Julia Martin and Dr. Kathy Weston

FROM THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS EXAMINATIONS BOARD AND TOOLED UP EDUCATION

Julia Martin, CEO of the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB), and Dr. Kathy Weston, the Founder of Tooled Up Education, speak to us about the new partnership between ISEB and Tooled Up: the Parent Power Toolkit, which consists of resources designed to help parents and guardians prioritise their child’s mental health and wellbeing during the academic admissions process.

To start with, could you both tell us about your personal backgrounds and your journeys towards where you are currently?

Julia: Thanks for having us. I’m Chief Executive at the ISEB (Independent Schools Exam Board). I keep saying I’m new, but I’m not – I’ve been there nearly three years in January. During that time, we’ve been looking to transform the exam board (we’re 120 years old this year) and transform those paper-based common entrance exams that many of you may know or have taken, and start looking at digital examinations, project-based and skills-based qualifications, and most importantly a much more holistic way of looking at assessments. Kathy: I have a doctorate in Criminology from the University of Cambridge, and my specialism within social science was the sociology of coping, resilience and identity. I became incredibly interested in parental engagement in children’s lives and learning, wrote a couple of books with Professor Janet Goodall on how home and school can work together, then the culmination of that was Tooled Up Education, which is a digital landscape of evidence-based approaches and resources for families and school communities.

Going back to ISEB, it’s now a household word to many families from probably around Year 4 or Year 5, when they start thinking about their senior schools. Could you tell us, for parents who perhaps don’t know, what the ISEB exams and Pre-Tests are and how they’ve become increasingly popular over the past few years?

Julia: So, the Pre-Tests (they’re called the Common Pre-Tests, but we shorten it to Pre-Tests) were intended to have the same ethos - actually, it’s the same reason the exam board was founded 120 years ago. Essentially, the three core associations – the Heads’ Conference (HMC), the Girl’s School Association (GSA) and the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) – all came together and recognised that every school had independent and very different divergent assessment mechanisms. And rightly so – every school wants to champion what is brilliant about their school and their education philosophy. But, obviously, in some cases that could lead to children doing a huge number of different assessments in a very short space of time. So, back in the day, 120 years ago, the word ‘common’ in ‘common entrance’ was to say that, at its core, all children take the same assessments. Then, they can all be judged fairly by only taking one assessment that can be shared with the schools.

Fast-forward around 110 years, and digital assessment became really, really important, and we know this because of COVID. We use short, digital multiple-choice tests. So, the Common PreTest means that a child takes a digital multiplechoice test online once, and regardless of how many schools they apply to or at what point in the year, that exam result can be shared with any school. It means that we are reducing that assessment burden overall. So, whilst they may have to prepare and there may be individual school experience days, the testing element of that is reduced using the Common Pre-Test.

What brought about this partnership between ISEB and Tooled Up?

Kathy: I think that, nationally, there’s been a greater interest in children’s mental health and wellbeing. The pandemic has certainly amplified the fact that anxiety, for example, is one of the largest mental health conditions affecting children and young people. And we know that children have to face tests and exams in all aspects of their educational journey, and it’s really about knowing what we can do to make sure that we reduce – not eliminate, but reduce – their academic anxiety to enable children to thrive. The beautiful thing is that we know that little things parents do at home can make a tremendous difference in that regard. So, this is about balance. It’s about educating parents in the small things they can do in their busy lives that can really optimise thriving, reduce the opportunity for mental distress to take hold and make sure that we’re doing everything in our power to give our children the best chance of doing well academically. It’s a recognition of the importance of mental health and wellbeing for academic thriving, if that makes sense.

This partnership brings together two organisations that are passionate about all of those things, and really trying to make things easier for parents. I’ve been through that process myself – my own children did all of those PreTests, all of those Common Entrance Exams and scholarship exams, I know what it feels like, and I think that it’s very exciting that we’ve come together in order to make life easier. But it’s also to make sure that parents really can hit the ground running, in a way that doesn’t compromise their child’s mental health.

Yes, it’s a very, very stressful time for families worried about where they’re going to go and what’s going to happen. Can you tell us a little bit about what will be included in the Parent Power Toolkit?

Kathy: So, it’s a sequence - there’s a pack, but it is a sequence of content that takes a pathway, from thinking about all the things we can do at home, right up to the day of the exam. Thinking about all of the foundation elements of good mental health, psychological preparation ahead of exams. It sounds quite complex, but actually a lot of the first pack focuses on things like the power of the learning environment. You know, when parents are thinking about what might be in an exam, the fact that children might have to have quite a high level of vocabulary or good maths skills, if parents understand some of the little things, like how you can embed learning into family life, how you can develop your child’s oracy or vocabulary acquisition through dialogue around the dinner table, it’s very exciting. So, that first pack is about parent power and the power of the whole learning environment.

Then it moves into the space of effective revision – what does that look like? How can we make it fun? How can we be engaging? How can we make sure that we are taking care of our children’s self-esteem, first and foremost? It’s a beautiful sort of balancing act, and the parent pack just takes them on a little journey through how they can prepare their child psychologically for every stage of the journey so that they are feeling good about themselves and are able to run into that exam feeling that they’ve done everything in their power to prepare and are ready for anything that could happen.

So, it takes that sort of sequential approach, and I really developed those sorts of resources based on my own experience of taking children through that exam process. The beautiful thing is that pace is everything, preparation is everything, and part of that preparation is psychological. That’s really where the combination of approaches between Tooled Up and ISEB come to the fore.

Dr. Weston, would you be able to provide our listeners with some insight regarding the services Tooled Up Education provides, and how it will benefit parents and families preparing for these exams?

Kathy: Tooled Up is essentially built on the idea that there is a manual for parenting. I’m sure we can all remember people saying: “I wish there was a manual for parenting!” but actually, we believe it’s the research evidence. Tooled Up is about those research insights that we can bring into our parenting, and it covers a digital life, family life and relationships, learning, aspiration, mental health and wellbeing. It covers anything that will enable a child to thrive.

Essentially, this partnership with the ISEB is taking a strand of our work and transforming it into a product that parents can use at home over a period of time and feel very supported. Sometimes it can be stressful for parents to worry about assessments and exams, but with the parent pack, you feel as if you’ve got a friend with you every step of the way. You’ve done one section of it; you can move on to the next one. All of our resources, ideas and tip videos for the parent pack are essentially designed to inspire and empower parents, but also to give them a sense that what they’re already doing is good enough as well. Sometimes you can worry: “Am I doing enough? Am I doing the same amount of prep as other parents?” But actually, the parent pack gives them the confidence to do what we know works in family life, in a way that will hopefully feel good for both the parent and the child.

What advice would you give if you had to give some top tips to families who are going into exams in November and December on how best to prepare for the upcoming exams?

Kathy: Well, we created the parent packs for those parents because we don’t want them to feel overwhelmed and anxious. We want them to feel empowered and inspired, and everything we’ve produced in that parent pack is essentially designed to be used on almost a weekly basis. You can watch a video, you apply the tips, you can talk to your child in a particular way that reduces stress and anxiety right up to the morning of the exam. In that particular regard, I always say to parents that you should say nothing the morning of the exam, just get into the car and listen to something fun on the radio. All those little tips that may seem counter-intuitive, because you might think you need to say to your child: “Remember to do this, don’t forget that, make sure you mention this in the interview.” That stuff is overwhelming, you and I couldn’t remember those things the morning of an exam. So, we are there hand-holding throughout the process.

One thing I would say to parents is that you’ve got lots of time. If I had a child doing an exam in November, I’d say: “You know what, it’s only the beginning of October, there’s so much we can do to make my child feel as good as possible about themselves and the process before that time comes.” There are different ways of approaching preparation and everything I know about academic and emotional resilience is in those parent packs, designed for that purpose.

That was very helpful, thank you. I’m sure both of you are very, very busy, and it’s been wonderful to hear such a positive outlook and such helpful tips for parents going forwards with the examinations all the children take.

We would like to thank Julia Martin, CEO of the Independent Schools Examinations Board, and Dr. Kathy Weston, Founder of Tooled Up Education, for giving up their time to speak to us. www.iseb.co.uk www.tooledupeducation.com