Your child is at school six hours a day. We endorse that parents teach their children a life balance and that your child needs to rest and exercise to decrease stress and build positive lifelong healthy habits. However, we are in a schooling system where a large component of your child’s assessments requires them to sit in one place and focus. Final Year 12 examinations require students to focus for up to three hours at a time.
In order to best prepare your child to focus for increasing periods of time, you will need to train them to do home study. Research and experience show us, as educators and as parents, that the best way to do this is to start with small steps and build on the process.
- Your child has a quiet and clean space they go to do their home study.
- Negotiate agreed times. For example:
- 3 times a week for sixty minutes at a time in Year 7 and Year 8
- 4 times a week for ninety minutes in Year 9 and Year 10
- 5 times a week for one hundred and twenty minutes at a time in Years 11 and 12
- Home-study is a combination of reinforcing the day’s learning by going over notes made in lessons, completing homework set by teachers and using effective study techniques like mind mapping to further consolidate learning.
- Frameworks for effective study techniques can be found in the Lower School study skills section of our website.
- Your child could also use the time to read.
- Effective use of this time occurs when there is no distraction from mobiles or media. Students should have a study timetable on their desk which nominates a subject to a specific day. If trained to conduct home study, students are sure to succeed in Senior School.
- Our whole school assessment policy is available on our website.
All staff are committed to creating a safe and orderly school environment in order for your child to maximise their learning. It is also very important to the maturing adult to learn to deal with power and authority and to respect rules and expectations developed to enhance wider society. We ensure that every student knows this throughout their secondary school experience. As parents it is vital that you reinforce this message. If you feel you need to question something that has happened to your child, please ensure that you follow the relevant communication pathway.
When events happen on the weekend or out of school, we are very limited in what we can do to help. It is much better use of your resources to contact the police and inform them if vandalism, bullying or negative behaviour is occurring outside of the college.
Ensuring your child is in the correct uniform and supporting the College Uniform Policy is a vital part of our partnership. Please be part of your child’s wider training to live successfully in an environment where there are rules and expectations by reinforcing our college policies and procedures.
Your child’s mobile phone is to be turned off in class and while moving between classes. If they do not do so, their phone will be confiscated and can be collected from the Deputy Principal. If a student reoffends, then parents need to collect the mobile with their child. It is important that your child learns phone etiquette as it will affect them in the workplace.
Many parents feel overwhelmed and a little lost in the rapidly changing world of the adolescent. It is always an advantage to get to know the parents of your child’s friends and check with them what their family regulations are. There is strength in numbers!
Student Services policies can be found here.