision tips for KEHS students and good luck to all of our girls in the external examinations.

How Good is your Memory?

Apparently one third of British people under the age of 50 cannot remember their own phone number, according to a study conducted by the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin in 2007.

For those who have excellent recall skills there is actually a World Memory Championships, which  Joshua Foer took part in recently and which is chronicled  in his bestselling book ‘Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.’

Success in examinations requires excellent recall skills and courtesy of the website ‘Ace Online Schools’, listed below are 10 sites to help to test your memorising skills.

• BBC: Explore Your Memory: Test your memory in a battery of tests   involving shapes, colours, pictures, numbers, patterns and more during   this 20-minute exercise from the BBC.
• BrainCurls.comMemory Q’s: See how well you can remember sequences of numbers,      letters, tones and bars.
• Braingle Memory Tests: How many numbers, letters or words can you  remember after looking at them for a brief period of time?
• Brain List Channel Word List Recall: Test your short-term verbal memory by memorising 15 words.
• The Cognition and Language Laboratory Memory Test: A 3-minute quiz that tests your short-term memory of visual objects.
• Essex University Online Memory Experiment: See how well you can memorise      sequences of numbers.
• JakeMandell.com: Not only test your audio memory, but also find out if you’re tone deaf.
• Memory Loss Online Memory Self-Tests: Test your verbal and facial memory in  two 10-15-minute experiments.
• Test My Brain: Test your memory of numbers, words and faces in a 15-minute quiz.
• Zefrank.com Memory Test:  Like the game Memory, but with animated patterns. Can you beat the average score?

So, how good is your memory?

Looking into the Future

As a teacher of History I spend much of my time encouraging students to review and reflect on the past; helping them to make judgments and draw conclusions about significant events that have taken place both in the recent and more distant past. We have taken the theme of ‘Past, Present and Future’ for the forthcoming edition of High Profile (which is likely to be published in February). Charlotte Greig has written an article focusing on predictions about the future that proved to be completely inaccurate. Charlotte writes:  The chairman of IBM said in 1943 that he thinks “there is a world market for maybe five computers.”  1943 was the year when the first portable FM radio was designed, so at this point this statement seemed fairly realistic.  In terms of computer technology the statement proved to be so completely and staggeringly wrong!

This article in the New Scientist makes for quite interesting reading: Can Science fiction Predict the Future? But if you want a really fantastic site when thinking about predictions for the future check out IBM’s 5 in 5 site

A History of Christmas

It’s December 23^rd 2011 and this evening I am looking forward to a lovely Christmas meal at a local restaurant with my family. Having had a look through some of the recent tweets appearing in my timeline this morning, I came across a number of articles focusing on the history of Christmas; the two that most caught my eye were entitled: ‘Did the Romans Invent Christmas?’ and ‘Lords of Misrule: The Puritan War on Christmas 1642-1660’.

So having read both of these articles I am now equipped with a number of interesting facts.

• Saturnalia was a Roman public holiday celebrated around December 25th in the family home.
• Gifts were exchanged such as small dolls, candles and caged birds and dress codes were relaxed and executions cancelled; trees were decorated and the wealthy were expected to pay the month’s rent for those who couldn’t afford it.
• During  Saturnalia there were public banquets and declarations of war were put on hold
• The celebration of Saturnalia continued even when the Roman emperors converted to Christianity
• During the 17^th century Christmas was one of the most important dates in the calendar
• During the twelve days of a seventeenth-century Christmas, churches and other buildings were decorated with rosemary, holly and ivy
• Christmas Day church services were widely attended, gifts were exchanged at New Year, and Christmas boxes were distributed to servants, tradesmen and the poor
• Great quantities of beef, ‘plum-pottage’, minced pies and special Christmas ale were consumed, and the people indulged themselves in dancing, singing, card games and stage-plays.
• The Puritans launched a concerted attack on Christmas- many of its traditions were associated in the eyes of the Puritans with popery
• The attack on Christmas was extremely unpopular and perhaps one of the biggest mistakes of the Parliamentarian government
• Traditional Christmas festivities duly returned to England with Charles II in 1660

For more fascinating articles related to the History of Christmas please click here.

Keeping up to Date:September-December 2011

At the start of this academic year I began my Blog posts describing a number of new and exciting initiatives and now, as the term draws to a close, it seems the right time to review some of those developments. Our Moodle VLE has been well used by some of our girls and I am really pleased that it provides an opportunity for parents to learn a little more about all the events and activities that take place in school on a regular basis.

Our new Blogs website really has gone from strength to strength and has proved to be a fantastic way of communicating with parents. Mrs Rutter has done a wonderful job updating, often on a daily basis, all the fund raising activities taking place in school. Our PA have also posted a couple of blogs about their work for the school. My thanks go to all those staff who have posted their blogs this term- Mrs Bagnall has even been responsible for two Blogs on the website!! So an enormous thank you to the staff, and girls, for making the site such a success. We have plans for a number of new blogs in the Spring term !!! So do keep accessing the site in 2012.

I thought I would give everyone a preview of a number of other developments in terms of showcasing the work of the school and the girls. We are about to launch our own  YouTube Channel with films and podcasts made by the students.

We now have a new Flickr slide show so girls can view all of the latest images of trips and productions. And last, but not least, we now have our own dedicated Twitter feed just for school events, many thanks to Old Edwardian Harriet Dyke for tweeting and keeping everyone up to date with KEHS activities and successes.

So it’s been a busy, enjoyable and productive term. And there is so much more to look forward to in 2012! Hope everyone has an excellent break and a well deserved rest over the  Christmas holidays.

Written on the Heart by David Edgar

On Saturday I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the afternoon at the RSC watching David Edgar’s new play ‘Written on the Heart’-the
story focuses on the creation of the King James Bible published in 1611; it’s quite a challenging story and it takes a while to get to grips with all of the main characters in the play. The play centres mainly on Lancelot Andrewes, one of the 53 clerics, charged with the task of putting together a definitive version of the Bible which would hopefully bring peace to the realm of England
following the destructive years of the English Reformation.

And so we are transported back in time to 1536 and the prison cell of William Tyndale who has produced a portable translation of the New Testament for the common man- his reward is to be executed for heresy. In 1586 we witness the confusion of the common man as the different Tudor rulers issue contrasting injunctions and clerics undertake visitations to ensure the new guidelines are being followed. The impact of the different religious teachings leads to confusion and executions- all in the name of faith and religion. The final
scenes are perhaps the most haunting- even in a literal sense with Tyndale appearing as a ghost ensuring that Lancelot Andrewes questions and reviews his own actions. I would recommend this play to students of history as it vividly brings to life the turmoil of the English Reformation as well as chronicling the way in which the King James Bible became a part of English History.

Further Reference- David Edgar: The King James Bible Reconsidered

 

Never Forget: Remembering Past Sacrifices

This year is the 90th anniversary of the Poppy Appeal. The first official Legion Poppy Day was held in Britain on 11 November 1921, inspired by the poem In Flanders’ Fields written by John McCrae.

I have recently re-read a number of articles published in History Today. In  one of these Anthony Fletcher has analysed the letters of four men who served during the war, writing home to their loved ones-the letters record the emotions of the men and in some cases show how the soldiers tried desperately to protect their relatives from the horror of the trenches. One of the men, Rowland Feilding, had three daughters before the outbreak of  the war in 1914. Yet, at 44, he was keen to see action, and obtained a commission in the Coldstream Guards. He had an agreement with his wife that he would not spare her the details of life on the Western Front and as Fletcher comments his letters provide “ some of the most candid and vivid battle reporting in Western Front correspondence.” During the Battle of Loos he wrote: “The ground was strewn with our dead, and in all directions were wounded men crawling on their hands and knees. It was piteous and it is a dreadful thought that there are occasions when one must resist the entreaties of men in such condition and leave them to get in as best they can, or lie out in the cold and wet, without food, and under fire, as they often have to do for days and nights together.” Rowland Feilding survived the war, however one of the other men featured in the article did not-Reggie Trench served as an officer with Sherwood Foresters. He was killed in the German offensive of March 21st, 1918. His letters show a very different approach to that of  Rowland Feilding. Reggie Trench’s letters illuminate the issue of self-control in writing home.  Fletcher states that with Reggie: ‘There was always the imperative to maintain the ‘stiff upper lip’ and not to say things that might worry loved ones. Reggie fed both his mother Isabel Trench and wife Clare with reassuring domestic detail as they neared the lines on March 30th, 1917: ‘We have a good comfortable dugout here quite dry and warm. I had a hot bath in half a German beer barrel tonight.With Clare, in letters every day or two, their daughter Delle’s progress was a crucial bonding mechanism: ‘A thousand kisses to my beautiful daughter,’ was a typical response. To his mother, Reggie was more formal and dutiful, recounting things he had done to make the men a bit happier or more comfortable.’  

Anthony Fletcher makes an important point when he states that: ‘Letters are immediate, recording emotions and experience at the time. Much of the huge published literature about the Great War comes from memoirs written between the 1920s and the 1970s or from veteran testimonies long after the event. The curtain of myth that dominates the constructed account of the conflict………… needs to be torn aside. Letters like these help us to recapture the war as it was fought and felt.’

Reading for the Dark Winter Nights Ahead

October 1983: Finished reading Egil’s Saga!

28 years ago this month, I had just returned to university and had finished reading this particular Icelandic Saga; I barely remember the plot although I had clearly read the book for pleasure as there are no hurriedly written notes or historical references on the yellowing pages of my Penguin classic, all of which would have been present had it been a set text for my medieval history studies. So why have I been drawn back to this particular text all these years later?

This week I began reading a short article in History Today-a fantastic resource for A level students and all lovers of History-about the Sagas of Iceland:

 ”During the 13th and 14th centuries on a sparsely populated, volcanic and inhospitable island at the edge of the Arctic Circle there was an outpouring of literary creativity unparalleled in the medieval world… How a tiny population of Viking settlers came to produce so many fascinating stories is one of the great riddles of literary history. What was it about the experience, culture and attitude of these Icelandic authors that enabled them to create what has been described as ‘the most remarkable vernacular literature in medieval Europe’?” (Janina Ramirez, The Sagas of Iceland History Today May 2011) 

The sagas were copied in manuscripts in Iceland from the medieval period until the early 20th century. The stories were passed down from generation to generation and continue to have an extraordinary hold on local people’s imaginations. In fact recent research suggests  that in Iceland more books are written, published and sold per person per year than anywhere else in the world. The impact of these medieval stories remains crucial even in the 21st century. Like their ancestors before them who wrote about farming, love, war, warriors, kings and knights, death and betrayal-one in ten Icelanders today will publish some form of literature during their lifetime.

So, as the dark winter evenings approach, maybe this is the time to re-read and rediscover the Icelandic Sagas that so clearly captured my imagination all those many years ago!

Teachers are the Priority

At the recent Teaching Schools Induction conference in Nottingham David Hargreaves, Professor at Wolfson College Cambridge, spoke with great passion and insight about the importance of ‘building successful inter-school alliances that transform our education service into a high performing and self-improving system.’ In 2000 the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) at the OECD began tracking academic attainment by the age of 15 in 32 countries.Top of the class was China, followed by South Korea, Finland, Hong Kong and Singapore. The value systems in East Asian countries are in stark contrast to those of the UK, Canada, Australia and the US. Studies have shown that in China and Japan co-operation, fitting in and the broader well being are all valued more highly than competition, personal ability and making a profit. If these value systems have led to such success in East Asia, Hargreaves believes that the teaching school model may lead to improvement in the education system in the UK.

Hargreaves is a strong believer in system leadership  which has three elements at its core:  

 1.value: a conviction that leaders should strive for the  success of all schools and their students, not just their own 

2. practices: actively working with, and in, other schools to help them to become successful 

3.  ambition: choosing a role as a servant leader for the  greater benefit of the education service as a whole. 

The recent article in the Economist entitled ‘The Great Schools Revolution’ provides an excellent oversight of education systems across the world along with a review of the British system and current attempts at reform. However the final summarising points of the article are perhaps most perceptive. “An emphasis on better teacher quality is a common feature of all reforms. Countries like Finland and South Korea make life easier for themselves by recruiting only elite graduates, and paying them accordingly. Mr Gove has said that he wants to raise the degree threshold for teachers and offer “golden hellos” in areas of shortage, like science and language teaching.In schools reform, structural progress—new sorts of schools, re-organised old ones, new exams—can happen very fast. Better teachers take much longer to form. They should be made the priority.”

New Beginnings

The long summer break over, we all returned to school last week looking forward to the new academic year. And there is indeed a great deal to look forward to: new classes and courses to teach-the History department has launched a new A level course, new science labs are in the process of being constructed and a new performing arts centre will be completed in April 2012. We have just embarked on our next five year development plan and our e-brochure-Inspiring Excellence provides a brief outline of some of our plans for the future. We have an exciting new blogs page to help us to communicate more effectively with parents, pupils and the wider community. We have also created a new Moodle VLE for students which we hope will more effectively facilitate online learning. On Tuesday and Wednesday next week I am going to the National College in Nottingham for the launch of the government’s Teaching Schools programme. We are really looking forward to working with our partner schools and extending and developing our work in relation to CPD and teacher training. The design and development phase which takes place over the course of the next 12 months will be an exciting time and in the TES Sarah Evans, Principal of King Edwards, along with seven other headteachers, talks about KEHS and the Teaching School programme and our vision for the future.

“The future depends on what we do in the present” Mahatma  Gandhi