May 2004

This month’s newsletter is about barriers. We provide a short piece on Roger Bannister and how he broke the 4 minute mile record on May 6th 50 years ago, reflections on Bear Grylls’ Mount Everest record and some practical advice for you and your child to overcome the barriers of exams. We also give some advice on how to encourage parents into your school!

Barriers: who needs them?

The 4 minute mile had beguiled athletes for hundreds of years. Active debate about whether it was possible raged and yet within 50 years, close to 1,000 runners have beaten the once 'unbreakable barrier' in the mile. On August 8th 1980 13 men ran sub 4 minutes in the same event at Crystal Palace. Roger Bannister would finish 117 metres behind Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.

When Mount Everest was finally conquered in 1953, the mountain lost some of its mystery. In May 1992, 30 climbers from five separate expeditions reached the top on the same day.

What is it about barriers? What are the personal qualities of someone who can break through barriers?

Barriers: you'll never run a four minute mile

The summer of 1954 was to be Roger Bannister's last competitive season. He had set his mind on a career in medicine and it would be a great release for him if he finally unburdened himself of the barrier of the 4 minute mile. Bannister was perhaps the last of the great amateur athletes. His approach to training and to sport generally typified an era of insouciance. Believe it or not, it wasn't cool to be seen to try too hard! His training routine was old fashioned and haphazard, fitting sessions in between lectures. He had no coach. Athletes like Bannister would harness their energies for two or three great efforts a season. In the 1980s Steve Scott and John Walker competed two or three times a week in season in an attempt to become the first athlete to run 100 sub 4 minute miles.

The old saw is that 'the winner of the race is the one who slows down the least'. Bannister chose his pacemakers wisely. Chataway and Brasher were not only friends and Olympic standard athletes, they were more enlightened in their preparation methods. Bannister would visualize the race:

' Each night in the week before the race there came a moment when I saw myself at the starting line. My whole body would grow nervous and tremble. I ran the race over in my mind.'

When the race began Bannister said that he seemed 'propelled by some unknown force' and that his legs 'seemed to meet no resistance at all'. He remembers hearing Brasher's coach Franz Stampfl shouting above the noise of the crowd to 'relax' and unconsciously obeying. He barely noticed the half-mile time of 1:58. When, 300 yards from home, he passed Chataway, he says he had 'a moment of mixed joy and anguish'.

'When my mind took over, I felt the moment of a lifetime had come there was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim. The world seemed to stand still, or did not exist. The only reality was the next 200 yards of track under my feet. The tape meant finality - extinction perhaps.''

The announcement came. 'the result of the one mile …. Time: 3 minutes 59.4 seconds …'
The crowd roared, Bannister scampered round the track all fatigue gone. The rest, as they say, is history.

1954 was a year of breaking down barriers. In that year, after 7 years of research Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine for Polio, racial segregation was banned in US state schools and IBM launched its first computer - which could be rented by a business for a quarter of a million dollars annually. When we look at what it takes to overcome barriers certain useful features emerge:

Barrier breakers invest heavily in a desired outcome. The end product is seen as worth the years of effort.
Barrier breakers persist and tolerate setbacks by focusing on the bigger picture
Barrier breakers are often devoid of ego. This does not mean they aren't selfish. They are driven by something bigger than personal fame or attention.
Barrier breakers have a strong inner core of self worth. They are not egotists, but they are sure of their abilities

Barriers: you'll never pass those exams

We are in the middle of the testing season. Mentally many of your children will be mentally rehearsing patterns of failure. For some it's all negative self talk -'I'm no good at, I'll never be able to, it's an impossible task' . For others, it's blithe self-denial!

Here is our small contribution to your child overcoming the barrier - real or imagined - of the test.

Ten Revision tips

Visualize success. Practice the exam routine in your head. Rehearse what you will do and how. Do it regularly. This will relax you on the day.
Self-test. Test yourself as you go. Do so regularly and in different ways.
Study-buddy. Study with someone else from time to time. Use these sessions to test each other. Try teaching a topic to someone else. It's a great way to learn
Talk through. Talk yourself through as you go. Like a commentary in a football match, this helps you make sense of what's going on.
Re-present your understanding. Don't just copy notes. Present them in a different way. Try posters, memory maps and diagrams.
Get the big picture. Use your bedroom and lay out all the notes you need and stand back. Organize them in an order that makes sense to you. Shut your eyes and see if you can remember where everything is.
Spaced rehearsal. Don't study like some people drink alcopops! Binging is no good for anyone. With study, a little and often is best.
Chunk the information. Sort the key facts into 5 pieces of information at most. Write them on card. Arrange the cards in an order that makes sense to you.
Challenge and reward. Set yourself study targets for each session. 'I will read this chapter and draw a memory map by 7.00 o'clock' then give yourself a reward when you do it!
Get there in time. Try not to study too much the night before an exam. Early to bed and get to school with time to spare.

Barriers: you'll never get the parents into your school

The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair grabbed the May Day headlines and the parental ear with his promise of free nursery places and David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, stole them back again with the charge that many young people "lack good parental role models". Schools meanwhile struggle to get the parents to come into school. Here is our contribution, in no particular order, to overcoming the barrier of getting parents into school.

Newsletters. Are typically letters on headed paper written in a style that frightens the life out of you. Freshen up. Use images, headings and colour or don't bother!
E-news. Send the newsletter electronically and organize a discussion forum around it. Challenge your pupils to show it to their parent.
Separate male and female parent or grandparent sessions. In some communities separate sessions are helpful because of cultural difference and language barriers
Consultation evening raffle. Everyone coming gets a ticket. You've got to be in it to win it!
Combine it with something else. If you have a consultation evening then tag it on to something which may be more attractive.
Buy fish and chips! In some communities food after a session represents a big family saving on meals.
What would it take? Conduct a survey amongst parents asking - amongst other things - just what it would take to get them to come into school
Parent and child computer club. Doing something together is great for learning. Why not use you facilities to encourage this?
E-tutoring. Parenting issues as a discussion forum on the school website.
Books are us. Give reading books away or start a reading club
School gates. Get to the school-phobics by putting information into their hands at the school gates. Build a very large notice board at the school gates
DVD. Put your message, sample lessons, children talking about how they learn on a DVD
Weave in the message. During a school performance have children talk about how they learn, include a short 10 minute session on how to help your child succeed
Have the pupils run the show. Pupils host the consultation events and write the invites
Out of school meetings. Have meetings with the parent or parents on neutral territory. Get sponsorship from a hotel to have use of their lounge area. Try the local football club!
Specific issue sessions. Have an after school session which looks at a specific issue: help with homework, rules for television
Grab a granddad. Focus on lads, dads and granddads.
Come and see us learning mum. A series of parent visit slots in which they can sit in and watch what happens
School of sport. Use sports activities with local qualified coaches as a route to parents or carers.

Barriers: you're too young to climb Everest

So - only twenty-three years of age, two years earlier you have had a near fatal parachuting accident in Africa, almost severing your spinal cord, and you've spent the last year convalescing. What do you think of as you lie there in bed? For Bear Grylls it was to climb Everest. In doing so he became the youngest Briton to get to the top. Irvine was 26 years of age when he and Mallory disappeared on the slopes of Everest in 1928. Bear Grylls, after breaking two vertebrae and chipping a third, narrowly missing being paralysed for life, spent his convalescent year planning to climb the mountain.

Despite moments of great pain and despair, Bear worked hard to regain his mobility and with great persistence he and his team planned their Everest expedition. With dogged determination they raised the necessary sponsorship and began training for the gruelling task ahead. Bear Grylls entered The Guinness Book of Records on May 26th, 1998 at 07.22am, joining only thirty British climbers to have successfully completed the expedition and return alive.

The actual ascent of Everest took ninety days enduring extreme weather, two months of limited sleep and almost running out of oxygen deep inside the 'death zone' (above 26,000 feet). On the way down from his first reconnaissance climb, Bear fell into a 19,000 foot deep crevasse, was knocked unconscious and came to swinging on the end of a rope. Had it not been for the tenacity of his team mates he would not be alive today.

Before the Everest expedition, Bear spent three years as a Specialist Combat Survival Instructor and Patrol Medic with the SAS. In September 1997, he became the Youngest Briton to climb Mount Ama Dablam in the Himalayas (22,500 feet), a peak described by Sir Edmond Hillary as 'unclimbable'.

His book, 'Facing Up', published by Macmillan soared into the bestseller list and to date has sold over 20,000 copies.

Bear Grylls will be one of our special keynote speakers at Alite 2004 Meeting the Challenge. 16 case studies feature at this year's conference at the Café Royal, London on 25th June. In addition to Bear Grylls, the keynote speakers include Alistair Smith and Lady Marie Stubbs.

To register for the conference, please email events@alite.co.uk or visit the website at www.alite.co.uk

Fresh, exciting ideas for teaching maths

Our favourite mathematics genius Chris Tomlinson is back! An ex-professional footballer and inspirational trainer, Chris has worked with Alite to create an Accelerated Learning-based numeracy course. The course takes place at a number of venues throughout the UK, and may also be booked as an INSET. For more details, please email events@alite.co.uk or visit the website at www.alite.co.uk