Collaborative post
Getting your child ready for secondary school
For a lot of families, secondary school is the moment they see their little ones grow up and officially become a teenager. It’s an exciting time, but with it comes preparation and sympathy – this can be a stressful period for your children. In most cases, they will be starting a new school, have to make new friends and mentally they will be preparing for the unexpected – new teachers, new surroundings, new teaching methods etc.
Before your children start secondary school, they will be on their school break. This is the perfect opportunity to slowly get them used to the idea of secondary school and prepare them as best as possible. Part of the preparations will include purchasing the right equipment – a laptop will be needed now and chances are if they may need a mobile phone. You want to start talking about secondary school well in advance to get them used to the idea and make arrangements to get them there on time.
To help with getting your children ready for secondary school, below we have put together some of our top tips.
Purchasing the right equipment
Having the right equipment at secondary school is very important and will help them with their learning. Without it, they could struggle and fall behind – thinking about work, if they gave you the wrong tools, they would be setting you up to fail. Having a laptop is very important as they can use this to write their homework on, research information when required and communicate with their friends. When using their laptop, it’s important to teach them about internet security and research fixes for their laptop if it slows down or they are unsure of how to do something – this is important for their independence and a laptop will help them when being a teenager.
Start talking about secondary school
This tip requires a balance as you do not want to overwhelm them. Talking about secondary school well in advance is a useful way to prepare them. It starts to get them thinking about secondary school and asking any questions to you that they may have. Try to do this slowly as you don’t want to overload them with it and have them stressing at the thought of going. Instead, slowly drip feed it to them, and give them nuggets of information well in advance that they can process as this should help make it easier for them.
Arrange how they are going to get there
How they are going to be getting to their secondary school is going to be a worry for them – especially if they have to travel a distance to get to it. Within the weeks leading up to them starting, try to go through the route they are going to take. If they are getting public transport, go with them and do the journey to familiarise them with it. If they have a school bus to catch, walk them to where they will be getting the bus from or if they are going to walk to school do the walk with them so they know the best route. This will help ease the burden on the day – you could drive them in on their first day if they think this would help.
Encourage them to get involved with activities
Starting a new school will involve making new friends. Try to encourage them to join the school clubs that you know they will be good at. This can help them make new friends and take their minds off the idea that they are at school as they will be doing something they love. They will also meet new teachers and be able to develop a skill that they are good at, helping them feel more comfortable. If they are part of a sports club outside of school then joining a sports club inside the school may mean they have recognisable faces as the chances are the kids at their sports clubs will be going to the same school.
The above four tips are a few tips to help get your children ready for secondary school. With a little research, you’ll find many more tips that will help get them ready. The key is to not overwhelm your children as secondary school is a big change for them. No matter how prepared they are, they are bound to be nervous so be patient if they aren’t being themselves in the weeks leading up to starting.