Award-winning teacher and father of three Phil Beadle has a novel way of remembering the names of all 20 British 20th-century prime ministers: he places them along a journey from his home in Catford, south London, to school in the East End.

“Leaving the door, past No 44, I meet Arthur Balfour, a Scotsman in a kilt,” he says. “Then down the road to No 10, where I see Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman holding a banner.” A few stops on, Ramsay Mac-Donald is “lurking in a tartan track-suit” and “smoking a fag on Lewi-sham DLR station”. And so on.

When he wants to remember the names he just recalls the journey.

This is just one of dozens of techniques and tips in Beadle’s new parent guide Could Do Better! Help Your Child Shine at School. Using it you will apparently remember the prime ministers’ names even when “drunk to the gills” – a state few parents would want to see their children in this summer, however fed up they get.

To ensure they don’t get too bored and to keep their brains sharp over the long indolent vacation Beadle, who is writing a book on how to get white working-class boys (the group performing most poorly in schools) more involved in education, has come up with the 10 suggestions below for Sunday Times readers. The second of our two-part series is aimed at the parents of secondary school pupils.

1 (age 11-16) When to use a colon: Make sure your child understands when to punctuate a sentence with a colon and/or a semicolon. Beadle says: “This is a superior piece of knowledge that quality kids possess: the moment they have this knowledge they are elevated above their peers.”

In his book Beale points to a colon being used as a “lay-up”, preparing for an example. “A case in point: the sentence you are reading now,” writes Beale. As for semicolons, Beale refers to Lynne Truss’s description of them being used to denote an afterthought. For example: “Jemima is clever, industrious, polite, charming, beautiful, kind and funny; but she needs to tidy her room more often.”

2 (age 11-16) Mother versus father: Set an essay comparing mother and father in which children can group their ideas into sets. They can compare, for instance, mother’s appearance, temperament and cooking with father’s. “This is a very easy way of bringing in the high order skills they will need for GCSE,” says Beadle.

3 (age 11-16) Creative writing to a piece of classical music: Slip on some classical music CD or tune the radio to a classical music programme and suggest your child describes the pictures the music conjures up in their head. “I have not yet met a kid who did not lose themselves in this fantastic imaginative landscape,” says Beadle.

4 (age 11-16) The kinetic technique or muscle memory: “I invented this,” says Beadle. “You can use it on any piece of information you need to commit to memory.” As your children proclaim, for instance, a maths formula, encourage them to devise a set of movements to accompany it. As they repeat both the formula and the sequence of movements, the formula will be automatically recalled by the action.

5 (age 11-16) Observational writing: Place father’s jacket or any object with emotional resonance somewhere your children can see it as a prelude to describing it. “Just as a painter paints a still life so they can paint that still life in words,” says Beadle.

6 (age 11-16) Technical challenge: Encourage your children to write a story using a different voice. “Most kids like the third person,” says Beadle. For instance, they write: “He put on his hat and went for a walk.” Suggest they write in the second person plural instead, so the sentence would read: “You put on your hats and went for a walk.” “This is a difficult technical exercise for children,” says Beadle.

7 (age 11-16) Thinking hats: Use Edward de Bono’s “six thinking hats” technique to encourage your child to look at every side of a problem. The six positions are: a) neutral, b) self opinionated and emotional c) stern/judgmen-tal d) looks for the positive e) creative and looks for new ideas f) takes an overview of all the other opinions.

Ask your child to put on each hat and think about a question, for instance: is the war in Iraq justified? Thinking skills are part of the national curriculum and some top universities have introduced thinking skills tests to help select undergraduates. “Employers need young people who are able to think creatively,” says Beadle.

8 (age 12-13) Devil’s advocate or roast what you think: Ask your child to take a firmly held belief and come up with every possible reason why that firmly held belief is nonsense.

9 (age 12-13) Cultural diversion: As your child starts to get interested in youth culture get him or her to write a rap about any subject whatsoever (oxbow lakes even) and they will enjoy doing it.

10 (ages 15 and 16, the GCSE years) Something in your pocket: Tell your child to dip into their pocket and bring out an object. Then they can write a sonnet about it: “you are writing about yourself”, observes Beadle.

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