William Brookes School Blog

Today, both upper and lower Sixth Form students have had almost a full day of learning tips for revision.

The sessions, which were ran by Ed Cooke, covered four key principles:

1.       Reasons to revise

2.       Note taking

3.       Memory

4.       Time Management

Firstly, he covered how to get motivated:

• Take pride in your work.

• Do it for yourself.

• Remember it is beneficial for you to do this.

• It’s a choice that you make and it is an important one.

• Often you find something difficult because it is boring, so make it exciting.

• If you behave like it’s fun, it will end up being fun.

Taking Notes

• One of the best ways to learn and remember something is to use a mind map. To create a mind map you need to use colours, pictures, branches, and key words. Your brain responds much more easily to these things, and finds them more memorable than blocks of text.  

• Mind maps work because you are separating out the information, ordering it and presenting it in a way which is easy to understand.

• Only 10% of the words you read and remember are key words. So when you come to take notes, reduce them down drastically.

• The pictures you use to illustrate mind maps don’t have to be literal. For example, you could use a pot of Jam and an eel for Jamelia. Whatever association the word or thing has for you to stick with, then the more likely you are to remember it.

• Make sure you do the mind map landscape rather than portrait on paper.  

• Mind maps are an artificial way of making information stick out in your mind and make it seem important.

Memory

• Walk around, dance, roll over – imagine characters physically in a space, volcanoes erupting, chemical reactions taking place – whatever you need to remember it. This is called using spatial memory techniques.

• You can also visualise things in different places around your house, school bus, classroom, etc.

• We remember things best at the start and end of a task, so make sure you have regular breaks. Little and often is best in this case.

• Link things into a story if they are hard to remember.

• Visualise everything you need to learn. Remember this does not have to be literal. In fact, the more interesting, odd or quirky the visualisations are, the more likely you are to remember them.

Time Management

• Know exactly when you are going to do something and know this in advance.

• Be strict with yourself and make sure you do it.

• Be realistic.

• Put your phone in another room so you don’t check it all the time.

Good luck with all your revision. We hope these tips help. Thank you very much to Ed Cooke from Inspire for all his advice, tips and techniques.

The 2008 PTA Summer Fair and Pig Roast is not to be missed. There is an abundance of things to tempt you: as always there will be a variety of games, refreshments, music, dance and of course stalls galore! There is a prize draw where you could win 2 tickets to see the Wolverhampton Wanderers play next season. Also, you could have your pet take part in the William Brookes School Pet Show, or you could learn how to make perfect sausages by watching Simon Gibbons’ demonstration.

It is on May the 18th from 12 noon until 3pm. Make sure you don’t miss it!

A Year 11 Student shares her experience of being in her final year at William Brookes School.

“It is coming up to us going on study leave, so many of us are getting people to write in our leavers books. I feel quite sad about leaving; I’m really going to miss my friends and the teachers. I changed schools so I still miss my old school in Coventry, but now I will be sad about leaving another school. I settled down here before the end of my first week.  I’ve felt really safe here. Out of all of the teachers, I am going to miss Mrs Ravenscroft the most; she would always help me and buy my cards. In September, I will be going to T.C.A.T. There are a few other students going there, but they will be doing a different course.”

“I am looking forward to the end of school assembly and the CVS celebration dinner. I’ve already decided what I’m going to wear!”

“If I had any advice for people lower down in the school, it would be that fifth year goes really quickly, so don’t wish the time away and make the most of being with your friends.”

Thank you to Becky for this blog post.  

Mrs Wild’s Design and Technology students are coming to the end of a project to design and make a maze. There has been a fantastic variety of work produced.

One of the year 7 students, Chloe took us through the process. She says, “We were asked to design a puzzle, each of us did four designs based on animals you would see at a farm.  I choose the drawing of foxes, because I like them.”

“The next stage was to measure and saw the wood, to transfer the design and stick the acrylic cover into the wood. We then had to file down the wood and wax it.”

Thank you to Chloe and Alex for sharing their work.

This week Mrs Hudson has several tantalising book recommendations for us to chew on.

The first is the novel she is currently reading, A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. It is the sixth book in a series written by Gabaldon.  It follows the premise that the characters can travel from one century to another. Thus, it has an intriguing historical angle, but is also able to play with this, by bringing objects and medicines from the present into the past. Mrs Hudson says, “This book is pure escapism and will appeal to people who like just that.”

The second is one some students may even be reading now:  it is John Steinbeck’s classic, Of Mice and Men. When Mrs Hudson first read it, she was at school, like many students she didn’t enjoy some of the books she had to study. However, when she read this one, she thought they’d done well.  Thirty years on and the book has stuck with her, she came back to it ten years ago and still thought it was wonderful. She says, “It was the first time I’d put myself into someone else’s shoes. I think it was also the first book that ever made me cry.”

The third and final recommendation is David Niven’s, The Moon’s a Balloon.  Mrs Hudson already had some interest in the actor, and the novel provided some fascinating and funny insights. This book was also her first experience of reading a biography. For her, the interest comes from having fixed opinions or impressions of someone completely changed. Biographies often confirm that the grass is certainly not greener, and do away with ‘celebrity envy’ when we actually see the less-than-perfect  life they’ve had.

Thank you very much to Mrs Hudson for sharing and recommending these books.

This week, the GCSE, AS and A-Level Art, as well as the Year 11 French Oral exams will be happening. Good luck to all fifth year and Sixth Form students doing them. The French oral exams will be taking place until the 7th of May. Please make sure you respect the SILENCE signs outside the science corridor and KSLM offices.

LITERATURE MAP http://www.literature-map.com/ 

This is a great site which describes itself as, ’the toursit map for literature’. You type in the name of a writer you have read or liked and within seconds it makes a visual map of the other writers you may enjoy. You can then click on any of the corresponding names to see which writers relate to that poet, playwright or author. The closer the names are to the centre, the more relevant they are.

Mrs Duke-Evans, our very well read Library assistant has got a delightful selection of recommended reads for us.

The first is A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth.  

She first read it 13 years ago, but the impact of it is still with her. It is the type of book that needs some time put aside for it; therefore, it may be best to read it during the holidays. Also, give yourself time to get into the book, persevere and you will be both rewarded and devastated when you finish it. That’s a promise.

The next book is another Indian novel called A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.

Mrs Duke-Evans says: “This Book blew me away when I read it. I have read some of his other books, but none lived up to this one.”  In the first 50 pages, you are lured into a false sense of security and think everything is fine, then an event happens which changes everything.  It is quite a moving and tragic story, which depicts the brutality of Indian life for poor people.

One of her favourite books is I Capture the Castle, written by Dodie Smith.

She says the book is a gorgeous, charming novel and is a must-read for women. The central character is incredibly engaging and you really care about her. As an additional note with this one, don’t cheat and watch the film: it isn’t half as good.

The best book she has read recently is Belinda Starling’s, Dora Damage.

It is set in the mid-1800s and is about a bookbinder’s wife, whose husband is physically unable to work.  They will either have to go to the workhouse, or starve due to poverty. So, she starts looking for book work, pretending it is for her husband.  She ends up working for a horrible and corrupt group of aristocrats, which at times makes for hard reading. However, her character is so great that you are fully engaged with the story and after reading this Mrs Duke-Evans found it hard to read any other book.

Thank you very much to Mrs Duke-Evans for her wonderful recommendations. If you’ve read any of these books post a comment and share what you thought of them.

The student ambassadors for the ‘New School Build’ have met today with a designer. When we caught up with them they had got several great designs done for their badges. However, when we left there was still a debate ongoing over the colour scheme, so we’ll have to wait and see what they come up with.

Animation is a great way to engage both staff and students. We will soon be having an animation day at William Brookes School. Any students and staff that are interested in taking part should come to see Ms Steward or Mr Crook in the ICT Office, opposite the library. Also, if any parents or carers are interested in learning more with their child then we could arrange an after school session.  

There are many different types of software and types of animation. We are going to focus on stop motion animation. (Which is the type of thing used to create Wallace and Gromit.)  To create a stop-motion animation you need: a camera or video camera, Windows Movie Maker, (which all PCs have) or some other film editing software. You will also need something to animate.   Below are a series of tips by Oscar Stringer.  

Stop Motion Animation

• Keep it very simple.

• Don’t have too many characters.

• Adapt stories that both students and teachers are familiar with.

• Larger objects are easier to manipulate.

Using Models

• Focus on the main feature of the animal or character you are making.

• Keep facial features to a 2 or 3 (e.g. eyes, nose, mouth)

Areas where animation can be used are:

• in team building for staff,

• developing interpersonal/ people skills

• as a learning resource for all subjects

• for creativity in Art

• to improve literacy in English

• for calculations in Maths

One of the benefits of animating is that everyone starts at the same level so it is suitable for students of mixed ability.  

 Filming Tips and Tricks

• The moves in-between each picture don’t have to be too small.

• To avoid the objects you are animating looking like they are twitching then you will need to do the maths and work out how many shit you will need to take.

• To slow down the animation, you will need a pause. You do this be keeping the object/subject still and taking several photographs.

Bringing your animation to life

You make think once you’ve done your animation and edited it that that will be it, but no. One of the key things with any film or animation is the music. Here are a list of useful websites to get royalty free sound effects and music from.  

1. www.findsounds.com
2. www.partnersinrhyme.com
3. www.freeplaymusic.com This music can only be used in school. 

Also, here are some links to free animation programmes

1. StopMojo http://www.mondobeyondo.com/projects/stopmojo/
2. MonkeyJam http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/

Hope these tips help. Any students who have already done some animation please see Ms Steward in the ICT office.