Photographs taken by Nicolle Finch (most), Hannah Wynn (some), Richard Hornby (one). Seek photographer’s permission before downloading or copying.
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Blog
“Can I really do this?”
Yes. You can.
I’m hearing this question a lot lately, so I thought I’d answer it!
The only thing that you can do is your best, and if you’re well prepared, and if you work hard, you will succeed. There’s a lot of pressure on students to do well in exams these days, probably even more than when I was a student myself (yes, I was that young once!), and so I thought I would give a few pointers as to why panicking is a bad idea, and why you should trust yourself.
Firstly, I believe in you. Now, that might be hard to believe, given I suspect that there are people reading this post that I’ve never met, but it’s still true. If you care about your studies (and panicking about them is a good indication that you do!), if you can be bothered to put the work in – you can do well. Part of success is a mindset: if you believe in yourself, then you’ll do well. Sports coaches sometimes say “positive thinking leads to positive outcomes” – honestly, it’s true. So have faith in yourself. Human beings are naturally wired to learn – just compare yourself as a baby to the knowledge you have now – and then remember that you still have the potential to learn just as much stuff again!
Next: right now (with the exception of controlled assessments and possibly mocks), it doesn’t matter if you get things wrong. In some senses, getting things wrong is a good thing, because it shows the areas where you need to work on: as long as you take a mistake, examine it, look at why it was made, and make sure that you never make that mistake again, you’ve turned it from something negative into a positive learning opportunity. As my dad used to say: “It’s not the falling down that matters. It’s staying down.” So don’t mistakes “get to you”. Pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and carry on. You’ll be stronger for it.
Finally, in a post about motivation, it would be very remiss of me not to mention my former Head of Year, now sadly no longer with us, Wayne Jenkins. In my view, Mr. Jenkins was a great motivator. Sure, we all laughed at him at the time, but looking back, his motivational attitude surely affected students’ morale – and results in their exams! One of Mr. Jenkins’ favourite mottos was what “CAN I” really stood for:
Constant
And
Never-ending
Improvement
because, if you’re asking that question, he knew that with a bit of effort and positivity, CAN I? can be turned into Constant and Never-ending Improvement, and then can easily become I CAN.
So be positive: focus for these next four months, and turn “CAN I?” into “I CAN!” 🙂
P.S. I’m going to ban the phrase “I can’t do …” in my sessions. The correct one to use is “I can’t do … yet”. 😉
How travelling expenses are calculated
I’m often ask how travelling expenses for tutorial sessions are calculated. Well, here’s the answer!
Firstly, expenses are calculated on an individual basis. This means that they are specific to your situation, and might be different to those of your friends! However, these are the rules that we apply.
At the Mallard Days HQ:
No travelling expenses!
At your home:
If we come to you, and you live within half an hour drive time of HQ, your expenses are simply calculated at 45p per mile.
What does 45p per mile look like?
The map on this page has been designed to give a rough idea of how much things will cost – but it is indicative only! If you live on or within the green line, you can expect to pay £5 or less per session in travelling expenses. If you live within the maroon line, you can expect to pay £10 or less per session.
What about further than half an hour?
If you live further than half an hour away, (that’s roughly outside the purple line on the map), it takes a long time for us to get to you – which means that we can take on fewer students. Because of this, we charge £8 extra (on top of the mileage!) for sessions outside of this line. There are also fewer sessions available in this area.
Are expenses charged per session, or per hour? What if I do a 2 hour session?
The expenses for a two hour session are the same as for a one hour session, but the tuition fee does increase – therefore if travelling is required, longer sessions are slightly cheaper than multiple sessions overall.
I hope that has made things clearer – if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!
Recurring sessions
There are no recurring sessions between 11 May 2015 and 6 July 2015.
This is because, in the main exam season, most students choose to rearrange some (if not all) of their sessions to fit their personal exam timetable. and it is more efficient to start booking these in on a “clean sheet”.
BOOKING IS OPEN NOW for students with exams this summer.
If you do not have any exams this Summer, booking for 11-30 May will open on 29 March, and booking for 30 May to 6 June will open on 26 April.
“Sessions through the summer” – a limited range of days will be available to book from 26 April.