Widening AccessStudy skills workshops

Our Study Skills projects offer a bespoke programme of activities, designed to provide pupils with a variety of techniques and strategies to prepare them for successful study and revision.

The workshops are run by our experienced mentors, a team of inspirational role models from an array of backgrounds and subject specialisms. By creating an informal and stimulating learning environment with a focus on group work and interaction, our mentors are able to facilitate a productive and motivating event for young people. All the sessions combine in-depth group discussion with breakout activities which demonstrate the outcomes via an interactive approach. They offer the opportunity to engage in building meta-skills or hone specific techniques for studying.

Our Study Skills events are designed to provide pupils with extra studying techniques and strategies for revision, as well as acting as a forum for additional support. They would function at their best as exam preparation or post-prelim intervention for S4 and S5/6 pupils, but could be adapted for S3 in a more introductory capacity to familiarise them with studying.

Your school can choose any combination from the following workshops:

  • Learning and Multiple Modalities – explores strengths & gaps in study techniques and demonstrates the benefit of approaching a topic via a variety of modes of revision. Functions most successfully when paired with Metacognition.
  • Metacognition – an examination of the range of revision techniques available and how they fit with different topics/subjects, as well as overcoming barriers to studying. Functions most successfully when paired with Learning and Multiple Modalities.
  • Time management – analyses procrastination excuses, how pupils allocate their time, and study planning.
  • Note taking – a high energy interactive workshop investigating different methods of note-taking and how they function with varied materials.
  • Memory techniques – considers how the memory works, the difference between short and long term memory, and some fresh methods of memorising material.
  • Exam stress – sifts through the stresses around exams via group discussion and delves into coping strategies for challenging situations.
  • Mindsets – a more holistic workshop, featuring a lecture on how our resilience and inner monologue affect our success, followed by breakout discussions on success as a concept and the broader challenges we face in our lives.

The Study Skills workshops take place in-school, and are flexible to meet your needs. We can run a full day programme with a targeted group of pupils, or deliver the same few workshops to a full year group over the course of a day. Half-day programmes are also available. Your requirements can be discussed during an initial consultation meeting if your school is interested in hosting an event. We are aware that costing is always a concern for schools, so we aim to keep our pricing as low as possible while still delivering high quality content.

Some recent pupil feedback we have had from our Study Skills projects include:

 “I feel a lot more relaxed and less stressed as I know more options and varieties of study techniques”.

“It’s changed the way I feel about taking notes and all the methods I can use.”

“It was a comfortable and reassuring environment.”

“They’ve made me learn how to actually study and I now feel more comfortable.”

“I think the workshops were helpful and the mentors were approachable and very easy to talk to.”

“The most useful part of the day was talking about our worries and how to tackle them.”

“I did not know about many of the studying methods mentioned so I will try more out.”

“I now have more motivation.”

For more information, please email angie.kay@strath.ac.uk