'Dyslexic' Graduates with Honours

"When I arrived at Greenfields, I was not very interested, academically speaking.

I enjoyed mucking around but I did not much care for working. This may have had something to do with the fact that I had been labelled ‘dyslexic’, which caused me to think that I could not do too well in my exams, so why bother?

But when I walked into Greenfields, it was different. No one saw me as dyslexic. Rather, they saw that I could do well. Getting me to realise that took a little bit longer.

The small classes helped as the teachers could concentrate on helping all the students with their individual weaknesses. The teachers themselves were and are friendly and understanding and this encouraged me to be more confident. I began to ask more questions and to really understand what I was studying. This applied to any and all subjects.

I began to be more and more fascinated by Biology and began to really enjoy the lessons. This has led me to select my career - I will be going to Bangor University to study Marine Biology. That’s a long way for me to come from not really giving the subject a second thought.

My time here at Greenfields has also taught me to believe in my own abilities and not to listen when someone says that I cannot do something. My increasing success academically boosted my confidence and that increase in confidence in turn helped me to do better academically. I just got better and better! Using the Study Technology* meant that barriers to learning melted away."

Fred Parffrey - Graduate with Honours 2012


*The technology applied by Greenfields developed by Educator L. Ron Hubbard™ to solve problems relating to studying and being able to learn and retain what one has learned.

A few words from a Greenfields Graduate...

Kusakin Ilya V.  Executive Director and co-owner of the International Expert Company

When I was 12 years old, my parents sent me to England to study at "Greenfields" school, and I want to tell you now how it has affected my life.

Before this school I was a pudgy, unsportsmanlike, offensive boy.

Sometimes I was beaten up at school. In the 7th form I already smoked cigarettes and drank beer with those "friends" who beat me up. I wanted to match their "toughness", wanted them to respect me so sometimes I was involved with their "hold-ups", after all it is a shame to cadge money for beer and a cigarette from parents - even though my father was already a successful businessman.

In the Lycée school where I studied in Russia, I got basically “four” in my marks. But year by year my marks at the Russian school became worse, and by the 7th form the desire to study had disappeared completely, and I even  began to avoid school more often. By luck at that moment my father got an offer from his friend, whose children went to Greenfields School in England, to send me there for studying. As my daddy had already given up (concerning my study), he made the decision instantly.

And so I arrived in England. The first thing that struck me was the great politeness of the school personnel, teachers and the general relationship between everybody. I felt like a VIP in this place - that was the level of respect I was welcomed with. The simple point is that teachers there do not have the arrogance which is inherent in 80% of Russian teachers. There was nobody who made me feel small, as in Russian Lycée - on the contrary everyone gave me the greatest help in all school subjects.

At Greenfields School I started to take part in sports that resulted in my becoming the candidate for the sports prize (twice) - in track and field athletics and football.

There I have learned what the true friendship is, and now I have friends from more than 20 countries.

Due to the way duties were organized at the school, each pupil got his own responsibility and I learned to be a part of the team and I became used to being self-reliant with extremely increased self-discipline.

At the school I became an honest, hardworking, sane person and really found myself.

As one of the great thinkers Herbert Spenser said: "The Prime goal of education is not knowledge, but action."

At Greenfields School the goal of teachers is not to hammer textbook knowledge into pupils' heads and not to create "robots" who just record subjects in a mechanical way. The product they want is children prepared for adult, independent life as much as possible, who are able to DO instead of just having lots of theoretical knowledge.

And here I am now. I am 25 years old, I have been married to a beautiful and intelligent girl Alyona for 4 years. We have a half-year-old son Platon Ilich, and, by the way I have no doubts, where he will study. Also I served 2 years in the Army where I managed to become the senior sergeant, with 117 soldiers entrusted to me. Also I am the co-owner of the company Business Forward which has more than 200 staff today.

I can say with all my heart that my parents' decision to send me to this school for studying became a vital and key factor of my success.

If these words have helped others then I am pleased!

Kusakin Ilya V. 

Is the grass greener at greenfields?

Well yes it is actually... following is a letter we recieved last week from one of our lovely parents:

"My son had been wondering about how education is at other schools as he has only ever been to Greenfields. He finally convinced me to send him off to another school despite me explaining to him that Greenfields really is the best school and will really give him the best education he could ever imagine. But this was clearly something he needed to find out for himself and I don’t regret it at all.

He was very happy for the first few days but this quickly changed once others, including the teachers, were pointing out things about him that were ‘different’ like his use of a dictionary. Students - and believe it or not teachers - were questioning him as to why he was using a Dictionary!!! This even came as a surprise to me as I can’t imagine how anyone could possibly learn anything if they don’t have access to a Dictionary!

After four days at this new school I could see that he wasn’t his usual self and he said this to me “I think Greenfields School would give me a much better education - why didn’t you tell me that!?”  I knew at this point that he really realized that Greenfields really does provide an excellent education.

It might not have the latest sports equipment etc. but what it does provide is an excellent education where someone can actually learn!

I truly want to thank all of the staff at Greenfields School I think you are doing an excellent job and this is sometimes unnoticed! And just in case you didn’t guess the grass is not greener on the other side!”

Many thanks. H.G.

Former Greenfields grad performs on Britain’s Got Talent

Alex Douglas, a former Greenfields School graduate is a member of the Swing Jazz band the Jive Aces who recently auditioned on Britain’s Got Talent. The Jive Aces are a well known group of six full time musicians from West Sussex. They are famous for their brightly coloured suits and their ability to get everyone and anyone joining in – even if only foot tapping – when they start to play.
For this audition they were all wearing bright yellow suits – reminiscent of Jim Carey’s costume in The Mask. Their energetic performance really got the audience approval and even had Mr Nasty himself, Simon Cowell, singing along to the number. After wards Simon told them: “I thought that was absolutely brilliant. That has really put me in a good mood.” The remaining judges were similarly impressed and gave them a vote of “101% yes!”

Study Technology by R.J. Ellory

Following is an article kindly gifted to Greenfields School (www.greenfieldsschool.com - the first UK school applying the Study Technology*) by By R.J. Ellory. Mr Ellory is the bestselling, award winning British author of thriller’s such as ‘Ghostheart’, ‘A Quiet Belief in Angels’, ‘A Simple Act of Violence and the recently released bestseller ‘The Saints of New York.’ 

  

People are extraordinary.  The human mind is extraordinary.  The quantity of information that can be retained by one person is immeasurable.  It is possible for one person to not only understand car mechanics, but to also be fluent in nine languages, play two musical instruments, pursue an intense interest in oil painting and rugby football, to raise a family, hold down two jobs, while simultaneously studying the history of furniture manufacture and French 18th century poetry.  And that wouldn’t even be a stretch.  There is no finite capacity for the mind.  There is no point that the mind reaches where it is ‘full up’, and cannot retain any more information.  We are not dealing with nerves and synapses and neurons.  We are not dealing with a physical thing at all.  We are dealing with an infinite universe that exists for everyone, and that universe is flexible. 

So why are some aware, and some not?  Why are some people able to retain vast quantities of information, and yet others are incapable of remembering their own address?  Why are some people – despite the fact that they have spent years wandering through the groves of academe – somehow unable to really accomplish anything of any real value for themselves, their fellow man, the society or culture at large?

What makes the difference?

Well, it’s simple.  One understands what he has learned, or one does not.  One can apply what he knows, or one can not.  One is studying with the view to using that knowledge, or one is being ‘an academic’.

I have met a lot of academics.  I know some very well.  They are fine people, very learned, very good at dinner conversation, but their personal and professional lives are a shambles.  They also tend to have fixed ideas.  They tend to see life from one perspective, and are generally relatively rigid in that perspective.  Why?  Because they have not collided with life.  Because they have not gotten their hands dirty in the business of real living.  They didn’t study the history of furniture-making in order to make a chair.  They didn’t study 18th Century French poetry in order to write a better poem, and thus enchant the girl they hoped to marry.  And, truth be told, they do not really understand these subjects at all.

Study technology.  That’s what academics don’t have.  That’s what society doesn’t have.  Over sixty percent of parents in the Greater London area feel that their own reading skills are not up to a standard where they’d feel comfortable reading to their own kids.  Those kids never got a bedtime story. 

Study technology.  Those of us who know it sometimes take it for granted.  We know it ourselves, we apply it, we – as parents – raise our children with it.  But we so often fail to appreciate that we are in the minority.  There is a vast, gaping omission in the education system, and that omission is study technology. 

It is too easy to forget that children are processed through the current secondary modern education system with no instruction on how to learn.  We just hope that that they’ll come out with something they can use in life.  The vast majority of them come out with nothing but a staggeringly low literacy level, and a tremendous lack of interest in learning anything further in life. 

Study technology is for use, for application, for life.  Study technology makes the difference between ‘knowing’ and ‘knowing for application’.  Actually, study technology is the line between success and failure.  How can someone do something if they don’t understand how to do it?  How can someone make something work if they don’t understand how that thing works in the first place?

In such a light, approaching study and learning from any other perspective is ludicrous. 

Without study technology, a great many people will never even come close to understanding the potential of the human mind, let alone being able to use that potential.  And those who are brilliant, those who have somehow accomplished great things without ever being given the gift of study technology?  Well, consider what they might have accomplished had they possessed study technology as well. 

How frustrated do we become with some who ‘won’t be shown’?  How intolerant do we get with those who always ‘know best’, even as they demonstrate that they don’t know best at all? 

The value of a member of a society is measured in what he or she produces.  Real things.  Real products.  Real accomplishments.  Things that can be bought and sold, things that can be exchanged, things that can be employed to improve the quality of life of others.  Engineers, designers, musicians, painters, ballet dancers, athletes, cabinet makers, photographers and teachers.  All walks of life, all areas of industry and the arts.  People who can really do. 

And the recompense and return for those who can really do is so much greater than the return for those who can not. 

Study technology is the difference between those who can, and those can not.  The difference between those who are already doing something, and those who could do so much more.

In that light, considering that happiness is almost exclusively dependent upon how much one is accomplishing in life, how rapidly and effectively one is achieving one’s goals, then it could be said that study technology – the only technology that guarantees that one can use what one is learning – is really the answer to happiness.

R.J. Ellory is the author of eight novels including the bestselling A Quiet Belief in Angels, which was a Richard & Judy Book Club selection and won the Nouvel Observateur Crime Fiction Prize in 2008. A Quiet Belief in Angels has also been optioned for film, and Ellory has written the screenplay for its Oscar-winning French director, Olivier Dahan. Ellory's other novels have been translated into twenty three languages, and he has won the USA Excellence Award for Best Mystery, the Strand Magazine Best Thriller 2009, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the Quebec Laureat. He has been shortlisted for a further thirteen awards in numerous countries, including four Daggers from the UK Crime Writers' Association. Despite the American settings of his novels, Ellory is British and currently lives in England with his wife and son

*Study Technology consists of tools and techniques teachers can use to improve the learning rates of students. These same tools and techniques can be used by students themselves to improve their ability to understand and to use the materials they read and study. More info at: http://www.appliedscholastics.org/

The importance of being 4!

Although parents of older children tend to realise the value of Greenfields teaching methods, we have on occasion heard parents questioning how this would apply to the 4 and 5 year olds in the Reception class.

When you see our older children, it is easy to observe them using the Study Technology (The technology developed by Educator L. Ron Hubbard™ to solve problems relating to studying and being able to learn and retain what one has learned). Younger children, though, need a different approach. Miri McQuade teaches Reception class and is dedicated to making sure her children get the right start before joining the main school. In her own words: “Many parents do not realise how vital the first year of education is to a child. The basics they learn here will affect everything they say, write and read from here on out. Basics such as how to hold a pen, how to write words and numbers and how to pronounce them are quite commonly not dealt with adequately in other schools and this causes life long problems in studying”.

Alarmingly, many adults cannot write properly, or read well and this is most likely because the fundamentals were not done at school and not done enough. Greenfields children, from the age of 4, are taught how to hold a pencil, how to write all their letters and numbers and how to form words. This is practised daily with different projects and games to make it fun for them and daily is what it takes.

In addition to Mr Hubbard’s Study Technology, Miri also applies his ‘Teachers Hat’ (Written March 20^th 1961) which outlines many fundamental methods of teaching that are just as applicable today as they were then. This directive covers advice such as how to teach handwriting, arithmetic, reading etc and also, very importantly, advocates research. By allowing children to research what they study - and not just take accept what they are taught without question - you allow a brighter, happier and more able and intelligent child to develop.

A particular point Miri has found very useful is this line from Mr Hubbard: “Ability to read is directly proportional to the number of wins achieved and inversely proportional to the amount of correction.”  This is how Miri applies this datum in her own words: “It is common for parents and teachers to continuously interrupt a child and correct them as they read aloud and, although well meant, is one of the things that will actually stop a child being confident about reading or even wanting to read at all. I apply Mr Hubbard’s reference by making sure that the reading material each child has is exactly the right gradient for that child which means they can get a wins on reading it and do not need too much correction. Then as their confidence improves, because they are not being continuously interrupted or corrected, they naturally get to like reading and will want to read more - thus ensuring that they will gain greater ability and increasing their desire to learn”.

The attitude a child receives in the first few years of schooling can set them up (or inhibit them) for life. Our goal is to have the majority of our children able to read and write competently even before they start school and have them very happy about it!

© 2012 Greenfields Educational Trust. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.

Greenfields Teacher Feature No1 - Jeff Smith - Deputy Head (for Service Delivery)

Jeff Smith has been a teacher at Greenfields for over 20 years and is passionate about the school and the methods it uses to help children enjoy their education and be able to apply it in their lives. Jeff is also the writer and publisher of 3 five part science manuals in Biology, Chemistry and Physics which he wrote to correspond with the national curriculum and also using his knowledge of the Study Technology*. The difference with these manuals and others covering the same subjects is that they are light-hearted, easy to read and have a full glossary of terms (major omissions in the text books of many other schools). Each section of each course also has its own ‘check-sheet’. A check sheet is a fantastic tool which enables a student to study at their own pace. This alone solves a major problem in classrooms – the phenomena of some children in a class being faster than others resulting in the fast ones getting bored and losing interest and the slower ones being left behind – often leading to bad behaviour and absenteeism. Check-sheets list items to study, things to experiment with, ways to test out information, drills, exercises and many other things a child can do to make a subject real and interesting and Jeff has had excellent feedback over the years from the students using them. Anyone who knows Jeff can see his dedication and his enthusiasm with what he does and he is a much valued asset to the school. In his own words Jeff says:

“I am incredibly enthusiastic about what I do in life. Getting up in the morning and coming to Greenfields is not a drag – it’s something that I routinely look forward to. In this time and in this place we are literally contributing to the building of a new civilisation. That sounds like a very bold statement, but, factually, without an effective technology of study, there is little chance of any civilisation being able to endure for any significant length of time. We have the means to achieve it!”    

*The technology applied by Greenfields developed by Educator L. Ron Hubbard™ to solve problems relating to studying and being able to learn and retain what one has learned.

"It takes brilliant imagination to be a teacher, it takes brilliant reasoning power to be happy in this world. If all children were taught to reason as they learned a few facts, they would have what nature intended for them to have, a better castle for their defence."

L. Ron Hubbard, Ron Magazine on Education

© 2012 Greenfields Educational Trust. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.

A few words from Greenfields Graduate Shannon Tarbet – Actress.

"From attending Greenfields School at such a young age I have been given a strong sense of my own integrity and belief in my competence going into any career field. If it hadn't been for growing up in such a positive and supportive environment I don't think I would have thought of myself being in the position I'm in today. Greenfields is a great exemplification of how important support is and I cannot thank the staff and my fellow pupils enough! At Greenfields I learned to love studying and that was because of the study tech used in this school helping me to fully grasp each subject. When you really apply something as simple as "clearing your misunderstood words" - no subject appears as a challenge anymore. Studying becomes a game! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent at Greenfields, and am very grateful for the tech this school has provided me with to flourish and prosper in life!”

Shannon came to public attention in 2010 with her critically acclaimed professional stage debut as Delilah Evans in Spur of the Moment at the Royal Court Theatre in London where she was short listed for the Evening Standard Award for Best Newcomer. In 2011 she performed in Mogadishu at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and the Lyric Theatre, London as well as in episodes of the BBC’s courtroom drama Silk, Granada TV’s crime series Lewis, ITV’s medical drama Monroe and the BBC’s Inspector George Gently.