Learning  

Learn to Learn

Students in Year 7 and 8  are engaging in the "Learn to Learn" program – students in Year 7 have been learning about what it means to be a good learner and have pledged to try three tactics to become better learners.  Students in Year 8 have been learning about spacing and interleaving rather than cramming.

Spacing means revisiting material in shorter study sessions over several days or weeks, rather than trying to learn everything at once.  Each time you return to the content, your brain strengthens the connections, making it easier to recall later.

Interleaving means studying a mix of related topics in one session—like practising different types of maths problems or revising several science concepts together.  This approach challenges your brain to switch between ideas, helping you recognise patterns and apply what you know in different ways.

Cramming is spending a large chunk of time on a single topic over one or two sessions to prepare for a test or exam.  If you only study something once and never come back to it, that path starts to fade and becomes harder to find. 

Spacing helps by giving your brain time to rest and then reactivating that path — each revisit makes it stronger.  Interleaving helps by linking different ideas together — you’re not just strengthening one path, but building bridges between many.   By combining spacing and interleaving, you can make your learning more durable, flexible and effective — not just for the next test, but for the long term.  Think of it like training your brain’s “muscle memory” — the more you practise and revisit, the stronger and more flexible it becomes.

Thank you to Dr Dermody, Ms Jansen and the Year 7 and 8 teams who are working with students to develop good learning habits.

Year 10 and 11 students are also encouraged to use spacing and interleaving over the next few weeks leading into their exams.  Year 12s are encouraged to start revising Term 1 content. 

 Ms Lin, Ms Spreckley and myself have been very impressed with the uptake of students in Year 12 General Maths classes who have been completing sections of practice exams - so well done to the students in Units 3&4 General Maths!

If you have any questions or wish to provide any feedback, please feel free to contact me.

Ms Lucy Neil

Deputy Principal - Learning & Teaching