Skills Workshop | Sixth Form
On Saturday 22nd January the Sixth Form took part in workshops to enhance their study skills. Pupils were given guidance, coaching and time to develop higher order skills as part of the five focuses of the IB’s Approaches to Learning.
The Lower Sixth pupils focused on their research skills to help prepare them for their Individual Assessments and their Extended Essay. This session helped familiarise the pupils with important online resources, such as JSTOR, Google Scholar and Mossolit. Learning how to use these tools and websites now will help the pupils throughout the IB course and into their further education at university. With this in mind, the pupils then learned how to correctly reference and cite sources. As an example of where these skills will be applied, Dr Tomlinson launched the Extended Essay process and introduced the pupils to what is required of them.
The Upper Sixth pupils focused on different revision strategies and techniques. They had an external speaker from Lanterna Education give a presentation on ‘Studying Smart and Keeping Calm’. This was an interesting perspective from someone who had recently completed their IB and was able to draw on personal experiences to answer questions and to help the pupils. Next, the pupils looked at different revision skills, such as mind maps, retrieval practices, and mnemonics and how to successfully implement these strategies in their revision. They then used their time to create a detailed revision timetable with the assistance of their Beaks.
Pupils insight:
“I learnt a lot more about the EE and I feel a lot more confident about the assignment.”
“I think one of the most useful things from this morning is learning how to do citations.”
“Learning how to cite properly and organise my EE so I can correctly add websites has given me a better idea of what to expect and what to do next.”
“Learning about revision techniques from a past IB student gave me lots of insight into how to successfully revise for each subject.”
“I was introduced to various memorisation techniques that I had never encountered before, which will help me study more effectively.”
“It was really helpful having someone with a shared experience deliver this assembly, learning techniques with direct relevance to IB made it very helpful.”
“The guest speaker was really relatable, she made me feel like I too could succeed in IB exams.”
“Being in a room full of others who are working towards a common goal was highly motivating.”