With school pressure increasing as your child progresses through the year and approach June (and final) exams, how can parents help their children? Sometimes it's hard to know how best to help balance a child's academic, social and extracurricular lives while letting them have the freedom they need but also pushing them to be their best selves. This guide to the top tips to help your student excel has been prepared by former head of English and retired vice-principal Mr. Alistair Bapoo. He has a lifetime of experience working with families to help students perform at the highest level! These are his recommendations:
GET MORE INVOLVED IN YOUR CHILD’S LIFE THROUGH:
- Ensuring regular attendance at school. Merely getting the notes is not the same as having been present while the lesson was being taught.
- Supervising homework by ensuring that is completed, along with assignments and tasks, and checking with educators if all your child’s tasks have been handed in.
- Ensuring that s/he gets sufficient SLEEP so that s/he can be alert and pay attention in class.
- Taking an active interest in his/her report card, first by COLLECTING IT AT THE END OF THE TERM, then putting measures in place to improve poor results. What child will be interested in school if his/her parents show little interest?
- Attending information-sharing sessions and meetings with educators. If you need to speak to your child’s educators, telephone the school to make an appointment at a mutually-convenient time.
- Creating a time and place suitable for studying THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
- Removing all forms of distraction during study time e.g. cellphones, music devices etc. so that s/he can focus attentively on his/her work without interruption.
- Punishing repeated reluctance to work through banning leisure activities like sport and/or withholding certain privileges.
- Rewarding hard work and progress.
- Drawing up a study time-table and ensuring that s/he sticks to it.
- Insist that s/he brings his/her notebooks and textbooks to school everyday AND ALSO AT EXAMINATION TIME TO USE THE STUDY SESSIONS OPTIMALLY.
- Employing a tutor to help with problematic subjects.
- Keeping absenteeism to a minimum. Try to make medical appointments for after school or during school holidays.
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN A CHILD’S EDUCATION LEADS TO BETTER ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE. LEARNERS ARE KNOWN TO IMPROVE ACADEMICALLY WHEN THEIR PARENTS SUPPORT THEM AND SHOW AN INTEREST IN THEIR EDUCATION!