Aspire Year 9 students took part in the second Excellence Academy workshop held at The Blackpool Sixth Form College yesterday. The Excellence Academy is a set of workshops designed to help develop crucial college-level study skills. Our students work with other highly able students from different schools exploring academically challenging material from a range of disciplines including science, ethics, biochemistry, history and politics.
This workshop focused on optimising study skills and extended analogies to understand trickier concepts and memorise them more. Research has demonstrated the impact music can have on retention and learning and so a piece from Mozart was explored, Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major has been shown to increase concentration levels drastically if listened to before exams and improve the IQ by 9 points if listened to regularly; our students were asked to include this in their study strategies.
Miss Plancke, who accompanied our students to the event, said: "There are only two more workshops to conclude the Excellence Academy this half term; it's a shame there aren't more as our students are really enjoying this extra curricular activity which shows in their exemplary behaviour and the teamwork they demonstrate."
