The importance of asking questions

I’M fortunate in my role as a headteacher to spend time not only with the pupils of my own school but also to visit others.
Crofton School headteacher Simon Harrison.

Picture: Loughlan CampbellCrofton School headteacher Simon Harrison.

Picture: Loughlan Campbell
Crofton School headteacher Simon Harrison. Picture: Loughlan Campbell

And something that strikes me as common across all pupils I speak to is their appreciation of the support they get from school and home.

Most liked naturally is praise and encouragement. But it is also interesting to note that students, albeit grudgingly, appreciate the ‘encouragement’ to complete homework and revision. Whether it’s a calm space and gentle reminder at home when it’s time to switch off the Xbox and get down to some work, or the routines and resources supplied from school, most pupils will admit they recognise the benefits of hard work, and appreciate being prompted to do it.

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Certainly from my experience as an educator a strong work ethic is generally the most important factor in success at school.

However something that has changed more recently is our understanding of how to learn more efficiently and gain the greatest benefits from working hard because through advances in neuroscience we are now much clearer on how the brain learns.

This means schools are now able to train pupils in methods explicitly matched to this new understanding, to ensure they make the best use of their time.

It also means many traditional methods are now known to be much less efficient. For example, reading through notes and highlighting key words is pretty inefficient but I’m sure many adults, myself included, have used this as a common revision technique in the past. Far more efficient is to ask, and be asked, questions about any revision material.

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The bad news is we may have to unlearn many things we did in the past to help our children learn and prepare for exams. The good news is the best thing you can do to help your children learn at home is to ask them lots of questions!

Whilst they may not admit to appreciating it – especially if they are teenagers - they will certainly thank you in the long term as they see the gains in their learning.

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