A-Level Mindset – Systems
A-Level Mindset – Systems
Moving from the IGCSE curriculum to A-Level is a big step and comes with higher expectations from teachers, parents, and students alike. An aim of the Year 12 Pastoral program is to assist students with developing the right ‘A-level Mindset’. This is achieved through tutor time activities, Lifeskills lessons as well as assemblies, like the one on study ‘Systems’, which took place on 6th January. The concept of the ‘A-level Mindset’ comes from two teachers in the UK who were working on improving the grades of their 6th form students and noticed where these students were lacking in certain study skills.
The assembly covered the key area of ‘Systems’. This area covers how students organise their time and their learning resources. Essentially, students during Year 12 are running four or, even five, major projects during the year which can each take a minimum of 150 hours as well as their own independent study time. Students with weak ‘Systems’ tend to get poor sleep, they have chaotic and messy notes and folders and can miss many deadlines often without realising. So, what ‘Systems’ do students have in place to help them already and what can be added to help them further?
This can be broken down into three main areas:
- Project management:
How is their time organised and broken down between each of their subjects? One method of doing this is to set incremental targets for each step of their project from the start all the way to the deadline. Setting one large target to have the project completed by the deadline may be too overwhelming for them.
- Collecting information:
Students are given many pieces of information every day by their teachers. One of the key skills is to make sure that these pieces of information are organised, acted upon and filed away for easy retrieval in the future. One way to achieve this is through the ‘Cornell Notes’ system.
- Reflecting:
Students often seem to have so much work to do that they do not take the time to slow down, reflect on what they have learned and look at what needs to be done next. Setting out a project matrix can help them see which tasks are on or behind schedule as well as what quality of finish they are on target to achieve.
The assembly provided just a snapshot of how good ‘Systems’ can help students. They will expand on these ideas in their upcoming Lifeskills lessons and with their Form Tutors.
Marco Campisi
Assistant Head of Year 12