Connective-Learning

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If you are feeling very #anxious at the moment then you might want to listen in to this webinar later today from Anxiety UK (official).

So it is day one of our children at home.
This article has some great tips and resources.
Don't forget that you can join in the conversation with other parents on my Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/242141174 7919344/

I work with many students and I love working with all of them. This year I am taking on a young man who is in year 9 and who has just picked his options.
He is an interesting character. He doesn’t sit still and appears not to make eye contact very easily and appears to not be listening. His parents say he is very stubborn and very lazy in equal measures. Doesn’t hate school but doesn’t love it either. They just know he’s bright and could do so well if he could be bothere...d.
My mission is to find a way that motivates him and help him find his revision personality. We have established that he is a tonal kinaesthetic learner with a bit of audio digital thrown in.
It's going to be an interesting couple of years and I am sure there will be highs and lows and we will both learn a lot of new things. With schools closing due to Coronavirus I see this a golden opportunity to get ahead on revision skills. I will help him work through my online study success programme so that when school resumes he is ready to go.
To be honest he doesn’t have much choice in this as he is my youngest son Steven. If I can get him engaged in learning then it’s possible for anyone.
If you have someone like Steven in years 8,9 10 who may well be off school for a while, consider helping them get ahead with revision skills.
Message me for details.
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Spoken to a couple of parents this morning with teenagers in years 9 and 10 who are really worried about how to keep their teenagers motivated in learning through this extended period off school.
The coming months are a great time for them to perfect their study skills and get planning for next year. Perhaps they need to catch up with science, practise their maths ability or make sense of History.
Doing a little bit of study every day or even every other day will keep them a...head of the game for when they return. Otherwise there will be a mountain to climb.
I'll be doing my best to support these teenagers with my online training which I will be updating over the next few weeks.
Need any help, message me below. Help me shape what you need and lets get them school ready, when ever that will be.
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I am known to you as the revision specialist but I also have a degree in Microbiology and Immunology. This means I can help students understand the GCSE science syllabus, and trust me there is a lot of confusion out there. I can help them link Biology to Chemistry and Chemistry to Physics which helps the brain learn the information quickly.
I absolutely love science and I loved my degree so I thought would apply some of my knowledge to the current coronavirus situation.
...Viruses are clever little beings and are like parasites. As they invade the host, eg humans, they infiltrate our cells and use our cellular DNA to replicate. This means they are difficult for our immune systems to recognise and tackle, which is why viruses are a cause for concern. Eventually, our immune systems will catch on and produce antibodies to the virus and it will be killed. Our body having a high temperature also helps kill the virus, hence we will get a temperature with the infection. As this is a virus we have not encountered before our bodies are having to learn the immunity and in patients with a lowered immune system or other underlying condition it may well be one thing too many to cope with.
My understanding is that this virus hits the lungs especially and can cause pneumonia-like symptoms, hence the concern for the elderly and those already compromised.
The panic we have seen over this virus is like nothing else ever recorded and although it is worrying the vast majority of people will have mild symptoms and we just need to make sure those who are vulnerable are well looked after.
From a revision point of view, it really brings the Microbiology sections of Biology to the forefront. I went to Uni to study Microbiology due to the HIV and AIDs virus in the 80’s. So perhaps the upside will be students are more interested in science and that communities begin to pull together and look after each other. However, the next few weeks and months will be difficult for everyone.
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Sometimes it is just a phone call that’s needed for guidance for a student.
I spoke to one parent about her daughter’s differing mock results. One set of results were good and one set were disappointing. We had a good chat and I suggested asking her daughter what she did for each set. If the revision technique was different then that might be the answer.
#TestimonialThursday

Coming Easter 2020 the offer you don’t want to miss. Help your teenager understand how their brain works and what revision tools to use. A special session with me will give them the answers they need to start their revision journey. The fee is £99 and places are limited. Message me to book your place.

Have you joined my Facebook Group called the Learning Coach Collective?
I post daily with ideas on how to help your teenager. I’d love you to join, it’s free and my aim is to offer help and guidance to parents at this difficult time.
Just click on the link below.
... https://www.facebook.com/groups/242141174 7919344/
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Not every student I work with has a happy outcome which saddens me. My aim is to help every student that I meet because I believe everyone can learn. So occasionally I am unable to help. There are two main reasons why this will be the case 1. The student doesn’t want to work with me 2. The parent’s don’t let the student implement what I suggested.
Let me give you some examples. Student 1 came to me just after his GCSE mocks, which didn’t go very well. His parents wanted ...him to at least pass English and Maths. I had a couple of session’s with him and this student really didn’t care about exam results. He already had an apprenticeship lined up and he didn’t need any qualifications. The apprenticeship was in the career he wanted to follow so really no point in his mind to worry about GCSE’s. As a parent I would have liked him to get some GCSE’s but actually he was pretty sorted career wise so I could see where he was coming from. We parted ways and I hope he is now enjoying his apprenticeship.
Student 2 came to me at 13 and wasn’t doing very well in most subjects at school. He was what I call an active learner and we found so many ways for him to revise which meant short bursts of studying, whilst doing a lot of moving around. He loved it but unfortunately I wasn’t able to persuade his parents to deviate from 4 hours a night of study, in silence and writing loads of notes. I tried my best to convince them but had to let him go. I don’t know how he got on in the end.
Its really important to let our teenagers learn in the way that works best for them, even if it’s not how we did it. Not sure what the right way is, then do get in contact and I can help you.
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What practical ways can your teenager deal with the pressure they are under?
The most important thing they can do is breathe. It sounds simple but it really is. When we are stressed and panicking then we forget to think rationally and bypass our conscious thinking. We go straight into our flight/fright/freeze mode. Our primitive brain thinks we are in danger and hence prepares to safe our life. Our sympathetic nervous system takes over and prepares us for battle. Stress... hormones fly around and we can feel light headed, sweaty palms and breathing fast. All well and good if we are facing an escaped Lion but not an exam paper.
The key to calming us down is to get the parasympathetic nervous system to take over. This is commonly known as the rest and digest system and our body begins to relax, our breathing slows down and we can begin to focus.
The key technique to get us into rest and digest is to breathe. There are many way’s to do this but the key thing is to count your breaths. As you count your mind is focussing on this and nothing else. You could do one of the following:
Breathe in for 3, hold for 2, breathe out for 4. Breathe in for 4 out for 6. Breathe in for 6 out for 8.
It doesn’t matter how you do it but generally counting your breathes and breathing out for longer than you breathe in will calm you down.
This is a great technique if you are having trouble sleeping.
Give it a go and let me know how you are getting on.
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Teenager overwhelmed with the amount to learn for #GCSE's?
Don't know where to start with revision, then the online Study Success Programme will teach them how to revise and prepare for these exams. Easy to follow modules and video's and 3 x 1-2-1 coaching calls with Sarah Brazenor, the revision specialist.
Course fees start from £476.
... Message me for details.
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For some students, regular sessions with me are helpful, particularly if there are confidence issues around learning. This is a little snippet from an email I received from one such student’s parent’s. I am working with their daughter to help her confidence as well as help her with revision technique......
I am flexible in the way I work, fitting what I do to your teenager and what they need. Any questions, please just ask me. Happy to help.

I learnt something really important yesterday at a meeting. I wrongly assumed when I introduced myself as a revision specialist that people understood what that meant.
So I was really surprised to be asked by one lady, "what do you teach?" to which I responded with "revision". She then said, "what subject is that in?"
I learnt a very valuable lesson from this. People don't always understand that to learn a subject you need to know how to learn and revise. This in itself... is a subject. Without the correct revision skills students will struggle to learn their subjects for GCSE's.
I don't teach subjects, I teach how to learn those subjects. So if you have a tutor for your teenager for a subject and don't see any improvement in their grades, it may well be they don't know how to learn the information they are being given.
Need any help, just message me below.
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The online Study Success Programme is enrolling now.
It is for #GCSE students who want to learn how to revise and become exam ready in 6 easy to follow modules.
Course fees start from £476 and now is the perfect time to enrol your teenager.
... Message me for details.
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