New Year’s Resolutions

During the first week back, we have been thinking about making some New Year’s Resolutions. Here are some of the students in 7.1’s new year’s resolutions.

Emily said:

“A new year’s resolution is a task that you set yourself for the new year. It may include improving your image, health or to be kind to other people.

My new year’s resolution is to be more outgoing and to follow my dreams and be ambitious. I will do this by being more involved in presentations and drama and learn more about being a paediatrician as it is my dream to help children.

I try my best to stick to my new year’s resolutions, but sometimes it is too much of a change and I forget to ease myself into this change.

I think it is good to set yourself a challenge because you realise that you can make and realise a change that you need to make, whether it is to do better in school with subjects or to be kind to your siblings.”

Alex said:

“My new year’s resolutions are to:

1. Exercise more. Because I need to get healthier.

2. Write ALL homework in my planner. Because I’ve been bad at doing it and it will help me get my work organised and in on time.

3. To LISTEN, because I’m not very good at listening.

4. To improve spelling and grammar.

5. To be more organised

6. To help people be kinder, because some people are not very nice.”

Wilfie said:

“My new year’s resolution is to not play Minecraft as much and spend more time with my family as I usually get distracted by technology and games. I have chosen this because I realise how important family is to me and I should respect them more and spend a lot more time with them. I am going to stick to this by going on more trips with my family and getting to know them better. I will also try not to use my phone as much.

Another one of my new year’s resolution is to exercise more as I don’t exercise much currently. I have chosen this as I think it may be fun and will help my health. I am going to stick to this by making a checklist of what to do and listening to my family’s motivations.”

What we are looking forward to this term

We also had a conversation about what we are looking forward to during this term. Some responses from the students are below:

Jago said:

“This term I am looking forward to some of the upcoming themes in L4L such as iROBOT. I am also looking forward to our very own WBCA Academy Awards ceremony, coming soon in our current Silent Movies theme. We are going to create our own Charlie Chaplin style silent movie, as a result of our recent drama teaching, we will be able to use acting skills. Some of the research I am looking forward to doing is looking at some of the other silent movie stars.”

Alissa said:

“This term the thing I am looking forward to is The Oscars Ceremony. We will each have a chance to create a silent movie (as part of our Silent Movies theme) and edit it with LumieLabs, an editing software we experimented with during Curiosity Day with Britannica. This particular event gives us determination to do our best and win an award, it also gives us something to look forward to during our current theme.”

Tips for effective revision

We have also been getting ready for our examinations next week, by considering the most effective revision techniques. Here is some advice from some of the students in 7.1 about revision strategies that work well for them.

Nabeel said:

“I think the best way to prepare for a test is by revision and using websites to help you, such as Mathswatch. This website is effective because it helps you revise the things that you are not confident about or not good at. I would recommend this for other students because the best way to revise is to practice questions and by making lots of notes to help you. Also keep persevering!”

Zion said:

“Here are some quick tips for revision I use and know they are effective:

· Start revising early.

· Plan your revision using a timetable.

· Don’t spend ages making your notes look pretty.

· Set up a nice, tidy study space.

· Vary your revision with different activities.

· Do lots of practice papers and questions.

· Stick revision notes around your house.

· Test yourself for an hour a day.

I also use flashcards which are essentially Q&A cards. You make them by cutting out a small piece of paper or card. You then write the question on one side and the answer on another then you get someone to test you on your questions which will help you to revise.

There are also time saving techniques such as the Pomodoro Technique: The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late

1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.”