by David Quinney | Apr 19, 2023 | News
It can be difficult to know what to do and how to help your child when they are feeling stressed out and overwhelmed ahead of exam season. Even if they remain cool cucumbers through the next term, there are a few things you can do to ensure they are organised and on the right track to efficient and productive revision. If you feel helpless and unsure of the best ways to support, here are our Founder Nyree’s “Top Tips” on how to encourage your child to productively prepare for the exam season and minimise exam stress as a result.
Things you can be encouraging your child to do now:
- Download a copy of their exam timetable from the WJEC website using these links:
GCSE exam timetable https://www.wjec.co.uk/media/vvylggia/summer-2023-wales-and-eduqas-gcse-final-exam-timetable-02-11-22.pdf
A level timetable: https://www.wjec.co.uk/media/leiijmb0/summer-2023-wales-and-eduqas-as-a-level-final-exam-timetable-v2-15-11-22.pdf
- Put their exam dates on a calendar or wall planner so they can visually see how much time they have left!
- List the order of their exams by date and use that order to help make a revision timetable. Feel free to use our template.
- Find out what they have to revise by downloading the subject specification which is the list of all subject matter that needs to be covered. If you want even more detail – download the guidance for teaching. Students can use this as a revision checklist – if their teacher or tutor hasn’t provided one – they can make one from the specification. To find these documents – click on the qualifications page https://www.wjec.co.uk/qualifications/ > select your subject > select specification
- Using the specification or the revision checklist they’ve made, students can identify topics they missed from school/haven’t covered yet and they rank them by difficulty or understanding – they can then visit BBC Bitesize for GCSE and write their own notes if they have gaps.
- Download the Advance Information 2023 for every subject by visiting the qualifications page (link above) and selecting the subject and then advance information 2023. The advance information provides key areas of focus for revision but please note, that their revision plans should still take account of everything that has been taught. We know that some students will have done all of this already and that some may not know when their first exam is and need bribery to get out a book, but hopefully, there will be at least one or two constructive things that they can do to get organised. Good luck!
Summary:
- Download exam timetable
- Display/dates on wall planner/calendar
- Use exam order to create a revision timetable
- Download the subject specification to use as a revision checklist
- Fill gaps in notes or understanding using BBC Bitesize
- Check advance information 2023 to guide revision
by David Quinney | Feb 10, 2023 | News
As a parent or carer, you are an important role model to your child. How you connect with friends and family will influence your child, and how they develop their own friendships and relationships. For example, how you greet people and maintain friendships, but also how you forgive people or say sorry when you need to. Here are 6 simple ways you can connect with your child and help them to make healthy, rewarding, and meaningful connections.
1) Connect with your child in everyday ways
Moments of connection (and re-connection) are really important in child-caregiver relationships. For example, when you pick them up from school, or come in from work, try to give them your full attention and see if this helps you feel better connected as you hug, talk, smile and hear about their day. Watching your child play and joining in is really important to them – so put your phone away and have a bit of fun – being playful is good for adults, too! With your older child, you may find times such as car journeys a good time to talk or to reconnect by playing music you both like. It is important to be accessible to a teenager when they need to talk. You may have to be there ‘on their terms’ and be ready to listen.
2) Talk to your child about important connections
This could include talking about family members, friends, neighbours, childminders, people in the local community and others in your faith group (if you have one). Rememberit’s ok to talk about people they miss, for example, family members who live in a different country or people who have died. Children learn a lot from their parents about how to express their feelings, including the joy that comes with feeling connected to others and the sadness that comes with missing others.
3) Talk to your child about their friends
As children become teenagers, their friendship groups become increasingly important to them. Be open to hearing about their friendships and try to listen without judgment. Ask them about their life in real life and online. You may not think online friends are ‘real friends’, but your child may feel differently. Losing friends, feeling left out or being bullied is very painful and your child needs to know you will support them through these difficult times.
4) Connect by taking an interest in your child’s world
As adults, we can sometimes be dismissive of the things that our children and teenagers are interested in, e.g. their music, fashion, what they watch etc. If you do take an interest in these things, however, you may feel better connected to your child and the important things in their world. This can lead to other conversations about other things in their lives that matter to them.
5) Find time to connect as a family
Family life can become busy and stressful, so it’s important to find some time where you connect together. This could include simple things like cooking, watching a film, playing a game, going to the park or even doing the family shop together.
6) Try to resolve conflict and re-connect after arguments
Arguments and moments of disconnection are bound to happen in families – between your children, between yourself and your children and between yourself and your partner, if you have one. It is important that children learn how to disagree in appropriate ways, how to say sorry, and how to make amends when they have done something wrong. They will learn a lot about how to do these things from you – so try to model the behaviour you want to see in your children. Talk to them about how to reconnect with friends after arguments including what they can do to help repair relationships.
Let your child know that if they are worried about something, they should always talk to an adult they trust. It could be you, someone in your family, a teacher or someone else in their school. If you’re worried about your child’s mental health you can talk to your GP or someone at your child’s school.
by David Quinney | Dec 6, 2022 | News
What do you want to know?
Now your child is away from you for 6 hours of the day you may wonder what they are getting up to. All children prefer to learn in different ways and enjoy a wide variety of things – just like us adults. Parents’ evening is a great way to find out more about your child’s passions so that you can make the most of their enthusiasm when they are at home and do activities that will nurture these interests. If you want to know more about what goes on in school or have any concerns about your child, now is your time to ask.
Is there anything you would like the school to know?
It’s easy to think of parents’ evening as just a way for the teacher to let you know how your child is getting on, but don’t forget that there may be things that you want them to know, too. If your child is saying that they aren’t happy at school or maybe there are issues at home that may have impacted your child, let the school know so that they can support them as much as possible. There’s usually very little a teacher hasn’t been told before and even though you may feel reluctant to share some information, trust us, it will definitely help.
What will the sessions look like?
Every school will have different arrangements, and these will be based on the layout of the school and what is now in place since the pandemic. Most schools will offer a video call (Zoom, MS Teams etc) or a face-to-face meeting, and some may come up with other innovative alternatives. If you are invited into school, you can expect to be asked to sanitise your hands, wear a mask and maintain a 2m social distance. Some schools may install screens for the meetings or take additional precautions; rest assured that these are in place to keep everyone safe and your support and cooperation will undoubtedly be appreciated.
Should you take your child?
There are different thoughts on whether children should attend parents’ evening and some schools will say whether this is appropriate. You know your child and are the best person to decide if it’s a good idea; have a think about whether they will sit quietly and listen, because if they don’t it may distract you and hinder your ability to concentrate fully on what the teacher is saying. If it’s a late session on an evening, your child may be tired and you may want to find someone to look after them. Or if you have something sensitive that you wish to discuss, it might be better to leave them at home. Teachers appreciate that it is not always possible to find childcare, so speak to them if you are struggling to make the appointment and they will help come up with other arrangements.
What might the teacher say?
You will hear all about your child’s progress and whether they are working at the expected level for their age. Reading, writing and arithmetic are essential skills and you can expect the teacher to let you know how your child is getting on in these areas. They may offer some strategies to support your child; if they do, make sure you get all the information you need about how to implement them. They will also tell you about how your child has settled in, about their friendship groups, and they will also let you know if they have any concerns. In some cases, your child may display some challenging behaviours in class and this is not an easy conversation with parents, but it is important that you know. Listen to what the teacher has to say, take notes if necessary and try not to be defensive. Don’t forget that you are a team and that you will work on these areas for development together.
What should you do after parents’ evening?
If it’s late when you get home, it’s probably best to wait until the following day to catch up with your child, especially if you feel it may be a difficult or emotional conversation, as you want don’t to unsettle them just before they’re going to bed. When you do speak to your child about what the teacher has said and praise your child for what they have achieved, it’s important that they hear the positives and you talk about their experiences at school. If there are things that they need to work on, discuss these and agree on what you can do, together, to help. It’s helpful to speak to the other family members who spend a lot of time with your child about what the teacher has said so that everyone is aware of how they can support and aid their development.
What if you still have things you want to discuss?
Sometimes, a ten-minute chat isn’t enough with the teacher and you may have more that you would like to discuss. Most schools have many different methods of communication, so get in touch with the teacher and they will be happy to arrange a time and method of communicating. Because of Covid, this may be a conversation in the playground, a socially distanced meeting, a phone call or a video session. Don’t be upset if they don’t get back to you straight away – there are many other children and parents in the class and schools are very busy places, so please bear with them. The teachers are there to support you and your child and they will usually be more than happy to help.
by David Quinney | Nov 3, 2022 | News
Homework is one area of school life where parents can play a very active and encouraging part in your child’s education. On a basic level, it can help kick-start conversations between parents and children, especially in families where busy work and extracurricular commitments may prevent regular mealtimes together. While research has shown that regular family mealtimes are an excellent way to boost academic performance, this isn’t always possible for families to achieve. Therefore, alternative times have to be created to promote conversation and for parents to demonstrate an interest in their child’s schooling. Homework can also help parents identify areas of strength and those for improvement, potentially more successfully than the classroom teachers. Homework is also a lesson in independence and time management, and pupils need support to manage these commitments – developing a schedule and helping them balance their homework with extracurricular activities and family commitments is important. So what can a parent do to support their children with homework, here are 5 tips on how you can support your child with homework:
- Create space. Set up a space for your child to do their homework. While making this space in their bedroom is sometimes the easiest option, this automatically makes homework a solitary activity. If there is an option for a space in a communal area of the house this helps promote discussions and it is easier to get involved without it feeling like an intrusion. Wherever the space is, give the learner some ownership over it and make it an inviting space to spend time in. New stationery, a comfy chair, and good lighting will also help.
- Make it positive. Make parental input a positive thing. If your child has a question about their work, help them, but try not to tell them the answer. Use questioning to help them get as close to the answer as they can. Starting these practices in younger years will mean that when homework becomes a bigger part of their learning outside of school, your child will be comfortable discussing it with you and will value your input.
- Let them make mistakes, It’s OK for answers to be wrong. Telling your child the right answer and getting them to just write it down means that the teacher is none the wiser about which bits they are struggling with and which they excel at. Help but not too much and leave the mistakes as they are for a teacher to see. Any errors are very revealing, and this helps teachers adjust their teaching to address these issues. The chances are, if your child doesn’t understand it, others in the class probably don’t either, and homework is a great way of highlighting this to the teacher.
- Be realistic. Give them time to complete the work set. While it is tempting to book weekends full of fun, non-school-related activities, children need some downtime. Allowing them some space in the family schedule means they will be able to start allocating their own time and gives them plenty of time to complete the work set. This will allow more time for discussion, a greater conversation between family members and the learner, and an altogether calmer approach.
- Insist work is finished to the best of the student’s ability, if they can’t complete the work themselves, encourage them to research, there are brilliant online resources available like BBC Bitesize. This encourages resilience and independent learning, skills that will benefit your child in the long run. Please do not excuse incomplete work. There are occasionally genuine reasons why homework isn’t completed and that’s ok. Trust the teacher’s professionalism – we don’t set homework because we enjoy it.
Most importantly be available– your children need your help. The rise in mental health issues in young people, the expectations they place on themselves fuelled by social media requirements, and the pressures placed on them by schools, all amount to feelings of stress and anxiety.
At the AC Coach, our online courses give students the extra help, support and structure to stay on top of the workload – and on track to getting the best results, wherever they are. Drop us an email for year 7 to year 13 availability.
