Lee Jackson Motivational Speaker inspires exam students Northern Echo newspaper

June 1, 2016 By Lee

“STUDENTS have been inspired by a motivational speaker Lee Jackson to look to their future in the run up to impending exams…

Lee Jackson Motivational speaker in the northern echo

Being from the North East originally its nice to get a bit of press in one of North Easts newspapers – thanks to Wensleydale School and the Northern Echo 🙂

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/14521379.Exam_students_are_inspired_by_motivational_speaker

“STUDENTS have been inspired by a motivational speaker to look to their future in the run up to impending exams.

Motivational speaker and self-help author Lee Jackson addressed Year 11 and Year 13 students at the Wensleydale School and Sixth Form as they prepare to sit GCSEs and A Levels.

Billingham-born and now based in Leeds, Mr Jackson will become president of the Professional Speaking Association in the UK and Ireland in October.

An award winning teenage DJ and a youth worker, he has been speaking to audiences of all sizes for the past eight years as a motivational speaker in business and education.

He told students: “You are experts in education. The fact you are still here means you have the ability to do it. Up to this point you have taken many exams so you know you can do them.”

“Ding is the noise your brain hears when you learn something new,” he said. “But learning only ever takes place when you put it into practice.

“Every second counts and there is not enough time in the day to study and spend five hours on-line and on social media.

“Write down your ideas or you will forget them and it is the little steps that make a difference. Behave well in lessons and encourage you friends. Keep going as you are approaching the final hurdle.” ”

Finland schools throw down the gauntlet to English schools… Subjects scrapped and replaced with ‘topics’ as country reforms its education system via The Independent

March 23, 2015 By Lee

Wow this is very challenging for the top brass in the Dept. For Education.

So often in the past few years Finland and Singapore amongst others have been lauded as the top countries to emulate…

…and now they want to scrap some subject teaching.

How will that fit with OFSTED and the obsessive reporting and admin that causes so much stress for teachers?

Radical stuff, could this help to kill the high turnover of English teachers and just let teachers teach?

More information below via the excellent Telegraph article by Richard Garner:

Finland schools: Subjects scrapped and replaced with ‘topics’ as country reforms its education system – Europe – World – The Independent.

For years, Finland has been the by-word for a successful education system, perched at the top of international league tables for literacy and numeracy.

Only far eastern countries such as Singapore and China outperform the Nordic nation in the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings. Politicians and education experts from around the world – including the UK – have made pilgrimages to Helsinki in the hope of identifying and replicating the secret of its success.Which makes it all the more remarkable that Finland is about to embark on one of the most radical education reform programmes ever undertaken by a nation state – scrapping traditional “teaching by subject” in favour of “teaching by topic”.“This is going to be a big change in education in Finland that we’re just beginning,” said Liisa Pohjolainen, who is in charge of youth and adult education in Helsinki – the capital city at the forefront of the reform programme.Pasi Silander, the city’s development manager, explained: “What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life.“Young people use quite advanced computers.

In the past the banks had lots of bank clerks totting up figures but now that has totally changed.“We therefore have to make the changes in education that are necessary for industry and modern society.”Subject-specific lessons – an hour of history in the morning, an hour of geography in the afternoon – are already being phased out for 16-year-olds in the city’s upper schools. They are being replaced by what the Finns call “phenomenon” teaching – or teaching by topic. For instance, a teenager studying a vocational course might take “cafeteria services” lessons, which would include elements of maths, languages (to help serve foreign customers), writing skills and communication skills.More academic pupils would be taught cross-subject topics such as the European Union – which would merge elements of economics, history (of the countries involved), languages and geography.

There are other changes too, not least to the traditional format that sees rows of pupils sitting passively in front of their teacher, listening to lessons or waiting to be questioned. Instead there will be a more collaborative approach, with pupils working in smaller groups to solve problems while improving their communication skills.Marjo Kyllonen, Helsinki’s education manager – who will be presenting her blueprint for change to the council at the end of this month, said: “It is not only Helsinki but the whole of Finland who will be embracing change.“We really need a rethinking of education and a redesigning of our system, so it prepares our children for the future with the skills that are needed for today and tomorrow.“There are schools that are teaching in the old fashioned way which was of benefit in the beginnings of the 1900s – but the needs are not the same and we need something fit for the 21st century.”The reforms reflect growing calls in the UK – not least from the Confederation of British Industry and Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt – for education to promote character, resilience and communication skills, rather than just pushing children through “exam factories”.

But there would currently be little appetite in the UK for going as far as ditching traditional subjects. Even in Finland, the reforms have met objections from teachers and heads – many of whom have spent their lives focusing on a particular subject only to be told to change their approach.Ms Kyllonen has been advocating a “co-teaching” approach to lesson planning, with input from more than one subject specialist. Teachers who embrace this new system can receive a small top-up in salary.About 70 per cent of the city’s high school teachers have now been trained in adopting the new approach, according to Mr Silander.“We have really changed the mindset,” he said. “It is quite difficult to get teachers to start and take the first step… but teachers who have taken to the new approach say they can’t go back.”Early data shows that students are benefiting too. In the two years since the new teaching methods first began being introduced, pupil “outcomes” – they prefer that word to standards – have improved.Finnish schools are obliged to introduce a period of “phenomenon-based teaching” at least once a year.

These projects can last several weeks. In Helsinki, they are pushing the reforms at a faster pace with schools encouraged to set aside two periods during the year for adopting the new approach. Ms Kyllonen’s blueprint, to be published later this month, envisages the reforms will be in place across all Finnish schools by 2020.Meanwhile, the pre-school sector is also embracing change through an innovative project, the Playful Learning Centre, which is engaged in discussions with the computer games industry about how it could help introduce a more “playful” learning approach to younger children.“We would like to make Finland the leading country in terms of playful solutions to children’s learning,” said Olavi Mentanen, director of the PLC project,The eyes of the education world will be upon Finland as it opts for change: will it be able to retain or improve its showing in the PISA league tables published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.If it does, how will the rest of the education world react?Case study: Finnish approachIt is an English lesson, but there is a map of continental Europe on the whiteboard. The children must combine weather conditions with the different countries displayed on the board. For instance, today it is sunny in Finland and foggy in Denmark. This means the pupils combine the learning of English with geography.Welcome to Siltamaki primary school in Helsinki – a school with 240 seven- to 12-year-olds – which has embraced Finland’s new learning style. Its principal, Anne-Mari Jaatinen, explains the school’s philosophy: “We want the pupils to learn in a safe, happy, relaxed and inspired atmosphere.”We come across children playing chess in a corridor and a game being played whereby children rush around the corridors collecting information about different parts of Africa. Ms Jaatinen describes what is going on as “joyful learning”. She wants more collaboration and communication between pupils to allow them to develop their creative thinking skills.

How to pass exams – Part 20 – Superman, Muhammad Ali and the air steward!

March 18, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 20 Superman, Muhammad Ali and the air steward!

The heavyweight boxer Mohammed Ali was amazing,

I saw him in a Leeds bookshop a few years ago.

He is probably the greatest sports star of all time and was known to be quick witted. Interviewers loved him as he bragged about being the greatest, or “the champ”.

At the height of his career, he was on an aeroplane in First Class, with his people around him. Everyone was excited that Mohammed Ali was on the plane. The air steward was walking up the aisle checking that everyone had fastened their seat belts. She walked up and down the aisle, staring at everyone’s lap, double-checking the seat belts.

As she walked past Mohammed Ali she said

“Excuse me Mr Ali, can you put your seatbelt on please?”

Mohammed Ali said to her

“Superman doesn’t need a seat belt”.

Ouch!

But the air steward came back quickly and said

“Yes, Mr Ali, but Superman doesn’t need an aeroplane”!

I wish I’d been there!

She was super quick and left Muhammad Ali lost for words.

Superman’s a fictional alien from another planet – a made up comic character – he doesn’t exist and Superwoman don’t exist either.

We don’t have super powers – we can’t do this school/college thing on our own.

We must always take responsibility for our own success but we are also responsible for each other’s success too.

We can succeed together.

Because we contribute to everyone else’s success, the way you act in school; the way you behave in lessons; the way you are with your mates; the way you encourage your mates instead of putting them down, makes a big difference.

You and your mates are in this together.

You’re a team…

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

Do you remember the rescue of the miners in Chile?

33 men got stuck 2000 feet underground.

It was 17 days before their families even knew they were still alive.

Then hundreds of people worked, prayed and hoped they would get back to the surface and on the 13th October 2010 (69 days later) the first miner Florencio Alvalos came back to the surface to hug his wife and his son.

It was truly amazing to watch. The world fixed its gaze on Chile as we saw every miner rescued safely.

Florencio said he didn’t want to celebrate until all 33 of them were back safely.

Probably the most amazing news story of recent years and it was filled with such hope, a real break from the doom and gloom of the normal news.

They all made it because they all got involved and even the engineers and families on the surface were just as much part of the rescue as the miners were themselves.

It’s like the whole of Chile contributed to their rescue.

They made it out because they were a team.

Hope kept them alive when many people said they wouldn’t make it.

You can make it too!

Honest 🙂

This an excerpt from Top UK motivational School Speaker Lee Jackson’s book “How To Enjoy And Succeed At School And College” Available in paperback and on Kindle (for only £1.99 during pre-exam time) here now.

How to pass exams – Part 19 – The 3R’s

March 17, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 19 – The 3R’s

“At the end of the day it’s really all about people.”
Will Smith

Before we come in to land, there’s just one more tip to help you, one more thing that you may not hear very often, it’s what I call the 3R’s. The 3R’s aren’t Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic, (spelt wrongly as they used to be in the 1950’s), but they stand for Relationships, Relationships and you’ve guessed it…Relationships.

Life is basically a network of relationships.

It doesn’t matter where you go, what you do, life is made up of relationships.

If you go to a shop and see a t-shirt that you want in blue but they only have it in black, you have to ask someone.

You don’t have to marry them or anything but you need to have a relationship with them to ask, it’s the same at home and with your mates in and out of school. Then of course there’s ‘going out’ with people – holdy handy, kissy kissy! Even when you go out to a restaurant, it’s always best to be nice to the waiter or waitress because if you aren’t, your food might come back with some “added extras!”

Life’s like Blackpool Rock… Kinda crunchy and bad for your teeth?!

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

If you chop Blackpool Rock in the middle what does it say?

If I chop it two thirds of the way through what does it say?

If I chop it four fifths of the way through what does it say?

That’s right. “Blackpool Rock”.

Wherever you chop life and however you look at it, it will always be about ‘relationships’.

There will always be a relationship that makes all the difference, ‘cos relationships are life, and if you put your relationships first, amazing things start to happen.

I’ll give you a cast iron guarantee right here, right now.

If you get on better with the people around you at school – you’ll do better in school.

If you can get on better with the staff in school then I guarantee that you will do better in school.

You will be more successful.

But, hey, don’t panic. No-one’s perfect, you’re not perfect because I know I’m not perfect, but if you prioritise your relationships what happens is very powerful, everything else seems to fall into place.

That’s how it’s meant to be, it’s how life works.

If I am getting on better with my wife and daughters at home I have a better day/week/month.

Relationships make a BIG, BIG difference to your life, in and out of school.

Challenging but true.

Relationships do seem complicated but they’re not really. We don’t have to be an expert we just have to be honest, learn to say sorry and try to be a fun, reliable person.

Two quick tips for your life at home, help around the house every now and again and tidy your room! Your life will be soooooo much quieter and enjoyable if you do these sorts of things.

The best thing I learnt in my marriage was to wash up!

Sorry to sound like a Dad – but I promise those tips will make your life much more fun.

Try it!

More to come…

How to pass exams – Part 18 – Keep on going! #keepongoing

March 15, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 18 – Keep on going!!

“Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.”
Josh Billings U.S. funny man (1818 – 1885)

In all the years I’ve been in education this one above all is important;

When wartime prime minister Winston Churchill visited Harrow, his former school, he made a famous and simple speech. After a year of war in which Britain had been bombed mercilessly by Adolf Hitler he said:

“…surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”

About a year earlier many people wanted to give up as it looked like Britain was losing the war, Winston Churchill’s guts was one of the reasons Britain made it through those tough years.

Now is a bad time to give up on your education.

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

Sometimes I meet people in Year 11 or 13 who look ok but really some of them have given up inside.

After almost 14,000 hours of schooling some people seem to give up at the last hurdle. Sometimes just keeping on going is how you will be successful, it’s not magic, amazing or spectacular, it’s just about getting out of bed, going to school, putting one foot in front of the other and keeping on going.

It’s obviously important to work smart and get our priorities right but for many of us it is just about putting one foot in front of the other.

One of my favourite stories is the amazing resilience of a woman called Cha Sa-soon from Seoul in Korea.

In November 2009 she passed her written driving test, nothing spectacular but she had taken it 950 times! That means that 949 times she paid her money and faced nothing but rejection and frustration. But on the 950th time she passed!

She has not actually been in a car yet!

That’s just the exam so she can have a licence and now she’ll have to sit a practical driving test so she can drive. Speaking after her 775th failure she said: “I believe you can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it…so don’t give up your dream…be strong and do your best.”

Great advice from someone who has done well.

My mum took 12 driving tests to pass. I’ve been in the car with her and that was about the right number!

I wonder how many tests Cha Sa-soon will take?

It’s just about keeping on going.

The left hand side of the above diagram might be where you are now, your goal might be to go to university or start the career of your choice. Some people will tell you that life travels easily in a happy straight line… but that’s not how it works. Sometimes we have a good day and a not so good day, a great week and a not so great week, a bit of dip here and there, but eventually you make it to your goal. Ultimately the difference between people who succeed at school and those who don’t is simply this, it’s what you do on your not so good days when things aren’t going quite so well that makes all the difference.

Don’t give up. You can do it!

Honestly you can!

More to come…

How to pass exams – Part 17 – Join in the opportunity to serve and see your job prospects rise!

March 14, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 17 – Join in the opportunity to serve and see your job prospects rise!

Over the summer and in the holidays what are you going to do which isn’t all about you, but is about serving others too?

Simon Glass is a former pupil of Allerton High School in Leeds and up and coming film-maker, but how did he get into it?

“I went on loads of work experience trips during the summer, I didn‘t get paid but I got to work on some short films and through that I met a famous Oscar winning film director called Anthony Minghella and I went to work for his company.”

Simon went to serve for free but it also helped him to get the next step on the ladder.

He gave his time away and look how that helped him too!

I don’t fully understand it, but it seems to work.

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

This is me on a clean-up day – three or four times a year youth groups from around Leeds hire a few skips and go to the toughest parts of our city, we clean up a few streets and serve the area, it’s great messy fun.

We don’t get anything for it, there’s no newspaper coverage, we just change a street for the day.

No-one talks to us at first but gradually people come out of their houses and talk to us, we put sofas in skips and pick up all sorts of unmentionable rubbish!

Why?

Because I believe that serving people makes us better humans, and that helps us to be the best we can be.

Who can you serve this week, in and out of school?

More to come…

How to pass exams – Part 16 – Serve

March 13, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 16 – Serving your fellow adventurers

“If there is one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view, and see things from that person’s angle, as well as from your own.”
Henry Ford (the first person to make mass produced cars)

Gordon Brown was one of the most ridiculed and hated Prime Ministers of recent times, the media were always having a go at him saying crazy things like “He’s Scottish, he’s got a wrinkly face…and he can’t even smile properly!’ Poor man. Whichever way you may want to vote no-one can help what their face looks like! He was trying to steer us through the worst financial crisis since the Second World War but everyone seemed to hate him. It was a tough ride for him, but when Gordon Brown eventually resigned as the Prime Minister, he said ‘It was a privilege to SERVE as the Prime Minister of the UK’.

A privilege to serve? Eh?!

He didn’t have a go at anyone he just said, “It was a privilege to serve”.

I was amazed.

When Richard St. John did his research into ‘successful’ people, he found out that they all served others in some way.

What?

Aren’t successful people only out for themselves?

Serve wasn’t really a word I expected to see in his list, and to be honest it’s kind of unfashionable these days. Rarely mentioned, never mind promoted. Serve? What did they mean?

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

In order to be a successful human being we have to serve others in some way. I charge for what I do, that’s business, but I also give free advice too, because when you give something away I believe it is returned to you.

I speak at schools and businesses now, where in the past I helped them for free.

“What goes around comes around.”

“What you sow you reap.”

Imagine your favourite shop where the people serving you were only focused on themselves and not on you as a customer. What a horrible shop that would be. Rude and aloof staff; no returns or even help – maybe we’d buy something once from them, but we’d probably not go back there.

‘..I asked Ben Cohen (the co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream) what led to his success and he said “ I think I’m good at being able to put myself in the shoes of my consumer (i.e an ice cream eater!)’
(Ben comes up with all their new flavours)

Extract from “8 Traits Successful People Have In Common: 8 to be great” by Richard St. John 2010 ISBN 9780973900972

“put myself in their shoes…” sounds like serving to me.

When people are messing about in lessons and giving the teacher hassle, what would happen if they put themselves in the teacher’s shoes?

How would that make them feel?

Where do you serve?

Have a think.

More to come…

How to pass exams – Part 15 – Get good!

March 6, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 15 – Get good!

“A genius! For 37 years I’ve practised 14 hours a day and now they call me a genius!”
Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908) Violinist and composer

I was speaking at a school assembly once, as I walked into the hall there were flyers all over the place and a real buzz in the air. It turns out that Jay Sean the R&B star had just been in to do a gig and I’d missed him by 5 minutes. I was up next, how was I gonna follow him?! Then I read an article about Jay Sean and found out that before he had a major record contract or anyone knew him, he’d done 2,000 free gigs, maybe one in your school.

But why?

Because whatever it is we want to succeed at, we have got to get good.

One of my favourite TV moments was the Britain’s Got Talent episode when Susan Boyle auditioned. It was jaw dropping TV. She spoke to the camera about her cat Pebbles and then to Ant and Dec about how nervous she was, then as she walked out onto the stage looking cheerful (but slightly confused) she answered a few of Simon Cowell’s questions.

The interview was awkward and a bit embarrassing to be honest, the whole nation expected to see ‘train wreck TV’.

Everything was stacked against her, she’s a middle aged single woman from a small village in Scotland with a bad dress made out of curtains and a mono-brow. Everyone thought this isn’t going to go well, but then she started to sing, “I dreamed a dream in time gone byyyyyyyy”

And we were all blown away, even Simon Cowell.

She was amazing.

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

What I love most about Susan Boyle is that she’s changed Simon Cowell forever!

The unchangeable, high waist-banded man has been changed at last! Simon Cowell said afterwards ‘I will never treat someone with such disrespect as I did with Susan Boyle.

It’s changed the way I think about auditions’, and I reckon that Simon Cowell is a lot nicer now than he was previously all because of a lovely shy lady from a village in Scotland.

Someone we all wrote off.

The papers the next day said “SUSAN BOYLE, OVERNIGHT SUCCESS!”

But she wasn’t. Why? ‘Cos she’d been singing since she was 12, in her bedroom, her bathroom, her kitchen, in the church choir, in the village hall – that’s 35 years of practice! Then at 47 she managed to get her break. There are no shortcuts. Sometimes you just have to get good at stuff over time.

Practice doesn’t make perfect but it is essential to success. When you hand in an assignment or you take an exam and it comes back graded ‘D’ – you’ve got 2 choices

The ‘Whatever’ choice; “It’s a ‘D’ ‘Whatever!”

Alternatively you can decide, ‘Do you know what – I’m gonna redo that, and get a ‘B’

It’s a choice that you have to make, no-one can make it for you.

You decide.

You have mock exams/assessments for a reason – ‘I didn’t get quite the results I needed this time but you know what I’m gonna work hard and I’m gonna do it better next time, I’m gonna work smart and I’m gonna make it happen.’

Susan Boyle and Jay Sean weren’t overnight successes and neither will you be.

But if you GET GOOD – just think what you can achieve.

More to come…

How to pass exams – Part 14 – Generating ideas and writers block

March 5, 2015 By Lee

How to pass exams – Part 14 – Generating ideas

“Ideas light the way to success.”

Even though I can remember a whole talk lasting an hour or more, I can’t remember a fleeting thought and I bet you can’t either.

And now, a quick word about generating ideas.

My technique is simple:

Use some blank paper or a blank whiteboard or flip chart. I meet loads of people who try to generate ideas using lined paper or a boring blank Word document.

Don’t do it, it’s all about the blank paper or whiteboard.

Write your subject idea in the middle of the paper and do a quick mind map writing down anything that comes to mind that’s related to the subject, don’t put them in any order just enjoy the creative process.

Once you’ve got all your ideas down, then put them into order and start writing.

Easy.

You may even find it helpful to stand up while doing this.

Ever wondered why basketball shorts are so long?…

“Michael Jordan had a problem, he wanted to wear his North Carolina College shorts because he felt they were lucky. It wouldn’t normally be a problem except Michael played for the Chicago Bulls.

Boing!

He got the idea to wear baggier and longer shorts than other players so he could hide his North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform.

This idea set him apart, it started a craze and soon every player was wearing longer basketball shorts, which opened up whole new opportunities for sportswear.”

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]

Activity: Writer’s block

How to get writing when you’re stuck…

If you are having trouble writing for a project or a piece of homework – try this technique: Get a blank piece of A4 paper and write your subject at the top of the page. Then set a stopwatch to countdown for five minutes. Press start and just write on that subject without stopping, don’t worry about punctuation, grammar or neat handwriting – just write. Let it flow – don’t edit. Keep doing it until you’ve got enough to use and edit. I’ve learnt that the only way to write is to actually write and not to just talk or think about writing.

More to come…

Free Collins #GCSE Revision Planner!

March 4, 2015 By Lee

My publisher Collins are giving away this simple GCSE Revision planner a great way to get going in your revision and study skills

Collins-Revision-Timetable-download <— just click there or save as to get it free