5th April 2011 – Evesham High

Exam Busters was a hot topic at Evesham High School as year 11 students were assisted with final preparations for their imminent exams.  Students enjoyed the day and commented;

“I enjoyed the session because Mark put it across in a fun was and got people involved.”

“It was interesting and will help me prepare for the exams.”

“Put revision into a new and fun way.”

“Interesting, fun and enjoyable.  Mark constantly kept us interested and showed is many useful strategies and techniques.  Top bloke Marky!”

“Do you know what...I am actually going to revise now.”

Organiser Stuart Weston added, “This gave them an opportunity to think about revision and gave them some practical strategies and techniques to use.”

**I was also delighted to meet a fellow Northampton Town fan in the group too!

30th April 2011 – Goals At Bosworth

The final session of a mini series of sessions at Bosworth College concluded with year 11 students attending a one hour Goal Setting session to help prepare for further education and life beyond.  It was an absolute pleasure to work with a range of positive people.

24th & 25th March 2011 – A Great End To A Busy Week

A busy few weeks in fact!  It is always a pleasure to work with local schools and two afternoon sessions at Caroline Chisholm was no exception.  Year 11  worked through revision techniques in the famed Exam Busters seminars.

Student Comments

“This has made me realise how easy revision can be – and remembering it!  I now know more and better techniques to revise for my GCSEs... I know I can do it and I feel that I will go through my exams with flying colours and end up with a huge grin on my face.”

“I really enjoyed it, it was funny and I learnt loads.”

“It was really helpful.”

“It was decent and fun.”

22nd March 2011 – Study Skills at Writtle College

Two enjoyable sessions at Writtle College in Cheltenham were attended by further education students in the morning and pupils from local schools in the afternoon.  All worked extremely hard and produced some creative examples throughout the day.

Student Comments

“Useful information and very fun.”

“Mark made the session very informative and we learned how to do Mindmaps and how easy they are to use.  A great laugh too!”

“”Good interaction and fun.”

“Really enjoyed the exercises, they will help a lot.”

“Excellent experience and a lot of useful skills for the future for both revision and life.  The day was done in a fun was, not just a lot of speech but a lot of fun activities.”

“Fun and entertaining, I didn’t get a chance to get bored because I was always thinking.”

“Helped me to learn a variety of things and kept me entertained.”

21st March 2011 – Getting Down To Study At The Downs School

The rural location of the Downs School saw year 11 students attend Super Speed Study Skills session to test out alternative techniques for study.  Students enjoyed the two sessions and commented;

“Good activities and loved the Mad Moves.”

“Really helped me and made me realise that there are different ways to learn.”

18th March 2011 – Red Noses and Employability

A fun filled action packed day at Abbeyfield School left everyone buzzing as the launch of the new and exciting Employable You session went down a storm.  The students had already worked through Goal Mapping earlier in the academic year and it was an absolute pleasure to work with year 10 again.

The day began with a group seminar in the theatre before students broke into groups to work on a presentation of their own.  The day ended with an competition back in the theatre to see who was the winner of the star prize.

Student Feedback

“Mark is awesome and does an amazing job at presenting. He makes things seem a lot funnier than they actually are but then as the same time he was serious when speaking about our future.”

“I never ever speak in front of crowds but Mark and my teacher inspired me to want to take part and I felt really proud of myself because they made me feel I had something to give”

“Mark is mad like his job title – Positively Mad. He makes what is normally boring work transform into brilliantly happy interactive work. When I see him do this it turned my day upside down. Cool let’s have him again.”

“I thought that this day was very unusual and different from our normal style of learning. It was very well planned out and Mark has obviously done a lot of work preparing for this day because it made our sense.”

“I thought Mark did an outstanding job! His random theme for our enterprise focus day really grabbed our attention! He offered us lots of knowledge in a teenagers understanding, but mature way! He motivated the whole year group to take part and everyone wanted to perform their presentations and he even bought in some competition prizes. Truly awesome day. I’d like to see more of him in school.”

“It actually made me want to take part and it made me see how careers and enterprise can be fun. It connected up my learning in my mind. Now I have an idea of how to go about sorting my future out.”

School Feedback

“Working with Mark is always a pleasure, from the informal but productive initial meetings through to the final delivery. It's always worthwhile allocating precious time in a busy schedule to meet with Mark, knowing that I will get 100% satisfaction and that the needs of the school will be considered. The more I work with Mark, the less meetings we need, as he has the ability to second guess my thoughts and this in itself saves valuable time.

Mark is very well respected member of the 'World of Work' community by the students of Abbeyfield and when introducing a future event to them or including them on initial planning, they often ask 'is it with Mark again'.

A positive experience of working with Mark is that I am able to work alongside him, as opposed to just asking him to come in a do an event. He takes on board our 'school' needs and often adapts his work to accommodate school targets. This means a lot as it reaffirms to the students that it is a joint effort and not just a one off event.

Mark has a unique 'selling point' of relating to the students in his own way and remembers aspects of previous events, which helps the students relate to previous experiences and this brings continuity to WRL.

In looking forward to planning next year’s activities, I can confident ring-fence a percentage of a shrinking budget to account for events with Mark as the value for money he offers with his skills and experience is more than well justified.”

Wayne Jones
Director of Key Life Skills
Abbeyfiled School

17th March 2011 – English Revision in Lancashire

Mark Kennedy had an enjoyable and worthwhile day at Fearns College recently, where he delighted students with his delivery of the Hooks, Lines and Thinkers English Revision Sessions.

Using a memory hook system, students were taught how to remember over 100 facts without writing them down. Covering basic skills to writing improvement techniques, the course demonstrated alternative approaches to revision and showed students how powerful their abilities really are.

After the course, the students were asked to rate the course using a 5 star rating system.

The majority of the students rated the course as 4 and 5 stars, reporting that they had a great deal of fun while learning how to remember better.

Read on to discover what the students had to say: 

 Pupils who rated the course as 4 stars justified their ratings as follows:

Year 10

• “It helped me remember more, others should take this course because overall it does help you.”

• “Helped me to understand what to do during exams and why. Also helped with spellings.”

• I think the morning was a good session. Some of the things we did helped me to remember what to do in exams.”

• Had a good laugh which made it easier to learn. Thanks.”

• “I liked this course, it was good.”

• “I found it helpful and interesting.”

• “I’ve learnt different ways to remember other than just reading facts.”

• “It was quite good and a good laugh, very enjoyable.”

• “I liked the course. I will have a look at the website. I learnt how to spell independent haha.”

• “I have learnt a lot about exam techniques and revision techniques. Also Mark made it funny so it was interesting, thanks (and it got us out of three lessons).”

• “I think this has helped me in some things. I enjoyed the course as well and it was really worth coming to.”

• “I enjoyed the day and it has helped me with spelling, argumentative writing and how to structure

paragraphs.”

• “This course has taught me a lot about how to remember techniques in my English exams.”

• “This course has taught me some techniques to help do well in my exams and it was funny.”

Year 11

• “I learnt how to break up words to help me with spelling.”

• “Learnt some good revision techniques• “Beginning was a bit boring but was really good at the end.”

• “All good.”

• “It was slightly confusing at first but ultimately I remembered everything.”

• “It was okay, I got confused at the start but then got it as it went on.”

• “Helpful and great for exams.”

Pupils who rated the course as 5 stars justified their ratings as follows:

Year 10

• “Because I have enjoyed the course it made it easier to understand.”

• “Because I learnt how to remember important things.”

• “I would give this course 5 out of 5 because I found it really interesting and helpful. I have learnt a lot and it will help me achieve the grades I want. I would definitely recommend this course to others as I think they would really enjoy it and learn a lot.”

• “Thank you.”

• “I have learnt different ways to revise, thanks.”

• “Good.”

• “I really enjoyed this session and learnt a lot.”

• “I enjoyed this session as it was funny but also helpful with my English. Don’t change you crazy man.”

• “It was fun.”

• “It was funny and we learnt a lot of things.”

• “We learnt a lot of stuff and it was funny.”

Year 11

• “I would give it 5 because I now know how to spell independent.”

• “I would give the course a 5 because it was excellent. I will definitely recommend this course to others.

The presenter was funny and helped me a lot. Thanks.”

• “I thought it was good because I learnt a lot.”

• “I think that I have learned something whilst having a lot of fun.”

• “I learned a lot and would recommend this to others.”

• “Because it was entertaining and grabbed the attention of pupils.”

• “I learned a lot and it was entertaining.”

16th March 2011 – Academy Interview Day

It was a pleasure to be part of Northampton Academy’s Interview Day in mid-March.  Students attended one hour breakout sessions and learnt the importance of Goal Setting.  Comments included; “Positively MAD was mad but good. We had to look at what we want out of life and it made me think about next year.

15th March 2011 – A Trip To Swansea

A long drive is always made worthwhile by some great Welsh hospitality and students and staff at Bryntawe were a pleasure to work with on a sunny spring morning.  The whole of year 11 enjoyed Exam Busters and commented;

“The ways of studying were effective and they stuck with us.”

“I learnt a lot and it was very interesting.”

“It was fun, interesting and it will help loads, thank you.”

“I actually learnt how to revise properly.”

Teacher Wyn Jones added, “Easy attainable tasks for the pupils and morale boosting.”

8th March 2011 - Double Header at Shirelands...

Year 11 students from Shirelands Collegiate Academy enjoyed a Positively MAD day at a West Bromwich hotel.  The morning began with Goal Mapping where students created their goal maps for the future.  After lunch, the theme of the day was exam techniques with Exam Busters.

Organiser Andrea Bell commented, "Exam Busters was very good at highlighting key techniques for improving memory and aiding revision.  Goal Mapping engaged most students and allowed them to consider honestly where they want to go in life.  It was an excellent confidence booster."

The students added, "Thank you Mark, for a great day."
"Was fun to take part in the activities and it was interesting."
"Very good fun and good tips."