Sarah.

Kennett, our wonderful person. Hello. Good afternoon. How are you?

I am great. Thank you. I can hear you loud and clear. We had an exciting moment earlier where we could not. And.

No. Definitely. I've I've never been never been one you can't hear.

Nice. Exams are critical. They are critical. They are if you think about what they're designed to do, they are designed to segment an entire population of kids across all graduations of effort, intelligence, of adeptness, and create a scale for them. And what we find with neurodivergence is that sometimes there are artificial barriers that just mean that they can't express themselves. And it therefore isn't the expression that it completely fails in providing that representative exam grade, which then means their future is significantly altered. Sometimes recoverable, sometimes not.

Qualifications open doors. So, you know, you're you're only as good as your last set of exam results or your last set of experience. So, you know, if that's gonna open that door for you or close that door for you, then that that we need to make sure that that isn't disadvantaging amazingly wonderful people just because the exam system's not suited to them.

Yeah. And the idea we had the idea that, yeah, an exam hall is a low distraction environment, for example, is just absolute nonsense. Like, I I remember to this day, like, the proctors, teachers walking up and down, the noise that it would make. However, they managed to purchase the world's most loudest clock ever. Like, it seems to be a seems to be a constant. Yeah. But finding it finding it so hard, and it and it's it's cost me. Like, it's I I mucked up exams as a result of that. Right. You've got a lot to say. I mustn't bite into your time. It is this is an area of real passion for me, I think, and for every parent going through this stage, but, like, this is this is trajectory changing stuff.

It's a it's a big deal. Yeah. I mean, I've titled it no more revision battles, but I don't think we can ever say no more. Never. But let's try and help reduce them and be aware of making them as easy as possible for everybody.

Over to you. Thank you.

So I thought I'd give you a little bit of a background about who I am and why I'm sat here with you this afternoon. So I caught the the end of the last speaker's presentation just then, and that varied careers made me smile because, yes, most definitely. And the the large number of hobbies, I was like, okay. I can relate to that. So I started off my career in pharmaceuticals and then moved into publishing and then realized that, I had a real passion for teaching and developing people. And so I've been ahead of science in three different schools, very different contexts from everything from a developing school that requires improvement up to a a private boarding school.

I've been teaching for over twenty years, and and I set up my my tutoring company, Science Cafe, on the back of doing some work with students that were seemed to be not achieving their potential, not knowing how to revise in one of the schools I was working in. So I set up a six week revision program with some small groups just to help support those students that it was my responsibility as their teacher, as their head of science to make sure that they got their qualifications. And we we saw grades going from e's to c's because students just knew what to revise and how to revise, and and that kind of made me come up with Science Cafe. And I called it Science Cafe because of that 1990.

Movement in France of of scientists sharing information with with people through everybody through through these science cafes, and that's that's why I wanted it's it's about sharing, it's about working together, and it's about inspiring. So I have ADHD. I will probably talk to you fast, I will definitely use my hands to speak and all all sorts of different things. I've always had it. I've always been different. I only got my diagnosis when I was 49. But a lot of the things that I've put into the system and and and what I've built is and and this knowledge and understanding has come from me trialing and erroring different things that have worked with my brain. So my values are definitely about inclusion, building confidence, reducing.

Stress because ADHDs don't work to to very well with stress. Structure, I crave new things all the time, but I also crave structure, and that was something that that resonated with that hobbies. I, you know, constantly wanting to change hobbies, but I also need some some structure around making things practical in real world and caring for the whole family, just basically trying to give people that that support in in their families. So traditional revision techniques. Those traditional revision techniques are very passive where we're reading or highlighting information, and they they tend to be long unstructured sessions. I remember when I was, working in a lab and I had to read lots and lots of clinical papers.

I could easily put my hair around my hands and fall asleep pretending I was reading a clinical paper just because I would get fatigue from reading lots and lots of information. So I worked out that short bursts were really useful for me because I was getting that sensory overload. I I do also have very noise sensitive, and I'm gonna talk about the noise sensitive in sensitivity in the exam room a bit later on. But it's about making sure that we've we're not in those busy environments, and we're reducing the amount of memory that we're expected to use. So long unstructured sessions just don't work for our ADHD brains, and passive strategies, we need to actively use information.

So those kind of traditional ways of, you know, copying out notes or highlighting them just really don't work for us. So how can we make it sticky? And I thought I wanted to bring you some really practical ways that we can help support the young people around us. So the the first one is successive learning. So this is a really nice thing to do with things like flashcards so that you can actually have a flashcard where you're showing the student a word and they have to give you the meaning of it. A lot of content in a lot of different courses is relevant to some keywords. I know science can be like learning a whole new language, especially when you're talking about biology. So.

Having that those that understanding of those keywords then unlocks those questions so that they know what they're talking about. So doing short retrieval tests of, you know, 10 flashcards a day on a regular basis is really, really important. I do a lot of audio listening and audio learning. One of the books that that's in my in my audio at the moment, and I listen to many depending on my mood, is, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. And there was a story that was in that this morning that I've brought to this presentation, just because it really resonated with what I'm trying to explain. And it's this idea that if we do small things consistently, regularly, then we can make a compound change.

So a really good example of this is if I gave you a penny and said every day for thirty days, I am going to double that penny. So in on day two, you have two pennies. On day three, you have four pennies, and so on. Eventually, after thirty days, and I worked this out before the session, you will have £10,737,418.24. And so this just demonstrates that idea of small changes done consistently can absolutely really make a difference. So 10 men 10 cards a day, 10 keywords, pick five.

Check and and then put them into a pile. They know that one, they don't know that one. So that one goes back into the the redo pile. And then every now and again, you go back through the ones that they they do know just to make sure it's still there. So those short retrieval tests done frequently frequently are are actually a really, really positive way of having that engagement, but making that revision not a revision session sit down in front of a book, but making it engaging and interactive. Again, micro sessions, the Pompadouro technique, the timers, having that timer on, making sure that they are short sessions.

I'm I'm terrible for hyper focused sessions and can sit down at this desk for hours and hours and I'm I'm really trying to be more strict with myself of I've got a task twenty minutes and then go do something else. But if they're doing revision, then then something maybe like them closing the book and going, what do I remember? What do I what what what did I get from that 15? Or just talking to it, somebody else like that voice note that's on the screen. I use audio a lot. Even as a child, I would record all of my notes onto my Sony Walkman. There are other Walkmans available. And I would listen back to them just because that was a a way of me multitasking, a way of me having a that that interaction, dual.

Task going on to just to keep my many different tracks open. So you may want to listen to something and then say it back and then see if you can write it down. It's using it in lots of different ways. And we used to talk a lot, about visual auditory and kinesthetic learners, and and I don't believe anybody's one type of learning profile. I think we we have different learning profiles for different pieces of information, and we need to use them and experience them in lots of different ways. And the research shows that generally we need to use information seven or eight times before we start to build those neuropathic pathways. So in order to.

To make revision work, we need to experience that information in lots of different forums and ways and applications. So so doing these kind of micro sessions on a regular basis is going to make it much more sticky, for want of a better word. So that low stimulus setup, we've talked a lot about distractions. You know, Henry talked about distractions in in that exam room, you know, having a decluttered desk. I I wish I could show you my desk because it's really not decluttered, but that's because I've been preparing for this. But one page packet, so splitting things down into small small topics and going, what? I am going to learn how to do this, and making sure that you've you've got some kind of checking in that you know it.

Maybe drawing a diagram, maybe doing some multiple choice questions. The previous speaker mentioned body doubling. I I use body doubling a lot. I've actually started using, and I'm gonna come on to the use of AI in a in a little bit, but I started using body doubling with with AI, and I'm I'm also an ADHD coach, and I I do some body doubling with with some of my my ADHD clients as well, even just through WhatsApp. So but the yeah. But then it's also about motivation. Having those rewards, that dopamine, response, that dopamine feedback. And and Henry was talking about using eBay, and making sure I I do have a real shopping, punch on and and and and trying to to to stop that that dopamine searching from from shopping. But.

We need to have tiny wins, that visible progress, the small rewards, even if it's a sticker, even I I will tell you now, after working all of these years in secondary schools, I have seen students, fight over a sticker. So even at 15, so if they say they don't like stickers, they're lying. They do. They really do. They just like to be told that they are doing the right thing. So here's an example recipe for an ADHD revision session. So setting up the scene, setting that environment so that, we get everything ready, those the flashcards, what they're gonna learn, that one page packet, for that session, and set a timer. So so that there's that cue to the brain. This is what we're gonna do. This is how long we're gonna do it for.

And it it stops that time blindness and lowers the stress. Okay? And it it stops the stress about starting it because one of the things as as ADHD is we we find it really difficult to to get started, that motivation of where do I start? What do I do? So that is that's a really key thing to have that set up so that it's this is what you're going to do. A ten minute, retrieval section, so five questions, doing some flashcards, writing or saying the answers. So retrieval practice is all about strengthening memory. So it's looking at the information on a regular basis throughout time. So one day, three days, seven days apart so that you are constantly going back to that information so that it's not.

Overwhelming in our brains. Night before cramming doesn't work. We know this. We need to make things doable, and allow that focus. And then we have a look at a five minute fixer. So we're looking at what's what's going what do they know? What don't they know? And I always say to my students, you you I don't expect perfection. The exam board doesn't expect perfection. We are so focused on did I get everything right that we're not actually focused on the learning. We're not focused on what didn't I get right so that I can fix that. And I think we need to re rework that into what do I need to fix? Okay. So I know all of this. I don't know this, so I'm gonna focus on this.

But we tend to start with the things that we feel comfortable with because that's where we we feel confident. And we don't feel confident here, so we don't start here. So we need to we need to take some time to work on those things that that need the fixing. But that's where the learning is. I heard a great analogy of of Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison, the guy who invented the light bulb, he came up with a 145 plus different ways that the light bulb didn't work. And he didn't think of them as failures, he just thought of it as a 145 ways that he now knows is not gonna make the light bulb. So I I like that idea that we're we're explaining to the students that that we don't expect perfection, and learning isn't first time.

You don't have to get it the first time it's told to you or explained to you. And and very often in schools, can be quite a quick, you know, you're gonna have a lesson on this topic and then we're gonna move on to the next topic, next lesson. And they kind of think, well, I I didn't quite get that one. I don't understand that concept. So it's about them revisiting it on a regular basis outside of home, but not making it this huge battle so that it's going on for hours. So a three minute exit ticket, just them going through verbally the key things that they can remember. Saying it out loud is a good way to to activate both that auditory and the.

The the the speaking recognition because they've got to formulate those sentences as well, which is is really, really works. And this creates this repeatable micro routine that that parents can supervise really easily. So I've mentioned schools. I've obviously worked in many different schools, and I thought I'd just bring to you some some information about why our standard class sizes are around 30. In military context, a platoon is typically 28 to 32 people, and it's often quoted as the maximum number a leader can potentially and personally know and manage. So we kind of tend to have these classes of 30, but they they don't necessarily have the great advantages for an ADHD or neurodivergent brain.

They can help with peer modeling and social energy, routine, and teacher led learning such as demonstrations and things like that. But then we can get lost in that classroom. There's too much noise, there's a pace mismatch. That not quite getting something, you may not get the feedback that you need. And there's lots of evidence, and I've I've put the references throughout the PowerPoint, the references that I've used for this PowerPoint, that that we we do need smaller classes or breaking into smaller groups, to allow a more responsive management and to allow quicker feedback and stronger relationships. So we are looking at sort of that limit that bridging these online remote models. I don't know if, anybody seen.

There's there's there's a a new online remote, learning been been set up in Australia, which is is helping with those smaller groups, and and these can help with well-being. And that virtual school Victoria is is the one that I've quoted there. Okay. Onto AI. AI is scaffolding. So I've used AI within within the course that I've set up. I've created a Sarah science box so that students can access a a a tutor that is a they can ask questions of. So they can use AI as a scaffold within the the online system that's created. I would use AI in many different ways within my within my lessons, within my within my teaching. I may use it to generate questions, to turn notes into quick questions.

So I I use CamScanner a lot. We there there's lots of apps available that you can scan notes into PDF, and then you can put it into chat GPT, and you can say generate some some multiple choice questions. And and then you can get the answer key, and you can use those as parents and or teachers to help support that learning. You can get it to prompt for planning, So you can get it to plan those micro sessions. You can get it to, plan sessions that are specific for students' desires and and and needs. So I have a student I'm working with at the moment who really likes the the rapper, Bugsy Malone. And he has a lot of key messages about being resilient and working hard.

So I've started to to use AI to help me bring though that because I I don't know the lyrics of of the rapper, Bugsy Malone, but I can use AI to help me bring that into maybe my PSHC lessons with this this this gentleman or or with with the English lessons so we can analyze his language and the purpose and the intent behind it. So AI doesn't replace teaching. We're not gonna get it to write our homework for us, but we're gonna use it as a scaffold, not a shortcut. So generating materials, simplifying, personalizing, and freeing up time. But you need to make sure that you keep the accuracy. So one of the things I do is I cut and paste the section from the exam board spec so that I can say to the to the AI.

Make sure that it's this. And that's the bit that I've done the training with my with my AI Sarah science bot. So I figured that there may be a wide variety of of different age groups parents listening here. So thinking about primary versus secondary age groups. So for primary for those key stage two, we need to be doing things in shorter bursts and maybe with picture retrievals and snap, true false games, and that environment is is proportionally more impactful. With secondary, we may want to have interleaving, that synoptic learning, particularly.

Obviously, I'm gonna talk about science more and more because that's that's my specialist subject, but there is there's a lot of overlap between those subjects and how they interleave weave together. So showing students that that biology, chemistry, and physics are not just three distinct separate bubbles. And likewise, with from from English into science, one of the things that the students at secondary school are taught in English is that point evidence explanation, and then they don't seem to apply that in their science three to four marker answers. So it's about showing them that those skills that they're learning in one subject are actually relevant and real to another subject. They may need to, look at exam specific.

Scripting. So what the command words mean, planning their answers with bullet points. In in a lot of science exams, there's longer mark written answers, some of them up to six marks with different exam boards. So they may need to to to be able to plan their answer, and and that's where those English skills that they're learning in that in those English lessons can then be used within their their other topics and other subjects. So primary, keep it short, concrete, playful. Secondary, structured short sprints, and student independence with that support tools. So allow them to choose the topic that they want to do. I can offer if there's any any teachers here that would like, any extra support. There are some resources that I've prepared.

And you can see the websites on the bottom of the of all of the slides. There's just some some help there. A lot of our our work is now, very much ADHD informed, but I think we still need to keep that conversation going, and thinking about how we can best support. So there's there's a pack of resources there for for teachers. And if anybody would like any kind of CPD within a school environment, just get in touch. Because I think it's really important that we start talking with parents about how we they can support their children at home. Because I think often they they're not, that confident about how they can help, and maybe students don't always want to talk to their parents about their their learning, especially when they get to 15.

I've worked with all sorts of different top scientist children just because they they it's not because they don't know the content, it's just because it helps another person doing it. So one of the things that I mentioned earlier was about rewards, rewards, making that progress visible, and I talked about stickers being useful and having that that reward for for knowing or being able to do things. So having streaks, so how many days can they do in a row? Because ADHD brains have a have a lower baseline dopamine and a less efficient reward pathway. So especially if that reward feels far away, one of the things that I was talking about with the the slight edge book is about being able to look so far into the distance, you know, saving £2,250.

A month from the age of 20 up into the age of 60, you'll be a millionaire by the time you reach 60. And you it's kind of that we can't see that far into the future. That reward is is forty years away. That's that's just too far. So motivation with ADHD students isn't just about getting them try harder. So we need clear, immediate, and meaningful rewards to to keep that focus. So, experience points, different different levels of difficulty of questions, And if you look at any of the assessment objectives within any of the exam board specs for any subject, you will see that there are different levels of questions that recall state, describe, explain, evaluate, there is a there's a difference in in difficulty of those questions.

So you could have different points for different types of questions. As I said, streaks, how how many days can they do in a row? But it's about making them clear and attainable. And if a streak breaks, it's a reset compassionately. So don't punish don't doing it. Just say, let's pick ourselves up just like that baby learning to walk, they fall down on their bum, and you get back up and they do it again until they can walk consistently. And it's about kind of saying to them, right, okay. We didn't do it today. Do it tomorrow. So these elements provide frequent dopamine hits for for incremental progress, not just that final result. Give them some of that choice and autonomy so that they can maybe choose what what reward they'll earn. As.

A as a as a teacher, I've with difficult or students that have found motivation difficult, I've often done rewards of of magazines or things that that interest them for their hobbies. I did a reward with one of my my tutoring students last year of of a Stanley Cup. And I when she got her exam results in August, I made sure I sent it to her because she needed to know that that reward was there because she she worked hard to a student that couldn't sit in an exam hall and wouldn't even write her name on an exam paper in year nine to leaving with grade sixes in in year 11 was just a phenomenal growth in her confidence, and ability to engage with the subject that she was really disaffected with. Accountability ladders, so looking at.

A daily minute, daily check ins. I like to think of these going back to that compound effect of doing things on a regular basis daily. Okay? So the evidence shows that motivational gains a positive but mixed. So we need to use meaningful games. We need to give feedback that's going to help students to to progress. So these gamified structures don't need to be infantilized. We don't we a lot of the, computer games can be quite cartoony and and maybe feel a little bit primary school y. So we need things that provide real progress, real feedback, and drive that dopamine pathway. So Henry at the start of the session spoke about the example and yeah. Large drafty halls with rows of desks.

Can create a massive sensory overload even for a neurotypical student. If you are like me and noise sensitive, the environment would magnify that stress. Every pen scratch, every cough or chair scrape becomes a massive distraction. So this is a massive built in disadvantage, that isn't about that ability or effort that that we were talking about at the very beginning. And I'm a massive fan of of being able to use on screen exams so that they can be done in small, comfortable environments. There there's obviously huge challenges and limitations of these, but a lot of the exam boards are looking into these. So AQA are piloting digital exams for some subjects, from 2027, so not too far away. Obviously, that's approval pending.

Pearson aims to offer on screen options by 2030, but there's some implications for that because people need to be able to type. So we need that keyboard fluency. When I was at school, we learned to type on electric typewriters. I'm definitely showing my age there. But they need to be able to read on screen, have split screen reading. I think we're getting better at that now, with using a lot more technology like we're using today to to communicate across the world. So we need to be prepared now. We need to have typing warm ups, on screen practice, keyboard shortcuts, and lots of mock digital items. So we've got some real leading work within Australia, looking at virtual schools and mentoring programs for virtual learners.

Which show scalable models that we can we can look to in The UK to actually help with neurodivergent ADHD learners. And so digital digital exams aren't just a technical upgrade. They're a chance to level the playing field, and that's what it's really all about. It's about not having that stop the clock in your 11 plus exam because as as Henry said at the start, how on earth are we going to know that we've actually lost focus? But we need to make sure that we're building that keyboard fluency, and navigation fluency right now. So I thought I would, just give you a couple of case studies, and I've mentioned a couple of students whilst I've whilst I've been talking.

There's just a few case studies here of some students that I've I've worked with. And these are based on not just learning science, but also that that coaching side of things and working with them as to how we can we can help develop some some techniques that work for them outside of being sat with me. So one of the ones, year 11, he was ADHD with the inattentive type. I couldn't start. So didn't know where to start. Where do I start? Where do I start writing? So we started with lots of of lots of structure, sentence structures, scaffolding, and I would give short tasks, retrieval tasks on a on a daily basis that that mom and dad could then work with the student on, so that they could then see that progress with them.

And they were going to from 28 to 64% correct on mixed science questions and reducing their anxiety because they were then feeling that they can do science. And I'm often saying a lot of my work is is is based on confidence, is based on showing the students that they can learn it. It's just about a constant application to that and and taking the time to to to get underneath it. So case study b, this was a year eight student who was hyperactive ADHD, high energy, constant interruptions, would be very, very distracted within the sessions. So we used a lot of diagram drawing or, diagram labeling. We we had, a gamification streak, so we we had parents.

Would would track how many times they'd they'd done the tasks that I'd set them through throughout the week, those micro sessions. And we can start to see that retrieval increasing from two out of 10 to seven out of 10 in those three weeks just by those micro sessions, that compound effect building on previous learning. And then, this year six, he was having nerves about going up into secondary school that, you know, fitting in with a whole new group, and time blindness, and that whole idea of, you know, how long things take us to do. I was saying to Henry when we were talking about this, I I've got horses and I can easily go and spend two hours down in the barn with the horses having told my husband I'd be there for ten minutes. So.

Time blindness, I think, is is a real common factor that we need to take into account, and that's where timers can help us and that awareness of of keeping things short. So visual schedules, particularly for that primary school age, maybe having that Friday, I I call it the boss fight quiz, but actually having a quiz on a Friday with in the evening with with mom or dad and and making sure that they, you know, they've got that that reward then for for for achieving whatever that achievement looks like. It doesn't have to be a score. It could be effort. Don't always think that, we have to be rewarding correct answers or that percentage correct, and and it kinda comes back to what I was saying earlier. We need to reward the learning.

Did they remember something on that Friday that they didn't remember the previous Friday? Yeah. So, why why things like this can help? Less overwhelm. There is less kind of, I've got this mountain to climb. I can't start. There's more retention. We get parental involvement, and parents know how they can help support the the students, which which is really important because as I said, very often the students don't want the parents' help. But if there's maybe a point to it, they can and and a purpose, they can see that. Frequent dopamine hits, for that motivation. And if we make these low stimulus adjustments, then we can free up that working memory as well. We can use progress, and that's easy for everybody to track.

So that we can get those measurable gains. But those measurable gains, that's that old analogy of Rome wasn't built in a day, that we are putting one foot in front of the other each day to make that step towards it. And this is why I think if we have ADHD students, we should be thinking about revision way before Christmas and and starting now on a daily regular basis and building it in as part of their their daily practice. So I mentioned audio revision so that that the program that I have as well as my science bot is this audio revision with the structure of saying, this week, you're going to revise.

These four micro topics or these five micro topics, and here's how to revise it. You're gonna do a flashcard on that topic. You're gonna draw that diagram, which then really helps the students know exactly what success looks like. And then they've got the audio revisions so they can listen to these less than ten minute short, audio and do that whilst walking the dog or walking to school because we've all we've all got ear pods in or or headphones in all the time now. So so maybe actually then saying, I've revised this morning whilst walking to school, means that it then doesn't feel like this big big challenge or big task to get them to sit down. So, you can access, the presentation and handouts by by going to that page, and just.

If you put your email address in, I will email them over to you, along with all the the packs that I've put together. If you'd like any more information about anything that I can help you with, and and don't feel that that has to paid for. Please just get in touch. I would welcome supporting anybody, giving people ideas, even if you just want how best can I use AI to help me get structure? Please do get in touch. I'm I'm really personable and really friendly and I don't bite, I promise. And as I promised, there are the references at the end there, so that you can access any of the the references that are within the PowerPoint there. So I think now is a good time to see if there's any questions about everything I've said this evening.

Many questions. Anyway, don't don't send the day away like we're we're still afternoon. Oh, yes. Yes. Sorry. This is running. We're running for twenty four hours. Well, twenty eight hours. Like, we're we have to be tight on this this time name. We've had lots of questions and a lot of interesting comments. I enjoyed that enormously. I think it really talked to the specific team for how different we are and that we just need the the the rules, the guidance that is created for everyone else just isn't necessarily a fit for us. It that sort of well, to be honest, what came through was more than that, which is I obviously, within the neurodivergent community, we're quite different. And.

When you gave those examples of this is what I did with this kid, this is what I did with this kid, and you can see why it would work and why it was so impactful and I think it's brilliant. Now we've talked before about AI. And AI within the classroom is, I mean, it's like you're talking about the devil. Like, it's it's people get get excited. And yet, we're seeing, as you pointed out, really amazing uses of AI. And I've certainly talked to a parent who, with their child talking particularly around memorisation, I think we talked about this, that they'd used AI to create a mnemonic. They were struggling to remember something after, for me memory is a massive issue. And.

Remember making mnemonics, won't tell you the mnemonic I have for remembering exactly how the months go. I still have to use it to this day, but I can tell you it's very rude. I like it. The rude ones they remember even more. I encourage rude mnemonics. Anyway, in a more child friendly focused one, so she asked her AI for a mnemonic and it was, you know, decent, but fundamentally not memorable. You talked about student being really into a rapper. In this case, this kid's really into Grey's Anatomy. So they said, can you give me a mnemonic based on Grey's Anatomy? And suddenly, in instant, you've got a mnemonic that actually works, that is memorable. And the use of AI for that kind of thing is spectacular. It's and.

I thought when you talked about using the prompt as a tutor, I have to say like, it's what I do these days. I'm trying to use it to try and work out, work through things. I think there's another use of the prompt which is interesting, which is, you know, the inertia that many with ADHD, myself included, like getting started. But actually starting the prompt is a really low way to get into it. And so I think you were talking about using the prompt, say, to create flashcards. I suppose where I'd started to think about was sometimes the making of the revision items is the revision. So making flashcards, putting diagrams and squiggling things in is actually the learning. I can't.

Yeah. Agree. Ask you about that. But then but then having them premade and then writing them out onto a hard flashcard, so you can get AI to say put together 20 flashcards for this set of notes, and it will pull out the keywords and and make the flashcards based on that student set of notes. And there's a massive advantage to that as well because, obviously, we lose things as ADHDers. So so actually, scanning the notes and having them as an electronic file, it may be a good thing for for a parent to have anyway for, you know, if they've got a year 10 book, I I would highly recommend, you know, having those those electronic resources and repositories of of those books so that you've you've got those notes to go back to.

But then actually then writing them out and putting their own diagrams and their own extra information around that, making their own mnemonics that go with that with that flashcard, as you say, is part of that learning. And then that interaction of using those flashcards in those short spaces on a daily basis is where that retrieval practice and that spaced learning comes in to keep it going throughout time and get those neuropathic pathways built.

It goes to what you were you've shown with your examples, which is the difference amongst kids means you need to think like, for this kid, actually making all the diagrams, that's gonna be incredible revision and it'll really capture them. This kid will you know, we should print out the flashcards and go through them on a on a regular basis and go, like, a little a little a lot of times a little. I thought your point's on dopamine. Go on. Oh, the other thing is using using multiple choice questions.

You know, if you've got if you've got a student that doesn't like writing at all, then multiple choice questions are a great way of of giving them they know the answers there, they then just need to decipher and decode which one is the correct one.

No. I agree. I've done some American thing exams, so which were multiple choice, very sophisticated. So the question, if you got it right, the next question was harder and kept getting harder until it gets sort of a wiggle where you're getting them right and wrong. And it evaluates you that way. It does make me like, when we're talking about looking to get our exams on in five years' time, getting them electronic, I mean, the disparity now, like, I mean, I can tell you, like, as an adult, number of essays written with a pen, very, very low. Like, like, I don't do that. Like, typing large, long things all the time. So the idea that our exams should be handwritten is a bit weird. And as an examiner in my own opinion.

As an examiner, there's a lot of students out there with very difficult to read handwriting.

Yeah. But the thing is though, the other thing you see with online exam or exams on computers is it actually is much easier to have separate rooms, put people in more individualized settings, and some of these issues of these massive, halls or very, difficult exam halls. We had a very odd battle with, involving Cambridge University. So we had a, a GP, Cambridge GP, took it upon themselves right to the Times and say, like, two new Cambridge students were getting an ADHD diagnosis, and they were doing it so that they could get out of taking their exams in the main exam hall, which is, I think, a sixteenth century glorious thing. And the idea that the sixteenth century hall is an important qualifier for your future career livelihood.

Thought it was just I thought it was such an odd thing to get upset about and I just thought extraordinary. We worked with some PhD students there to work up a response. Our response was that Cambridge University has been the home to extraordinary diversity of minds over centuries. And the fact that they're doing work to expand that diversity should be celebrated.

Yeah. Absolutely. Wow.

We're out of time, which is very sad. Okay. Are you up for a rapid fire round? Yeah. I've got a few questions. No. You'd like this is I don't know what the this is flashcard version. Okay. So you've just got to give the summary answer very fast. Okay. Okay. Why doesn't my why doesn't my child's revision stick when they're highlighting their, their notes?

Because they're not doing anything active with it. We need to do something active with it, not just highlight it. It I I wanted to do an activity with everybody, and and maybe you could try this at home. Get a piece of text, highlight the key points, go away, see how much you remember in twenty minutes, and then actually do something active with it. Write five multiple choice questions about it, and then see how much you remember. If you do something active with it, you remember more.

Yeah. You gotta move it around in your brain. Yeah. Like, it's a great push it down some neurons. How long should my kid revise?

I would recommend short daily bursts of of ten, fifteen minutes are much more effective than saying to them revise for two hours straight.

Okay. I wanna challenge that genuinely. So I I see that, but also I know about hyper focus.

Yes. Yep. And it depends on how much they're interested in the topic. So I'm talking about the student who says, I don't need science. I don't want science, but it actually explains the world around us. So if you've got a student that is not hyper focused on that topic, then the short daily burst can work. But if they're uber interested in it, then let them do as much as they feel is is appropriate for them.

Why does traditional whole class revision sessions struggle for ADHD learners?

Too much noise, too much sensory overload, not at the right pace, doesn't explain everything that they need. Yeah. I they get lost in the crowd.

Yeah. And then shock. The same thing happens in the exam hall. Yeah. From social, I'm currently doing an apprenticeship, granted, not a young student anymore. But like, you know, we will run our own race and like as ADHD is, it's usually been tough. I think you should celebrate that you got there to get to that point. Great. I love doing flashcards. I just get stuck on making them. What advice do you have to them? Oh, stuck on making them. Stuck where to start.

Or stuck how to write them, then use AI. If you're stuck where to start, put your notes into AI and say, make me 30 flashcards or make me flashcards on this set of notes, and then use those flashcards and just keep you know, have the word on one side, the the definition on the other, or whatever you're trying to to memorize, and just keep reading them and going back to them on a regular basis. Even if you, you know, you're an older learner like me, I'm still learning all the time. I said I'm listening to audio books all the time and making sure. So I'm constantly learning. I love learning, because that's what keeps me awake. So, yeah. I I If you're stuck where to start, I would definitely use those AI resources to help you.

And I think that tells the underlying ish thing, which is think about what's the block. What's the thing that's stopping you? Yeah. And just target that. And if that's if there's a in politics, it's actually how this topic was introduced to me. In politics when we're trying to get a change happen, they say look at the block analysis, are the blocks to what you want to happen? And break them away. And I think it's exactly the same for if we're struggling to do something. What's the block? It might be an emotional block. It might be a it could be multiple things, but go and nail that. And I think you talked about that saying like if the block's getting started, then AI is your friend. Someone put in the chat talking about.

I think it was LM, Google LM, Notebook LM, And that's a, it's a study aid that you put all your notes into and it can create flashcards for you. Yep. And so that's an example of something. Yeah. I use Quizlet.

There's there's there's lots of great resources out there that that do those kind of things, and you can just put your notes in.

Thank you. Sarah, you've been amazing. Thank I found very that genuinely hugely informative, and there's going be some improved exam grades in the summer, no doubt, as a result of this. Thank you and, well, and as a result of all your work. So thank you very much. You're very welcome. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I have to bid you a jizz. So thank you very much. Bye bye.

Care.