September 2018

From Mr Share: Head of Secondary
Dear Parents and Carers,
We have had a good start to the year and thank you to the many parents who have attended our “how
to be a successful...evenings”. In school, we are working hard at preparing our students’ knowledge
and course skills as well as improving their study skills and learning habits.
Our first parent conference has already given some feedback to our Year 11 and IB2 students about
how to prepare for their mock examinations in January and real external examinations next May. However,
whether you have a child in Year 7 or IB, how children learn and remember things is something
that should be worked on all year round. Our parent conference for Year 7 to 10 and IB1 is on November
1, and our first Grade Card is issued on October 8. See how your child is progressing and help
them at home to build their knowledge and working memory. I just wanted to share with you this month
a very simple picture that is based on the most up-to-date educational and medical research about how
children (and their brains) cope with learning and remembering things.
This very simple-to-understand infographic (see the following page) can help you support your child at
home by encouraging them to test themselves constantly on what they remember (retrieval). Students
should regularly look back at their notes, making flashcards but also mix up the written notes with visual
learning devices such as drawings, diagrams and mindmaps (dual coding). Students learn best by
mixing up learning time and not focusing on one subject for too long. Don’t have a single focus, do a
task of English followed by Mathematics on the same evening/afternoon (interleaving). Your brain likes
to switch between subjects otherwise it starts to learn less.
If you can see how you can apply what is being learned into real-life examples, then greater understanding
occurs (concrete examples). Then try to explain what you have learnt in written or spoken
style (elaboration). The reason to give this information so early in the year is the fact that students
learn best when they space out their learning over time. Every 2 or 3 weeks returning to test themselves
on what they think they learnt 2 or 3 weeks ago (spaced practice) is the most effective way of
ensuring when examination times come; your knowledge is in your brain ready to come out naturally
and quickly. I hope you encourage happy and effective year-long learning at school and home.
Regards
Mr Share
Head of Secondary
headsec@gardenrayong.com