Stick to the Plan: What Shoelaces and Old Computers Can Teach Your Child About GCSE Progress

Let me ask you something.

How fast can you tie your shoelaces?

Totally out of left field - I know - but this is something I say to GCSE students who are feeling disheartened with their progress in a subject.

When I think back to learning to tie my shoelaces, I remember feeling a whole range of emotions:

"Why am I so rubbish!?"
"Why can everyone else do it?"
"How come sometimes I can do it and other times I can't?"
"Why can't I just wear Velcro forever?!"

And then come the tears.

Every single time I tried and failed I wanted to give up. It's a really good job I grew out of that - otherwise I probably wouldn't be a teacher today!

Here's the point: when you're starting out, something like tying your shoelaces seems absolutely impossible, and it'll take you many goes at it, many failures. But you will get faster the more you do it naturally - through experience.

It's a symptom of the times where children, and us sometimes, want things now, now, NOW! I spend a lot of my time trying to explain to them that that isn't necessarily how the world really works. You probably do too. And getting that message through, with adequate support, has a really important application through school and learning.

Right, a pivot into English specifically now - why is this so relevant to my GCSE English teaching? I don't think I've ever started working with a student who told me they have absolutely no problem with time management and that they are able to write plenty. Never happened. Because writing quickly isn't just about the speed of your pen, or fingers; it's also the speed of your thinking. The thing that slows students down generally is when they run out of things to say and have to stop and think about what they are supposed to be putting next. This happens a lot in other longer form essay writing subjects - history, RS and so on. So I work a lot with students on speed writing, repetition after repetition, and I say to them: the fastest 100m sprinter didn't come out of the womb that fast. We all need to work at our weaknesses, build on our strengths, and put in the work. Stick to the plan, trust the plan.

Here's another way I explain it to students that tends to really click. Think about the difference between a computer from the mid-nineties and a modern gaming PC. One of them can just about open a Word document without melting into the ground. The other can render an entire 3D world in real time without breaking a sweat. The difference is processing power. And the development of that processing power didn't happen overnight. It took about twenty years of trial and error, research and development. Most importantly, it took time. Now, I'm not asking for twenty years (thankfully!) I'm asking for about twenty weeks.

That is what a dedicated, consistent programme of speed writing practice can do for a student's thinking speed in a GCSE exam. Don't get me wrong, week one is tough. They're going to be the mid-nineties machine, grinding through every sentence, freezing mid-thought, having to reboot. But by week twenty, with the right repetition behind them, those ideas are flowing. The thinking is faster because it has been trained to be faster. Just like the computer, you don't notice it happening day to day. But look back over twenty weeks and the difference can be extraordinary.

The students who sit in front of me and say "I just can't write fast enough" are not broken. They are just running on old hardware. Windows 95. The modem scratching and audibly clicking as it fires up! And old hardware, with the right work, can be upgraded.

So, coming back to this shoelaces analogy - come on Nick, let's land this ship! You cannot reasonably expect to learn a task like tying your shoelaces within a couple of goes and be able to do it fast. Simply not possible. And we need to try and encourage students to be more supportive of themselves and their efforts. Instead of being angry at themselves for not getting there right away, channel that frustration and energy into trying again - calmly. Take a break if you need to, but then come back with a positive mindset. You know how you got annoyed that others could do it and you couldn't? Doesn't that mean it's possible? If it's possible that they can do it, isn't it possible that you can too?

Next time your child gets angry for not being able to do something, try doing what I do and ask them:

"how quickly can you tie your shoelaces?"

If you'd like some support building your child's GCSE exam technique and writing speed, find out more about my GCSE English tuition here.

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