The post The Productivity Revolution: How to Study Smart for GCSE and A-level appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

I’m using the word “tribe” here as I struggle to come up with a better word, despite the risk of this word being open to all sorts of interpretations.

In my three or so decades as a teacher in the English secondary education system, for half of which my role also includes being a parent, I’ve never met a single parent who does not care about their child. Every parent cares about their child, it just we do things in different ways to show how much we care. This is a week in which, globally, so many children have been and are still being killed senselessly. No killing is good but killing of children in particular is difficult to justify under any circumstances.  I’ll leave politics to those who are good at it, as I am not one of those. One thing we must do, however, in this part of the world, is not to take for granted  how fortunate we are to live in a relatively safer part of the planet.

Back to the word tribe, I am using this word to describe those of us, who as parents, place great value on the education of our children, as if it is everything.  It isn’t, of course, but it comes close. After health and food, education comes a close third, and I’m not just speaking about academic qualifications alone. In my categorisation, I put safety and shelter under health.  I will shed more light on certain news items with regard  to education in the next part of this blogpost, and, hopefully, that will help you, as a reader, to try and see how I define this tribe of parents.

As is always the case, there has been so much in the news about education recently. Despite the fact that the adverse effect and legacies of things like COVID and the teachers’ strike linger on, they are not so pronounced at present.

The main items of education news in the media at present are about RAAC, post-sixteen qualifications and school attendance. RAAC affects a tiny number of students and school attendance is not much of an issue for this tribe. This is because they are the type who will make sure their children do not miss school unnecessarily; unless they are in intensive care or something close (an exaggeration!) or unavoidable. The post-sixteen issue is something the tribe keeps a close eye on, and whilst good leadership and direction by politicians are helpful, they’re not absolute, these parents will do their own research and choose the option they consider best for their offspring.

I must say there is not necessarily an ethnic connection to this tribe, as I see people from a diverse ethnic groups subscribing to the values that I am speaking about. The people I put loosely in this so-called tribe are represented disproportionally by those of certain ethnic minorities. In my observation, it is in the order of, first,  East Asians – mainly Chinese people, but others as well, followed by South Asians, Africans, Eastern Europeans, Scottish, Irish and English; however, this is a generalisation and not completely accurate.  This should not be too surprising, as non-native (another colloquial phrase!) or foreigners, tend to be over ambitious in any country in the world you go.

Some of the issues that I think are more immediate to people in this tribe, in terms of motivating their teenagers, is getting them to do what I list below.

1. Put sufficient number of hours into their schoolwork – including homework assignments and revision for exams
2. Be better organised
3. Spending less time on their electronic devices – mobile phone; game machines like X-Box, etc.
4. Better sleep – like going to bed earlier…
5. Learning for the joy gaining knowledge, and not just for passing exams
6. Wanting to work, mainly for the purpose of buying more gadgets!
7. Eating healthier

I must stress that I am not speaking here as an expert, as I am not; and I do not have the solution. In my own household, it is an ongoing thing, as we struggle as parents with these matters. We just try to do our best all the time.

I must say that there are other serious matters that are perhaps more important than what I’ve listed above. Things like mental health and other health issues, abuse of drugs or of others or by others and so on. These areas are where I have zero expertise, so I must not try to address them, as this is better left to other people.

Before I conclude this, I’ll quickly mention one main issue which is beyond the control of the teenagers, and, in fact, well beyond the control of we parents. It is that thing which society has not yet decided to address. But, if dealt with, it will not only save money and time, but will make learning and teaching more fun.

I am speaking about the issue of class disruption. The set of behaviours that are acceptable in the classroom vary from school to school. However, in my view the barrier is set pitifully too low. I recently went to cover a sixty-minute lesson at a grammar school, but my reputation in teaching as a disciplinarian teacher did not prepare me for what I experienced in that lesson.

I was utterly appalled and shocked about the behaviour of the teenagers. If this is happening in a grammar school, God, help us. Of course, it is the teacher’s fault that children are badly behaved, as he or she is lacking in classroom behaviour management skills! At least, this is what the people in the profession often say. We like to blame the government on not spending enough and tinkering around the edges on certain issues. Yes, there is some truth in that but until we recognise the adverse effect of classroom disruption, and its impact on better behaved young people, and we are prepared to deal with it, it will only get worse and ruin more lives. This is too big an issue to address here, but I will be doing so in the future.

In the next few blogpost in this series, I will make an  attempt to address each of the seven or so points that I’ve listed above. This is because these are things that we as parents have a chance of perhaps trying to do something about. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not at all an expert and I have no solution to offer as such, I’d just like to highlight and perhaps share some experiences and ideas.

Please do make a comment, as we are trying to share ideas because every parent has something to say about the points I’ve listed above.

The post The Intentional Parent: How to Advocate for Your Child’s Education appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

I don’t know if the summer holiday in your household is any similar to mine?  I’m beginning to get that familiar feeling, that “the anticipation of the summer is sometimes better than the reality of the actual summer”. This is not about the weather in the UK at present, so I’ll do my best not to dwell too much on that. Considering June was all very sunny, we should know better not to expect our good fortune to carry onto July and August.  I am an optimist, and one of those people who try to pretend that the weather doesn’t matter. Of course it does, as the weather alters your mood, even when you try to ignore it. Anyway, it’s a green and pleasant land after all, and the rain certainly helps to keep it that way!

Back to the small matter of teenagers at home in the summer. On the one hand you can’t help thinking that the teenagers haven’t got too long now to leave the nest and fly away into the world, so you want to spend some so-called quality time with them – if there is such a thing. On the other hand, the idea of finding the fridge empty and so much mess in the kitchen all the time can be rather irritating and sometimes exhausting. One solution is to try and get them to do the at least some of the food shopping and   even the cooking. My advice on that is “don’t try this at home” and, if you have to, give them a list and do not give them your card.

I’m beginning to regret slightly my opposition to my 17-year-old getting a job. My wife is more sensible, as she had perhaps foreseen that the fact that the teenager is not working does not necessarily mean they will be spending their time in a productive way. Yes, relaxation is important and it’s good for the teenager to relax a bit, as that is the way to refresh and re-energise. I’m struggling to get both my son and daughter to buy into the idea of spending some of their summer on self-development and a little bit of revision in preparation for the next academic year.

My idea of productive use of time by youngsters is not all about doing schoolwork, as there is more to life. But one would have thought that if the teenager is not working or volunteering over the summer, at least he or she could be spending time learning a new skill or sport or getting involved in some sort of adventure. I don’t think we parents will ever win the battle against our teenagers spending too much time on their devices, but with my son and daughter, one slight compromise is see them cycling to the gym despite the weather, as opposed to asking for a lift all the time.

The other is to see my daughter being more creative in cooking basic food or just preparing food for herself, and what she makes usually looks rather sensible. That’s never been an issue with my son. In fact, it’s the other extreme, as he spends endless time cooking, and I can’t begin to comprehend how much time he spends making pizza.

One thing that I am learning fast is that bringing up teenagers is more of an art than science. It is putting my creativity and negotiation skills to test, but I’m someone who relishes a challenge and I’ll keep trying and we’ll see how it all pans out.

Over the years, I’ve written quite a bit on all sorts of things that teenagers could be doing over the summer to keep themselves productively engaged.  Please see below for links to some of my previous blogs on the issue of teenagers and their summer holidays.

The post Beyond the Screen: How to Spend Quality Time with Teenagers appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

For me, yesterday was one of those days when events turned out differently than I had planned. I won’t say it is a wasted day necessarily, but I had to invest my time differently from the way I had anticipated, as I decided to go to a university open day with my seventeen-year old son. I had discussed the open day with him the previous evening and he assured me that it was all fine, that he could go with his friends from school. I accepted that decision, as I do not want to be too pushy about asking if I should come with him. In the end, my last minute decision to go with him was something that he appreciated.

I suppose one of the prices we have to pay as a parent is the vulnerability to getting our plans disrupted. I’m not just talking about the teenager eating the last chocolate éclair that I was looking forward to demolishing in my late evening raid!

One of the popular phrases these days when speaking about young people is “follow your passion” and this is often applied to subject choices at GCSE, A-level and all the way to university degree courses. I must say that I agree with that phrase to some extent, but largely, when I hear it, it makes me a little nervous and I’ll explain. Before I explain my scepticism about the notion of following your passion, I must say that I do not think anyone can call themselves successful if they are doing something they hate passionately or have near interest or zero enthusiasm for. No matter how much money or fame they may have doing that thing, doing anything just for the money or just to please other people is the ultimate definition of failure, as life is so short.

Now, let me explain why I think following your passion can sometimes be dangerous and may lead to profound unhappiness later down the line. If you follow your passion and you are not successful in what you do. As for the word success, each person has their own definition of what success means for them. But earning a lot of money or being in the very top bracket of people in your field of work or whatever you do should not be the only thing that constitutes success.

In the week or two leading to the visit to the university open day we attended yesterday, my son had been wrestling with the issue of which degree course he should apply for at university. He has always been leaning on the side of studying something relating to physical sciences and that largely reflects    his subject choice of Physics, Maths and Further Maths. His fourth subject has changed twice since he started A-level last September. He started with History, changed to Economics and he’s now back to History. Three days ago, he was seriously considering going to university to study Economics and he came to me late in the evening to tell me about his decision. Now, while I personally like Economics very much and consider it to be one of the more useful of degree courses, and, depending on the young person’s talent and position and other factors, it may be a good idea to study Economics as a first degree, I am likely to discourage some students from  doing so. Let’s put professional courses such as Law, Medicine and Engineering aside for a moment. I would recommend Maths, Physics, Chemistry and History before Economics as a first degree. After studying any of these seven subjects courses I just listed here, as being above Economics, and even others that I have not mentioned here. One can still go on to do a postgraduate degree in Economics or Business or Management. Yes, even without having studied Economics or business at any level ever before. I must also quickly point out that I also would not usually recommend Law as a first degree, as I am of the view that one is better off studying something else before Law, as it is the university where one obtains the first degree that matters more than the actual degree course, for most courses anyway.

Getting back to where I started, after the open day at Imperial College yesterday, my son is now less sceptical about a Physics degree than he was before going. He was relieved to learn that most people do not go straight from a university degree to get a job in what they have studied. The conversation for the last six or so months has revolved around him not knowing what he wants to do in life, for which I constantly reassure him that it is perfectly normal at this age. The key thing is to develop your talent well and try to study something that gives you more options, especially when you do not know what you want to do. The good thing is that he has a list of about three or four professions that we all know that he is decidedly unsuited to – Medicine, Engineering, Computer Science and Accountancy. The problem is that he likes Economics, Physics and History – in that order – at the moment! The reason why that is a problems is that if you are applying to a competitive university, Physics is on one side, and Economics/History on the other. These are at two opposite ends, and writing a good personal statement that will persuade the admission officer of a good university will be tricky.

Just to conclude on the notion of following your passion, what I say to young people is that it’s good to follow your passion as you are extremely unlikely to succeed in doing something you utterly dislike. However, before you go for your passion, also try to think about   where you want to be in say 10 years’  time. Not only in terms of the job you want to be doing but where you want to be living and perhaps what money you’d like to be earning. No, money is not everything; however, it is more dignifying to earn a decent wage and have more options in life. The other point, which I believe applies to most people, is that not many are so passionate about one particular thing for a long time. For my son, his passion has fluctuated between Maths, History, Politics, Physics and Economics in the last few years. We all go through phases, and what we are passionate about today may not be what we are passionate about tomorrow or in a few years’ time.

Links to related blog posts are below :

The post The Great Debate: Choosing a University Degree: Passion vs Career Prospects appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt brought hope to the American people during the Great Depression.

Like in any endeavour that is aimed at succeeding, there is an element of fear in the minds of teenagers who are taking GCSE and A-level examinations. There are a couple of other F words such as false and failure that are just as bad as fear. 

I suppose we’ve all been there as adults, and the truth is that failure is real, but it is not so helpful to devote too much energy into being fearful. It is more productive to invest valuable resources such as energy into doing what needs to be done in order to thrive.

It is perfectly normal for there to be a tiny bit of trepidation when one is going for something big. Afterall these examinations are the first major tests in the lives of these young people and they have wider ramifications for the future.

What we can do as parents is to help reassure our teenagers at this crucial time in their lives. The reality is that some of us parents are more anxious about the whole exam thing than the teenager who is actually sitting the tests!

It is perhaps more fruitful for us not to show so much anxiety as this can make the teenager nervous, which is not good for anyone. I’m probably as guilty as some other parents on this, as I can’t help myself sometimes. Whatever we do as parents, we have a duty to help calm the nerves and, although it may be difficult, it has to be done.

The most popular acronym for the word fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, and there is a lot in those four words that sums up why young people should not be fearful, as long as they do what has to be done to prepare for their exams.

My seventeen-year old son was fearful of two things at the start of his A-level in the autumn: the volume and content of Medieval History and Mechanics in Further Maths. He finds the content dark and dry in that aspect of the History curriculum and he was not enthusiastic about learning it. He perceived Mechanics to be challenging and feared he may not do as well.

Winding the clock ahead a few months, he now finds many aspects of medieval history fascinating and the mechanics topics are some of his strongest areas in Further Maths.

A couple of months ago, he found himself with two dilemmas: changing school in the middle of the course and taking four A-level subjects while all his friends are taking three subjects. He thought I was being cruel to ask him to do 8 to 10 hours of study over the weekend.

I will sum this up with a quote by the American author and public speaker.

“F-E-A-R: has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours.” — Zig Ziglar.

Please help me in this easy word teaser!

In the next couple or so blogposts I will be using two acronyms – CAN and SMART. I’d like to see if you can help to find a sentence that connects the three acronyms

FEAR, CAN and SMART – I’m trying come up with a sentence that is positive and motivational, using other words to connect the three words (the dictionary meaning of fear, can and smart)

All you need to know is the meaning of each of the three words, and you need not know anything about the acronym.

If you have any suggestion, please send it in an e-mail to SuccessTips@ExcelinKeySubjects.com

The post Mastery Over Fear: How to Overcome Exam Anxiety appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

There are not many things that give me as much pleasure as speaking to parents and teenagers about their dreams and aspirations, and this is a journey that I’ve been on since 1993. It has been largely a tremendous experience and I’m glad to say that it’s been overwhelmingly filled with jubilations; however, it would be disingenuous to say there haven’t been tribulations along the way as well.

The world is full of experts and many of them are very useful in using their expertise to help people solve problems. But there is one particular area in which I believe experts do not exist: parenting. Parenting is a challenge and there is no magic wand. I guess the reason is perhaps it is not a problem that can be solved as such, as every child is different, and it is a very tricky balancing act to manage the emotional roller-coaster that sits at the heart of parenting.

Being a parent is a life sentence. This sounds rather extreme but, if you would allow me, I have a short story to illustrate this. I remember when I was a teenager, my grandfather persuaded my father to buy a car instead of riding a motor bike to work every day, and he was relieved when father finally bought one. The thing is, my father not only kept leaving his car at home and riding his motorcycle to work, it was also made worse for my grandfather as my 15-year-old brother started getting a lift to school (a 35km journey) on my father’s motorbike every day. The relief and happiness on my grandfather’s face, each time my father got back from work in the evening was a joy to see. Having said all this, I can never possibly image life without my children, and I have to confess I’m not really looking forward to when they leave home!

As I said earlier, I do not think there are experts when it comes to parenting, and if there are, I’m certainly not one of those. The only thing I have to offer, which perhaps some parents may find helpful, is to share some of my observations. These are the commonalities and patterns that I’ve seen in the interactions between high achieving teenagers and their parents in the last three or so decades. Yes, people are different and what works for a particular family will not necessarily work for another. However, in any field of endeavour, despite the huge variation in people, their characters and circumstances and so on, there are always a few commonalities among those who do well. Sadly, there are also commonalities amongst those who do not do well. I will focus on the positives here, as it is not for me to dictate what people must or must not do with their children.

In less than three months, many teenagers will face their GCSEs and A-level examinations. These exams are not everything in life; however, there are consequences for underachievement. The least we can do as parents it to do our best to help maximise the chances of our teenagers achieving to their full potential. Not everyone is going to obtain the very top grade, but failure to do what they should do to achieve their potential is doing injustice to themselves.

In the process of helping your teenager to achieve his or her full potential, below are the three or four things I’d like to suggest.

1. Assist your teenager to set a goal in the grade to achieve in each of the subjects. This can be in either the subjects that matter to the teenager or the ones that society values more – probably a mixture of both. It is only after this that establishing where they are and how to bridge the gap can be done successfully
2. Help to create a success environment – both physical and psychological. It could be where they study, the materials they need or the help and support they may need to do well
3. Continuously encourage and reassure them that you are there for them and try to establish a situation of trust, where they feel they can speak to you or someone who will help them to get what they need to succeed. It’s not easy with a teenager but it’s vital
4. If your son/daughter is taking exams this summer, yes, there are just three months to go. Do not think it’s too late, as so much can be done in the period we have left. What is at stake is huge – it is potentially future determining.

I’m not pretending in any way that the above is simple, as it is not, especially when we are speaking about teenagers. There are so many moving parts and each aspect of the above has many mini aspects to it. What I am putting forward here is just a suggestion that you may want to use as a guide. You know your teenager better than anyone else does and you can decide how to implement each aspect, and other things you may want to add.

Happy parenting and speak to you soon.

To the success of your child

Idris Musty

The post Bridging the Gap: How to Motivate a Teenager for School appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

In my last blogpost titled “Should we give Gen Z some credit?” I explored some of the many areas of life in which the so-called Generation Z are much more aware than, perhaps, we older people were when we were teenagers. Here, I am going to pick one of the five or so areas that I listed and go a little deeper into it.

The environment is certainly a topic which everyone knows one or two things about; however, it can be argued that young people know more than adults when it comes to this crucial issue. Although young people do not read The Guardian or The Telegraph or listen to the BBC, they are exposed to the issue in the news about the environment. They learn through various subjects in school such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and so on. I’m not at all into social media but I suspect teenagers also hear about the debate on climate change via social media platforms and YouTube. There is a focus on climate change and global temperature rise in the media at present. Surely, all young people in this part of the world have heard of the name Greta Thunberg – the Swedish teenager – who is the face of the environmental campaign. No one on planet is a better marketer for the course of the environment change and global warming than Greta and one of her phrases that I found very powerful was “Blah Blah Blah” as she mocked the politicians in a serious way during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.

I must not claim to be a saint when it comes to the issue of the environment, as I don’t think I’m doing anywhere near enough to reduce the negative contribution I make to global warming. I shamefully, like many adults, drive a gas guzzler and keep saying I’ll do something about it one day. Yes, I try not to drive much, but to walk and cycle at times, but I can still do more. My excuses range from I can’t afford an electric car to I live in a largely rural area, where it often snows and floods and all that Blah Blah Blah!

I often get reminded by my soon-to-be-fifteen teenage daughter about the impact I am making by driving a car. I’m not going to mention the fact that she often reminds me of what a polluter I am when I am serving one of my main purposes as a parental, which is to act as a taxi service and drive her to her friend’s place and all that.

As I write this, COP27 is taking place in Egypt and, in just the last two weeks, environmental campaigners, some of them teenagers, have been mounting a blockade on the M25 and other big roads. However, I’m not going to go into whether these environmentalists’ actions are justified or not, as this is not the point of this blogpost.

A lot has been written, quite justifiably, about how the tax system, government allocation of public funds and, more importantly, the borrowing and accumulation of huge debt that we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren to bear the burden of paying off in the future.

Despite my son often saying to me that I am too conservative on certain issues, and that I fail to understand that this is the 21^st and not the 19^th century, I have a lot of sympathy for the plight of young people.

I remain optimistic that they are growing in knowledge and awareness and are building up the skills they need to solve the problems that we are all creating and leaving for them to resolve.

I often remind my son and daughter of how privileged they are for living in this century, and also in a part of the world where they more or less take everything for granted. They usually tell me to accept it, as it’s not their fault that they were not born in the poorer parts of Africa, South America or India – which are most parts of those countries.

I am an optimist and I believe there is a bright future that lies ahead for young people. My main hope and prayer is that the future will be one in which there is a drastic reduction in the gap between the haves and have nots; I like to be hopeful that the wealthier countries will be much more generous and sincere in proactively promoting and encouraging good governance and a better quality of life in the poorer parts of the world.  The success of Information Technology has made people aware in all parts of the world of how others live.

What I am certain of, is that the status quo is not sustainable, as the chasm in income and quality of life, which is being made worse in the poorer parts of the world by behaviours in the richer parts, cannot prevail for too long.

I’d like to quote a phrase from Otto von Bismarck, who said “What we learn from history is that no one learns from history”.

Without diving too deep into geopolitics, the major events we are seeing before our eyes in various parts of the world at present are a testament to the notion of man failing to learn from the past. In this world, there is too much distrust and too much me, me, me, and less of them, us and all.

I am hopeful that, when they take charge in the future, young people’s awareness in the richer places of the quality of life in different parts of the world will prompt them to run the world better than it is at present. I’m speaking about doing so in a way that there is a much better quality of life for the overwhelming majority of people all over the world. This is a huge and extremely complex task, but I am optimistic.

In my next blogpost I will discuss one of the points I listed in my first blogpost in this series, which is how well young people are exposed to people of different cultures.

Please see here for the last blogpost – the  first in this series – https://excelinkeysubjects.com/should-we-give-generation-z-some-credit/

The post Leading the Change: Environmental Sustainability in Education appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

The above points are only the beginning when it comes to the shortcomings that young people have. However, this article is not about focusing just on the negative side but it will also try to look deeper with the aim of celebrating the positive side in young people.

Although I will be talking more about the education side of things; however, one must also appreciate that academic education is just one aspect of what young people need to thrive. There are other aspects that are almost just as important in facilitating adulthood filled with fulfilment, happiness and success – whatever constitutes success for the individual. It is about getting the balance right as there is no single aspect of life in itself that is sufficient to make one have a perception of fulfilment.

One thing to admire is the resilience that young people demonstrated during the COVID lockdown. The loss of time with their friends, which is a big deal for the very young in particular, is something that must not be underestimated. For many, staying in doors for that long was the complete opposite of what they were used to prior to the pandemic and it must not have been easy for them.

Another area in which young people have coped very well is the never-ending pressure to achieve academic success, a notion which has been a salient feature of family life for the last three decades or so – particularly in the South East of England. Before I move onto the next point, I must acknowledge that, sadly, not all teenagers have coped very well with the two key issues above.

There is not enough time in this piece of writing to go into every detail about each of the areas in which young people deserve some credit and acknowledgement. However, I will make a list of just a few areas in which I believe the young people of today are having a much more enriching experience than I had when I was growing up. For some of these, it is either the teenagers are very good at coping or have more awareness, and in some cases, are actually being more proactive in doing something about it.

1. The environment – awareness of the impact of our actions on our surroundings.
2. The ability to perceive everyday life in the context of what they learn at school.
3. Questioning of certain norms – with rational and valid arguments.
4. Exposure to people of different cultures.
5. Emotional intelligence.
6. Use of everyday technology.

In a series of blogposts to follow this, I will go a little deeper and try to explain each point in the list above.  

I concur that one or two of the above points are not completely positive and there are demerits in some of these aspects. One is technology, as advancement of information technology has given very easy access to online media, what some have experienced has not been so positive. Another demerit is wasting time online, and in many cases, this is done at the expense of in-person interaction with friends and family. Too much social media messaging and video watching online is not restricted to valuable entertainment or knowledge. It is often the case that four members of a family are travelling in one car and they are all engaging with four to six different media at a time. Yes, in some cases, one person may be engaging with two media platforms at a time. For example, watching something and listening to something else.

Before I drift too far into the whinging territory, let’s get back to the positives! There is more information available to us now about what to do and what not to do to protect the environment and make the world a safer place to live in, and young people are more aware of this than any other generation. They are also more emotionally intelligent, and more in tune with their minds and how certain things may impact them positively or negatively. In addition, they learn a lot about other cultures either by reading or through social media and are more open than their parents to people that may be different from them. Also, many Gen Zs have a reformist mindset and believe that there’s always a better way of doing things, especially when the ‘old way’ may not be working or yielding positive results anymore. They are not afraid of change and trying out new things or new ways of doing things. Even if they are afraid of failure, they venture anyway, doing it afraid.  Now, that’s not something that can be said of many people of the older generation!

On another note, whilst I am a dreamer or perhaps an idealist as well, I’m also aware that sadly, the improved education attainment that has been well documented is not being experienced by children in all parts of society. There is a growing prosperity gap in society between the Haves and the Have Nots. If you will permit me to generalise for a moment, it is apparent that certain demographics of society are not making as much progress as the others. The widening gap in both education attainment and income are a concern that the society must address if it is to prosper.

For a healthy society, prosperity must exist in a way that doesn’t leave too many people in society too far behind, as this in my view, is not sustainable. I understand that sadly, there will always be destitution in human society. No matter how much society tries, for one reason or the other, some people will be condemned to a life of poverty. In many cases, it is not due to natural causes, but simply because they are not willing or are not able to do what it takes to have a better standard of living. There isn’t much any government or community can do to completely stamp out poverty. However, not trying to help those who are struggling is not an option. Society must not only care but be very proactive in helping to give helping hands to those who are lagging behind. We owe it to everyone, including ourselves.

Some of the issues that the young people of today will have to deal with as adults of tomorrow will be different from what we have dealt with or what we are dealing with at present. The human society is evolving all the time, and some of us are more fortunate to live in a part of the world in which there are more possibilities than in other places.

I am an optimist and I believe that despite the gloom we hear in the media, the future is bright and young people of today will thrive. The knowledge, skills and experience that they are developing now, together with the vast resources that will be available to them in the future will allow them to prosper.

In my next few blogposts, I will go a little deeper and try to expand on each of the points I’ve listed above as positives.

See here for the next blogpost in this series – https://excelinkeysubjects.com/generation-z-and-environmental-awareness/

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1. High GCSE grades are needed in Maths and English and also in the subjects the students want to study in order to be admitted into a good school or sixth form college to study A-level or the IB.
2. Most top universities now take GCSE results into consideration when considering candidates for a place on their degree courses.

The two criteria above are relevant for young people who are keen to study at a top university. The less reputable sixth form colleges and universities are less fussy about grades, as the bar is lower. There is a merit in going to university and all university education has a value in life. However, it is important to be aware of certain key pattens:

1. Obtaining a degrees from certain universities significantly increases job and career prospects. However, those top universities require high grades and have a stronger preference for certain A-level subjects, although they do not broadcast this explicitly
2. Not everyone will achieve a Grade A in all subjects and gain admission to one of the top universities such as the Russell Group; however, it would be a shame for the teenager not to try hard enough to achieve their full potential in all the subjects they take. For some young people that is an A grade and for others it may be Grade C.
3. The two main post-sixteen academic qualifications in England are A-level and IB (International Baccalaureate). There is also the Cambridge Pre U, but this is extremely uncommon and is only offered by a small handful of Public Schools (top private independent schools), and perhaps some grammar schools.
4. BTec is a vocational and not an academic qualification. Yes, almost all universities list BTec as acceptable as an entry requirement. In reality, however, students who study BTec before going to university usually struggle, and there is a high drop-out rate – particularly at the more reputable universities. This is because the courses are designed with A-level or IB (International Baccalaureate) in mind, and not BTec. It must be noted, however, that some young people are better suited to BTec, and they will do well by studying this qualification.

Below is a list of A-level subjects that I recommend that every student should do at least two from.

1. Maths
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Further Maths
5. History
6. English (-any of Literature, Language or Lit/Lang)
7. Biology
8. Languages, such as: first category – French, German, Latin, Japanese, Chinese and Russian. There are other languages, which I call second category, such as Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, but I recommend the ones I’ve listed in the first category first.

One final point I’d like to make is that, on the whole, young people do better if they study A-level at a school or a further education college. This is a generalisation, but it holds very well in most cases. Having said this, there is a handful of sixth form colleges that have a good track record of students who achieve top exam grades.

I must clarify that the above list is my own humble opinion, based on my observations over many years, in which I have played a small role in teaching or managing teams that teach successful teenagers in mainly grammar school and independent schools.

Below is a link to a couple of places on our website, that you may find helpful

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Competitive Advantage in University Admissions

Just in case you think the title of this blogpost is rather dramatic, here is a headline from The Times website: “The education arms race is out of control”. Actually, The Times is not the only newspaper that uses the phrase “arms race”, so does The Guardian, The Economist,   a report by UCL and many other news outlets.

Private tuition, or call it private lesson, is nothing new. In fact, it predates formal education, as it has been around since the time of the Ancient Greeks; we also learn that this was one of the main ways in which great composers such as Mozart made a living. Nowadays, whilst private lessons are how most young people learn musical instruments, private tuition is used extensively for those aspiring to gain admission to top universities. They use it at GCSE and A-level for core academic subjects such as Maths, English, the Sciences and others.

Going back to the article in The Times I mentioned earlier, here is a quote:

“For those who can’t or don’t want to pay for private schools, the premium on houses near the country’s top 100 state secondary schools is 42%. Tuition has taken off in Britain too, where the proportion of children who have had private tutors has increased from 18% in 2005 to 27% in 2019, according to the Sutton Trust”.

The Sutton Education Trust is an excellent organisation that carries out research and does tremendous work to address the education divide and its effect on social mobility in society. I have read this particular report, and also many of its other reports, in detail, and, whilst I completely agree with its findings, I’m of the view that the figure of 42% getting private tuition is a gross underestimation. Although the 42% figure is related to London and the South East of England, where there are a high number of families with high aspirations, if we dig deeper, the figure for those getting private tuition for at least one subject at GCSE or A-level will be closer to 80% of teenagers in certain demographics. We are not just speaking about affluent families alone, but also in high aspiration homes where parents are not necessarily earning much, but value education highly. One must also bear in mind that not all parents or teenagers give away the secret of their success!

I have spent the last 29 years in the English secondary education system, almost all of which has been in high achieving environments – mainly grammar schools, independent private schools and private tuition organisations.  Observation shows me that private tuition is the open secret which many parents have used to help push up their sons and daughters’ grades by a couple or so grade boundaries –giving them a competitive advantage in the process.

I’ve been using the phrase private tuition so far, but another could be extra tuition, as sometimes the out-of-school-timetable lessons are not paid for. For example, I help my own son and daughter with Maths and the science subjects sometimes. Although I am fascinated by History, Philosophy and almost all other subjects, neither am I equipped nor have the time to invest in learning so I can help them with those. The idea of asking an overstretched subject teacher at school to provide extra help for your child is quite unrealistic. Even if they do, it probably won’t be sufficient to make a real difference.

To be fair, many schools are organising extra classes at weekends and during school holidays. However, having spoken to many parents about this, I discovered that it is not always that effective. In fact, some parents and young people consider that it can be a waste of time.  There are all sorts of reasons why it is often not productive, not least the fact that, sadly, class disruption and all other sorts of time wasting still goes on in those extra lessons.

We hear of good schools, but often we are not told the full story behind the apparent success of those schools. Show me a successful school where teenagers achieve top GCSE and A-level results and I’ll show you a place where good parents congregate. Yes, there are some excellent schools with superb teachers out there. It’s just that there are too few of them. We all know the extent to which some parents go in order to find good schools for their children. The fact is that finding a good school is only the beginning. Most parents never just find a good school and then rest on their laurels. They keep a watchful eye, stepping in to support their teenagers throughout their secondary education in particular. Dinner table talk amongst parents often includes private tuition and discussions range from getting their teenagers to buy into the idea and how to find good tutors or private tuition centre to the king’s ransom they are having to fork out and whether it’s worth the investment…

Private tuition is often the game changer and I have witnessed many success stories; however, sadly, I’ve also seen it going wrong. It can be very powerful in helping a teenager to move up grade boundaries very rapidly, but can also have zero effect on the child’s performance or be even counterproductive.

I have put together a small, twelve-page A5 booklet to help guide parents who may be considering private tuition for their teenager. The booklet is called How to Choose an Effective Private Tutor for Your Child at GCSE & A-Level: A Smart Parent’s Guide. You can get a copy sent to you by visiting the webpage https://ExceliLearn.com/how-to-choose-effective-tutor/ – and completing a short form. It is free of charge.

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