Mel Heale, Education Assessor & Academic Coach

09/09/2026

Five small habits that could make a big difference this school year.

Success at GCSE and A level isn’t just about working harder. Often, it’s the small things that students do consistently that make the biggest difference.

From asking for help early to putting the phone away when studying, here are five simple habits students in Years 10–13 can start today — and that their parents can help encourage.

Small changes. Repeated often. Big impact.

I often speak and write about adopting good habits often as a way of transforming academic performance. When working with students, I enco...

02/09/2026

GCSEs are over but is your teenager really ready for A levels?

The jump to Sixth Form isn’t just about harder subjects. Suddenly, students are expected to manage their own time, study independently and develop learning skills they may never have been explicitly taught. And the habits that got them through GCSEs may not be enough.

Before Year 12 gets underway, it's worth asking your child one question:

What did GCSEs teach you about how you learn, and what might you need to do differently now?

Read more: https://melheale.blogspot.com/2025/08/stepping-up-to-sixth-form.html

19/08/2026

As many of you will know, it is GCSE results day tomorrow. For some families, it will be a morning of celebration and relief. For others, things may not go quite to plan.

A missed grade can suddenly mean a change of A level subject, a different Sixth Form or College, or even a rethink about the best route forward.

And all of that has to be navigated while supporting a 16-year-old who may be disappointed, angry, embarrassed or simply unwilling to talk about it.

My latest blog is for parents who might find themselves facing that situation tomorrow.

It looks at some of the practical things you can do before results day, the Plan B options worth thinking about, and why it can sometimes be better to resist the pressure to find an immediate solution.

Most importantly, a reminder: GCSE results feel enormously important at 16, but they do not define a young person or determine their future.

Whatever appears on that piece of paper tomorrow, reaching the end of Year 11 is worth recognising.

If you have a child collecting GCSE results tomorrow, this might be worth a five-minute read tonight.

Some students will be fortunate enough to open their results tomorrow and slot seamlessly into the A level subjects for which they’d appli...

03/08/2026

Booking now for sessions to prepare for the new school year. Please feel free to share. Coaching online or in person.

08/06/2026

Why do so many teenagers leave it so late to start revising for exams? Why do they find it so hard to get started on revision and stay focused? The simple answer is that building a study habit is hard.

As adults, we know how difficult it can be to start exercising regularly, eat more healthily or spend less time on our phones. Yet we often expect our children to develop strong study habits overnight when GCSEs and A levels loom.

The reality is that good habits take time to form. Waiting until the pressure starts to mount is rarely the best strategy.

In my latest blog, I explore why students struggle to create new study routines, how "habit stacking" can help, and what parents can do to support good habits before exam stress takes hold (on students and parents).

If you're hoping your child will become more independent and motivated next year, now is the perfect time to start thinking about the habits that will get them there.

Read the blog to discover why September matters far more than April.

Anyone who has attempted at some time to adopt a good habit or to give up a bad one will know how difficult it can be in practice. Despit...

02/06/2026

14/05/2026

If Maths GCSE didn’t go as well for your child as hoped for, you might find this useful!

Exam season is now in full swing and for many of us, and of course the students, it is a relief that the waiting has ended. But now, we...

12/05/2026

Exam season is here and for parents, that often means a different kind of stress.
You wait for a response to your post-exam message: “How did it go?” and sometimes the answer is exactly what you feared: “It was a disaster.”
When an exam doesn’t go to plan, it’s so tempting to try to problem-solve or analyse what went wrong. But in that moment, even the best intentions can land badly.
The truth is, young people are often far worse at judging their performance than they think. Many focus only on the questions they struggled with, not the marks they did pick up. They also forget that grade boundaries move, papers vary in difficulty, and one difficult exam rarely means disaster. A bad paper does not mean all is lost!
As parents, our role in those moments is rarely to fix it. Rather, we need to to listen, reassure, remind them that perfection was never required and, help them focus on the next paper, not the last one.
Later, there may be lessons to learn about timing or technique but straight after a tough exam is usually not the time.
For now: love them, feed them, encourage sleep, and help them to keep things in perspective.
Exam season is a marathon, not a single paper — for students and parents.
Hang on in there!

Exam season is now in full swing and for many of us, and of course the students, it is a relief that the waiting has ended. But now, we...

06/05/2026

Today's tip - Every little helps. 15 focused minutes are better than a whole hour of procrastination.

With some public exams underway and others just a few days away, I'll be sharing some of my top tips from this year's blogs to help reassure, inspire, encourage and support candidates (and their families!).