NEWS: Licensee's efforts boosts student's grades 20 Mar 10

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Being a Positively MAD Licensee means you get to ‘make a difference’ to the learning potential of young lives. Recently one of our many talented licensees delivered the 6S Study Skills Programme to a small group of students at the Northamptonshire Study Centre. Mark Kennedy delivered the course over 3 sessions. He was initially apprehensive about running such a big course, but soon relaxed into it and won the students over with his enthusiasm, energy and passion.
After the first session, some of the students used the techniques they had learned to prepare for the upcoming mock exams. One student wrote to Mark, saying:
“You did a great job teaching us all this. I got a B in my mock History because I was using the techniques!”
This is great news indeed for it shows that the course not only enabled the students to see the relevance of the techniques, but also inspired them to actually use the tools, tips and methods to help improve attainment.
Other students were just as effusive in their praise of Mark, with one student admitting that she is no longer frightened of the exams:
“Mark, Thank you so much, it actually helped me so much and I am not scared to go to an exam.
Thank you!”

This sort of feedback shows that Mark was not only able to deliver the content effectively, but that he had motivated and inspired students to think more positively about the whole exam experience.  In fact, another student wrote in her feedback:
“I feel positive about learning now.”
This is a tremendous bit of feedback, because it shows that students were not just focussed on passing exams, but had felt differently about the process of learning. Mark can feel justifiably proud of his efforts. To change pupils’ perceptions of their abilities and to help them develop healthier attitudes to education are not easy things to achieve – and Mark succeeded admirably.
“It was a fantastic experience,” Mark said afterwards. “The students responded really well to the course. I can’t wait to run it again.”
When asked if they would recommend the course to others, 100% said they definitely would, providing reasons like:
“You can learn a lot from Mark”
“It is a fun way of learning and makes you feel positive”.

The Northamptonshire Study Centre commented about their Positively MAD experience on their website:

“Positively MAD  (Making a Difference) is the name of the company we’ve brought in to work with the year  11 group  since half term.  They have been introduced to the 6S study skills system which focuses on six key areas of their life so that they can fine tune their bodies in preparation for the examinations.  The six areas are sleep, sustenance, sport, state, skills and support.  They were surprised to learn that they should aim for ten hours of sleep a night and to discover the importance of drinking enough water.   Over the weeks they have increased the contents of their memory toolbox through learning a number of new skills.  They have learned how to use a Portrait Summary Poster and Mindmaps.  They have practised Quickfire Quizzes and the Story Link Method  and explored the Roman Room System, the Journey Location System and the Person as Location Memory Hook System... James has tried to use mind mapping in his revision for RE and he told us “It really works, I can remember everything.”

(http://kicin2study.northantsstudycentres.org/2010/03/09/positively-mad/)

Positively MAD would like to express our thanks to Mark for providing such inspirational sessions and for living up to the POSMAD aspiration to ‘make a difference.’