Dan targets the Sixth Formers who are studying A level science: ‘I choose a different A Level key word every day and have it on my identity card. As students go past me, or I see them at lunchtime I quiz them on it and they have to tell me what the word is. It is low stakes testing repeatedly over a long period of time and they do incredibly well. Some are harder than others – NPP was a difficult one. It is Net Primary Productivity and it is a measure of how much energy is transferred from sunlight hitting a plant into biomass (or growth) so that challenged most people. I test them repeatedly over the course of a day so by the end everyone is word perfect. I have gone through the specification and have looked at the words that have caused most problems over the years in exams and do one a day. It certainly works with my students; some try to avoid me but I hunt them down!’

Mr Hawksley is pictured with Year 13 students Grace Kavanagh and Emily Brown, who are both studying A Level biology.