Love your job

Just a quick note to say that I don't think many people have the privilege of emails like this one dropping into their inbox, on a daily basis, like I do.

Perhaps you are an Ofsted inspector; teacher; educator; educational administrator;  politician; school governor; parent; enthusiast; reporter; educational blogger or someone who has an interest generally, you really need to listen to young people when they have the courage to articulate their view.

 

 

"Thank you for your email confirming my session tomorrow. I look forward to it!

I am aware that I haven't been at InterHigh for very long, but I would just like to say thank you. InterHigh is amazing! My classmates are lovely and never have an angry word to say to me, the teachers are equally fun and creative and the admin staff are extremely caring and helpful. I have honestly never been so happy to go to school!
Thank you for everything. "

No, thank you student.

Jacqueline Daniell
Director of Development
Interhigh Education

Paris Shootings

Paris Shootings

InterHigh staff and students  send support and sympathy to the people of France after the  appalling tragedy of the Paris shootings.

As a school, we practise and promote international tolerance amongst our students who come from many different ethnic groups and faiths. We see on a daily basis, the friendship and support which our students and staff extend to each other and which promotes education in its fullest sense.

We stand with the people of France at this sad time and hope that the values of our school can in some way radiate out to the wider world communities.

InterHigh School

It's already been a busy year

Created with Padlet

The Ideal Teacher

OK, I will start by saying that this is neither a long project nor a copied one from the Internet. In this essay I just want to express some points of view.

The ideal teacher for me:

A teacher must not judge you on grounds like: how long your hair is, the fact that you are making jokes from time to time, what kind of computer games you are playing or what kind of music you listen to. NO! A teacher must judge you on what you have learned, but the big problem is that certain kids DON'T LEARN.

Many have asked themselves : why don't kids learn? why do they think everything is boring?

And here's my answer: a teacher must find ways to determine kids to learn, to find and to discover interesting things, because, you know...that's what teachers are meant for. Why bother feeding us stuff we already know and we can learn from the internet?

Let me give you an example : at Geography, we are supposed to learn about a certain country and nobody is paying attention. If the teacher would say : “ You know, Calin, the action in this movie or that video game is taking place in this country and I am just trying to make you discover it and learn more about it ...” , oh boy, I swear I would have only A grades at Geography!

 To a certain extent, too many of our teachers are like robots: they enter the classroom, write on the table without trying to explain and then leave the classroom.

For teachers, my slogan always was : “ You do not care about me? I do not care about you, either!”

I have to admit that probably I am either courageous or stupid, disrespectful or... whatever, to say those words. And I know : my opinion can trigger certain consequences, but I am ready to assume the risk, or quite frankly, I don't care.

Some teachers are good, but too many are there just for being there.

That is my opinion.

Calin-Alexandru Hasnas”
  

Sophia Andersen - See The Light (Original Song)

students have opportunity to raise their cognition Level

Pryanka Shah talks to Jacqueline Daniell about recent achievements in MyCognition.

We are pleased to announce that in July a study using our specialised video game to improve cognitive health in 600 students was published by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) at their Forum in Milan. This is a very significant event because it is the first time that the FENS Forum has accepted an abstract on the improvement of cognitive health using video games. This notable achievement solidly underpins the approach of building evidence to show the positive benefit of our products to students and schools.

This is the abstract of the study.

Working memory and executive functioning are improved in school students using an applied action video game

Introduction
Claims have been made that computer games can improve cognitive health, but few studies substantiate this finding. We attempted to provide robust evidence of the transfer of cognitive ability from a computer game to an independent assessment of cognition.

Method
We used a specially developed validated cognitive tool comprising 10 tests, MyCognition Quotient (MyCQ), which can determine an individual’s cognitive abilities, based on the five main cognitive domains (Attention, Psychomotor Speed, Working Memory, Executive Functioning, Episodic Memory).

The tool feeds the results into our specially designed, applied computer video game, which we developed, it is tailor-made to train the domains that require improvement. Six hundred students (11-13 yrs.) from a Netherland's school enrolled in the study. All were tested, but only 300 received game training. After 4 weeks training (minimum 60 minutes per week) all students were tested again. After a further 4 weeks of training all of the students were tested again.

Results
The study showed positive effects at 4 weeks in all cognitive domains, with statistical significance in Working Memory and Executive functioning.
 

Domain	Mean Difference	p-value	Cohen’s d
Working Memory	-0.266*	0.0102	-0.202
Episodic Memory	-0.109^	0.3277	-0.077
Attention	0.093^	0.4818	0.055
Psychomotor Speed	0.212^	0.1139	0.125
Executive Functioning	-0.150*	0.0240	0.178

 

* significant difference (p=<0.05)
^ trend in favour of active

At 8 weeks the results were less compelling due to poor compliance, but a dose response (duration of training per week/cognitive health) was observed across all domains.

Conclusion
More work is required, but in this large study using an independent assessment of cognition, we were able to show the transfer of cognitive enhancement in at least two domains following personalised cognitive training. A qualitative assessment suggested that teachers and students saw benefits that were transferred to curriculum studies. Large scale follow-ups and further studies using this cognitive assessment tool and another applied video game are underway. Compliance was noted as a big issue and future games will be more engaging to ensure training beyond four weeks.

If you have any questions regarding this study or any aspect of our work, please contact myself, or one of our team.

Many thanks,
Priyanka Shah | Education Coordinator 
My Cognition

Some parental thoughts, thanks, feedback and paintings!