Rayse the Game Blog

Question: why are teens so lacking in motivation today? Every day I get phone calls from teachers asking me to work in their school. When I ask them what is your number one issue with your students, the answer is nearly always the same. ‘Motivation. Our students are not motivated.’ I am lucky. My product…

Can you remember your first day of secondary school? I remember it well. Sitting in the huge hall I remember that moment of terror when I got separated from my best friend Declan Whyte. We were put in separate classes. An hour later, sitting at that old fashioned oak desk (which even had a pull-up…

Yesterday I did my first coaching session of the new academic year. I was pleasantly surprised. When I hit the zoom button a bright yellow blur appeared in front of me. My new student was sitting in a van and he was wearing a hi-vis vest. “Are you on a building site?” “I am.” He…

There is a fine line between success and failure. Just ask Akani Simbine from South Africa. Who? He was 4th in the Men’s 100m Olympic Final. He missed out on a place on the podium by 0.01 second. Many young people today are struggling with the concept of success. This is what drives perfectionism. It…

Does your teen upset you? Have they reached a point where they are saying ‘what’s the point in studying?’ Are they constantly frustrated? Is their thinking black and white? Do they struggle with concentration and cannot focus? I work with many students with these challenges. Last Saturday, I was coaching a student, let’s call him…

Is your teen struggling to decide whether to stay in higher maths or drop down to ordinary level? I get many students and parents asking me this question at this time of year. The mock results are coming back and many students can feel disheartened if they get a poor grade. I myself failed my…

Statistics suggest that up to 10% of the population have dyslexia. Students with dyslexia have difficulties with reading, spelling and writing. They can also struggle with cognitive/processing difficulties. The impact of dyslexia can change according to the change in environment i.e. what a dyslexic person is asked to do and under what circumstance. Over the…

‘Should we let our daughter drop to Ordinary Irish?’ I got this question last week. My response was simple: why? The Dad explained to me that his daughter got her Junior Cert mock result back recently and she only got 35%. She is disappointed and now she wants to drop to Ordinary Irish. This girl…

“I will work harder.” This of course is a quote from George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm. This was also my main strategy when I sat my Leaving Cert for the first time (a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.) On Saturday, I spoke with a very determined and ambitious young…

“I have very high expectations of myself.” These are the words of one of my highly anxious students. We did a coaching session over the weekend. She is starting her mock exams today. We were discussing strategies to keep herself more settled over the week of the exams. This year’s 6th years have been given…