A Last Minute Reminder.

My wife’s father was a tool maker. Tool makers do what it says on the label. They build the tools to make the moulds to do the jobs. Grandfather Coombe worked on radar during the war. He never talked much about what he did but we know that his team was involved in installing radar for the Ark Royal.

He used a tool called a Vernier Gauge. This is a small moveable scale attached to a larger graduated scale. The gauge is used to measure fractional parts of subdivisions of the larger scale. His work needed to be remarkably accurate. He was content to spend time trying to get his work to be as accurate as possible. He needed to check and recheck his work.

Some eleven plus children are in so much of a hurry to complete their work they do not budget enough time to check their work over. Good study habits and examination technique are built before the examination.

A last minute exhortation to: `Check your work over!’ is unlikely to bear fruit unless the act of checking has been rehearsed.