Supporting your child

1. Timetable – Have your son/daughter’s timetable on display so everyone is reminded about when they need to be in school and by what time.

2. Area to study - Create a ‘silent study’ area in the house (free from distractions and siblings) to enable focused study.

3. Gadgets - Keep bedrooms a gadget free zone – insist on laptops / TVs in public areas of the home only  and avoid having phones being used in bed at night as it prevents sleep and causes students to be tired/late in the morning. Mobile phone charging at night could be in the kitchen rather than the bedroom.

4. Discuss – ask specifically about private study and HOW is a student learning e.g. “What three things did you learn in private study today that you didn’t know before?” Also discuss the reports and praise Attitude to Learning scores of 1s (Excellent) and 2 (Good). But be concerned about 3s (Concern – needs to improve) and 4 (Serious concern). 

5. Insist on ACTIVE study: passively reading from notes / exercise / text books ISN’T learning – they need to be: note‐taking; mind‐mapping; creating revision cards; storyboards; attempting timed condition responses (with no books or resources).

6. Revision time – students ought to be studying about 3 hours a night four nights a week and another 6-8 hours at the weekend. Split revision and independent study completed at home into bite size chunks: 1 hour per subject; avoid spending prolonged periods only focussing on one subject.

7. Insist on breaks and relaxation time – studying every minute of every day isn’t effective or healthy

8. Limit the amount of time expected to assist with helping with siblings and house chores – whilst it is important that students learn to balance multiple tasks, they must also be allowed to spend adequate time on their studies – that is, after all, why they are in the sixth form!

9. Limit the amount of time spent on part‐time jobs – one day at the weekend is more than enough, any more (for example in the evenings or more than one ‘shift’ a week) is too much and simply won’t give the student enough time to dedicate to their studies.

10. Lessons count – limit the amount of time out of lessons through trips in term time and sickness so encourage healthy eating and lifestyle. Book Open Days for university early so you get the weekend dates rather than weekdays. www.opendays.com is a useful site to use to find out about Open Days. Start looking from January in Year 12.