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Assessments

07/11/2019

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.

General Colin Powell

There has been palpable energy in the school this week with our older pupils settling down at a desk, with a clock ticking and a sense of diligence and desire to give of our best.  Exams, assessments, however we wish to refer to them, are an opportunity to test our learning and this applies to both pupils and teachers!

I know that pupils will have faced all manner of feelings as they have walking into the various study rooms around the school but I do feel that this is an essential process that ironically is being questioned with universities offering more unconditional offers and parents wanting their children to avoid this ‘pressure’.

However, ‘pressure’ and ‘anxiety’ do not come from the assessment, nor the results – they come from the emphasis that we choose to place on the outcome.  I never forget my parents telling me that all I can give, is my best and that the most important week is the one that follows exams as teachers offer advice that is gold dust for the future!

Well done to all of our senior pupils who have thrown themselves into the recent assessments – they will inform your teachers about where to best spend your future energy and how to improve exam technique!  On that note my father also used to send me off with a simple comment:

Read the question…and check your answers!

He even said that in my finals when I was 24 years old…thanks dad!

Tim Calvey