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How does your child feel about school


Talking about school with kids and teens| Raising Children Network

Talking about school: why children sometimes find it hard

‘How was school?’ is a big question. To answer, your child has to sum up a whole day, and that’s hard for children (and even adults!) to do.

A child might really want to say, ‘My day was so jam-packed with ideas and classes and social stuff that I don’t know where to start’. So it’s easier just to say, ‘OK’.

Some children feel their school experiences are private, so they might not want to share them. This is a typical part of school-age development as children start to shape their own identities and social worlds. But your child still needs to know you’re available when they’re ready to talk.

Why talking about school is important

Talking with your child about the school day shows you’re interested in what’s going on in their life. This interest boosts your child’s mental health, happiness and wellbeing. It can also have a very positive effect on your child’s behaviour and achievement. It shows your child that you value school and education, which encourages them to value it too.

Talking together about school also helps you get to know more about what’s expected of your child at school, how they learn and how they handle challenges. It can help you understand when your child is feeling less interested in school or having problems.

When you’re in touch with your child’s feelings about school, you’re more likely to see problems before they get too big. This way you can work on overcoming challenges together.

And talking about school issues – like school projects or friendship problems – is also a great chance for you to express your family values about things like teamwork, respect for self and others, friendships, relationships, problem-solving and so on.

If your child is having problems at school, you can start by talking with their teacher. You might also like to read our article on problems at school: children 9-18 years.

Strategies for talking about school with your child

When your child first gets home from school in the afternoon, they’ll probably be tired and hungry or thinking about other things. So easing the transition from school or after-school activities to home can help your child feel more like talking.

It’s best to avoid asking your child a lot of questions straight away – this can be overwhelming for your child. You can just let your child know that you’re glad to see them, and talk about non-school topics for a while. Younger children will probably also like unpacking their bags and going through any notes before you ask about school.

Saving questions about homework for later on can also take the pressure off!

Every afternoon or evening will be different. Even if your child usually likes to share their day with you, there’ll be days when they don’t want to talk. Sometimes it’s a matter of sensing your child’s mood and picking the right moment. Some days there might not be a right moment at all, and that’s OK.

Simple, positive and specific questions about parts of the day can get your child talking. It’s good to use questions that invite more than a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘OK’ response. For example:

  • What’s the news from school today?
  • What was fun?
  • What did you like best at school today?
  • What does your classroom look like at the moment?
  • What did you do in class after recess?
  • Who did you hang out with today?
  • What subjects did you do today?
  • What topics are you working on in science at the moment?

Tips for talking about school with primary school children

These tips can help you get a conversation going:

  • Make time to talk. This can often be when you’re doing something with your child. For example, your child might like to talk when you’re walking the dog or preparing dinner together.
  • Give your child your full attention if they want to talk with you about their day.
  • Take seriously whatever your child tells you. For example, you can say things like, ‘That’s really interesting. Then what happened?’ or ‘And how do you feel about that?’
  • Use respectful language when you talk about the school and teachers with or in front of your child. For example, ‘I can see that’s frustrating, but Ms Adams is your teacher and you need to speak respectfully to her’, or ‘Yes, that seems unfair, but perhaps you don’t know the whole story’.
  • Use active listening techniques. These can help you pick up on your child’s feelings and work out whether they want to talk.

Your child’s behaviour and communication style might seem to change overnight when they start school. Suddenly everything’s ‘awesome’, or they’re rolling their eyes at everything you say. Your child is learning all kinds of new things from their friends and teachers, so this is part of developing a unique identity.

Ideas for talking about school with secondary school children

As your child develops into the teenage years, they might want more privacy and time to themselves, which can make it harder to talk about school. But this isn’t the end of your warm, close relationship – it’s just that getting some distance from you is how your child becomes a more independent individual.

Stay connected
Staying connected to your child can help you balance respect for their independence and privacy with your need to keep in touch with their life. It can also help you pick up on the moments when your child is ready to talk.

Ask about links between schoolwork and future plans
At this age, your child might be more open to talking about the links between their schoolwork and what they want to do when they finish school.

So rather than asking about your child’s day-to-day activities, you could try focusing on future plans. For example, ‘How’s the webpage you were designing in information technology coming along? Are you still thinking you might want to get into web design after school?’

Look out for signs of problems
Even if you usually have a good relationship with your child, they might not always tell you when they’re having a tough time. If your child is upset or nervous about discussing school or refuses to answer a question, there might be a problem at school.

If you’re worried, you could try talking to other adults who know your child. You could also make an appointment with your child’s year coordinator or the school counsellor to talk about what’s going on.

Stay calm around tricky topics
Conversations with your child about school might bring up tricky topics. Try to stay calm, listen without judgement and focus on how your child is feeling. This is a great chance for you to be supportive and show your child that you value their honesty.

If your child doesn’t want to talk with you about a tricky topic, it might help to find another adult for them to talk with. You could suggest someone they trust and feel comfortable with, like a relative, friend, teacher or counsellor.

What Do Kids Think About School? The Answers Might Surprise You...

What do kids think about school? It's a simple question but one that is rarely asked. We thought it's about time someone changed that... so we did!

What do kids think about school? It’s a question that we should all be asking when trying to improve education, whether you’re a policymaker, a parent, a teacher or a school leader. Asking young people their opinion on education doesn’t seem like a radical idea, considering they’re the ones actually in the midst of the system, but few research papers and governing bodies actually take the time to include student voice.

‘I was surprised by how little attention was given to incorporating student voice and opinion across stakeholders (in education),’ says Frederika Warren, Research Assistant at HundrED and co-author of ‘Every Child To Flourish’, published in June 2018. So the research team at HundrED decided to do something about it.

As a part of their report, the team conducted a student survey, questioning 322 students who were educated in 19 countries and identified as 56 different ethnicities. ‘At HundrED we are encouraging children and young people to express their views freely, ensuring their views are given due weight in informing educational change’ continues Warren, explaining, ‘The Global Youth Survey was an exciting opportunity for us to gain an insight into how young people feel about their education. ’

The survey revealed that being prepared for their careers was the top concern for students, with 83% of students selecting this option. This finding isn’t entirely surprising if you take into consideration the world that children are currently living in.

Teenagers have watched as older members of their generation have graduated before them and entered an increasingly competitive and tough job market. Older millennials weren’t necessarily sufficiently prepared or aware of how difficult the job market had become and graduated into a world where unpaid internships, increasing rents, large student debts and high youth unemployment had suddenly become the norm. Younger millennials have witnessed these struggles, so it’s no wonder that they’re concerned about having the skills they need to succeed.

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Fear is sewn throughout our global narrative and has become a common mainstay in news broadcasts. Therefore, it’s no wonder that students are aware of this and want their education to prepare them for a world going through a rapid transformation
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Huge developments across their short lifetimes can also provide insights into this. As young people have witnessed the birth of the internet and watched as industry tries to keep up with the short lifespan of technologies, they’re aware that in order to do well in life they need to be able to adapt to any changes that may happen. Specific skills can go from highly desired one decade to be useless the next, it’s no wonder then that 58% of students – the third largest result from the survey – also want schools to focus on building ‘life skills’ like empathy, communication, and creativity, which last the test of time and can be adaptable for different environments.

The huge hit of globalization has also shifted the way the world works and how careers are formed. No longer are young people competing against their peers in their own proximate vicinity, but they’re also having to find a space for themselves in a global marketplace. Of course, globalization has its positive effects, connections-based learning can present fun, real-world learning opportunities. But we also shouldn’t ignore how insecurity due to globalization and rapid digitization is unsettling young people, and we should make sure to support them sufficiently to navigate this.

A clear desire to be ready for the world once they leave education, with two out of the three top options selected in the survey being related to this, shows how present these issues are on young people’s minds. Perhaps this is encouraged through the current news cycle displaying major threats to our way of living. From climate change, to rapid population growth, to job insecurity, to a rise in populist politics, to an increase in terrorist attacks – fear is sewn throughout our global narrative and has become a common mainstay in news broadcasts. Therefore, it’s no wonder that students are aware of this and want their education to prepare them for a world going through a rapid transformation, where the future is an uncertain thing.

In fact, learning about how to live sustainably was the fifth largest concern for students, with 53% wanting to be taught how to live in a sustainable manner. Of course, sustainable living is a concern for young people, as they know they’re the generation that is really going to bear the brunt of the outcomes of climate change, caused by decades of neglect by previous governing bodies and large-scale industries worldwide.

It’s not all about being prepared for the future though, improving their present day-to-day experience of education also featured highly throughout the survey. 61% of students want better learning environments, which was the second largest concern for students. Learning environments are rarely raised as a serious cause for concern, and hardly ever feature in future plans laid out by governments and education organizational bodies. It’s therefore surprising that so many young people picked up on this as a major need for improvement.

Our physical environments have a huge impact on our mental wellbeing, and when utilized well they can increase learning and produce joy. The fact that youth saw fit to choose this as their second largest concern should bolster the importance of this issue in education, and leadership bodies and individual educators should perhaps be seriously looking at what they can do to improve the learning environments they’re creating.

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Students were also extremely humble about having access to education. They were well aware of the power of education and were grateful to have access to it.
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The next largest concern for students was a desire for education to be personalized, at 56%. Personalization allows for students to feel connected to their learning, and can naturally increase engagement and motivation. It’s surprising though that many educators focus on personalization when actually this is less important to students than learning ‘life skills’, being career-ready and having better learning environments.

One of the most interesting things we can learn from the survey isn’t necessarily the results, but seeing the personal comments from the students. Young people consistently noted that they didn’t just see that one thing in education needed to improve but many parts did – together.

They suggested that the whole system needed to be developed, instead of singling one area out and improving it independently, as they thought this was ineffective. This is in direct contradiction with how many countries approach education policy, seeing one problem and attempting to fix that – such as introducing more STEM into the curriculum – without thinking about the life skills children need, or bettering the environment in schools, or personalizing education simultaneously.

In their comments, students were also extremely humble about having access to education. They were well aware of the power of education and were grateful to have access to it. This indicates that they’re well aware of inequity in the world and the power of opportunity and are conscious that some children don’t have the opportunities they have, and therefore do not take their education for granted.

Some of the things we learned from our survey were expected. Of course, students want to be prepared for their futures, after all that’s one of the main objectives of education that everyone can agree on. What’s unique is that no one is really asking them about it in any meaningful way. It’s heartening to hear how much students care about their education, the fact that they appreciate its value and how they genuinely want to improve it.

It goes to show that this generation isn’t resting on its laurels – as we’ve seen across the world from the anti-gun protests in America to the courageous efforts of individual young people like Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Prize Laureate. What we can do is give them the spaces to discuss their thoughts, take their voice seriously, and do what we can to create an education system that supports, empowers and prepares them for the world.

 

Find the full student survey in our research report: Every Child To Flourish, free to read and download now.

Your child has entered the 1st grade

Your child has entered the 1st grade and has become a student.

And you are tormented by vague doubts: what if it doesn’t work out, and what if it doesn’t work out well ... Don’t worry, of course, it will cope. That's just at first without your help and support he can not do.

Lesson No. 1: The main positive quality of school things is their limited capacity. The pencil case should be easy to handle and compact so as not to occupy half of the working surface of the desk. It can contain two blue pens (one spare), two simple pencils, an eraser (no larger than a sugar cube) and two colored pencils - red and blue. All other wealth in the form of a set of felt-tip pens or pencils of twenty shades should rest in a separate case and be taken out only if necessary. nine0005

Lesson #2. Don't put a cell phone in your briefcase. This recommendation can be extended to any expensive things. Any thing in the school can be lost, forgotten or stolen. The child-friendly administration is installing free pay phones in the lobbies. In case of emergency, you can always call from the office or from the teacher's room.

The same applies to expensive watches, which the guys usually take off before physical education and tend to forget in the locker room. nine0005

Lesson #3. One thing to keep in mind is a small roll of toilet paper. No matter how high-quality renovations schools reach, toilet paper always disappears in school toilets. And for a first-grader, a school toilet is a serious test. If it is already impossible to rid the baby of this stress, then it is required to at least soften it.

It's good to have a couple of paper napkins in the briefcase – sometimes you need to wipe your hands or nose (a handkerchief isn't enough or just wasn't there). nine0005

Lesson No. 4. We also need special packages for breakfast: if something is spilled or crushed in the briefcase, the baby is not able to cope with this natural disaster.

Lesson No. 5. There is nothing for toys to do in a briefcase without the permission of adults. It is better that children do not take cars, dolls or robots with them to school at all. There is always a danger that they will be used not only at recess to exchange and win the sympathy of classmates, but will also distract the child in the lesson. And this is fraught with complications in relations with the teacher and the loss of toys. nine0005

Lesson #6 Learning is also work. Therefore, try to make the child happy to start his workdays. Be sure to take him to school. Even if you don’t have to cross the road along the way and the school is located almost in the yard. Such daily morning walks will help the first-grader feel the importance of his new role as a schoolboy.

He will feel your support and become more confident. On the way, you can repeat the lessons learned, ask what classes the little student has today, what he expects from the new school day. If necessary, cheer him up, set him up in a positive way. nine0005

Meeting from school instead of the traditional question “What are your grades today?” better ask “What's new at school? What did you do today? What was interesting about the lessons? Seeing that you are showing interest in his school affairs, the child will enthusiastically tell about everything that he remembers the past day, share his joys and sorrows.

Lesson #7 Praise your new student more often. He needs your approval now more than ever. Rejoice sincerely in any of his victories. Even if it seems to you that they are insignificant. It would seem, well, the child learned a rhyme, well, he decided the example itself, what's wrong with that. But what seems easy to us adults is work for a child. Therefore, even a small success in your opinion still deserves praise. In honor of the first five received, arrange a small home celebration. Let your child feel the delight of success. Show that you are proud of his achievements. nine0005

Lesson #8 But scolding a child for failures is not worth it. Especially if he does not understand something or makes mistakes. It is better to sit down and calmly benevolently explain everything that is not clear. And remember that mistakes are normal, in the learning process you cannot do without them. Never call a child "fool, stupid, stupid." Such insults will cause nothing but insecurity, resentment and dislike for the school. It is much better if you inspire him with confidence that he will cope with everything. nine0005

Lesson #9 Set up and follow a daily routine. The correct distribution of time for classes and rest will help to avoid increased fatigue. Children aged 6-7 years should take a break for 15-20 minutes every half hour of class. And be sure to include a walk in your daily routine.

Lesson No. 10 Organize your child's personal workplace - a desk and a couple of shelves for textbooks, notebooks and other school supplies. Take care of good lighting, this will help to avoid vision problems. nine0005

Lesson #11 Imagine that you went to school with your child. First, sit down together to do homework. Be patient and sit down for lessons only in a good mood. This will help you not to get annoyed and not break loose once again. Gradually move away from the joint implementation of lessons, provide the first-grader with more and more independence. But be sure to check what you've done. Do not swear, but do not silently check either. Don't criticize. If you find any mistakes, inaccuracies, negligence, invite the child to correct them. And never do homework for a young student. Remember that he is still studying, not you. nine0005

Lesson #12 For a small student, his teacher is an authority. Respect the child's opinion of him. And never scold or criticize the teacher in front of the student.

Lesson No. 13 Of course, it is not easy for a first-grader to get used to a new life situation, but still do not release him from household chores. Involve your child in cleaning, washing dishes, etc. Only in this way will it develop harmoniously.

Lesson No. 14 And remember that, in fact, it does not matter how the child learns. After all, you love him not for good behavior and grades, but simply for the fact that he exists. nine0005

Good luck!

Ozhmekova Natalya Yuryevna Source: http://nsportal.ru/

School soon | Advice Center

Consultation:

"Soon to School"

So the last year of your children's stay in kindergarten is over. This first stage in the life of children was preschool, school years are ahead of them.

Entering the first grade is a crucial moment not only for the child, but also for the parents. After all, school is a world of new knowledge, rights and obligations, complex relationships with adults and peers. How the first school year will turn out for the child depends on what he has acquired over the years spent in kindergarten. nine0005

Is your child ready for school? The understanding of a child's readiness for school by parents and teachers often differs.

Parents believe that if a child can write, read and count, then he can already be sent to school and he will study well. But such parents do not take into account that the child may not have fully formed the mental processes necessary for learning, it will be difficult for him to work hard

in the classroom, he will quickly get tired.

The strong-willed readiness of the child is very important for the school. He must do not what he wants, but what he needs, and within a certain time set by the teacher. Therefore, it is very important to develop the will of the child. In games, when performing errands around the house, set tasks for the child, the solution of which requires strong-willed effort from him. Do not allow the child to leave one job and take on another, he must learn that any business must be completed.

Engagement in fine arts and design also develop volitional readiness, as the child needs for a long time

focus on building or painting. You can use board games where you need to follow the rules.

To make the adjustment period easier for your child, he must be quite independent. The child must be able to take care of himself, dress and undress independently. Teach your child to clean his workplace, take care of things. Try not to patronize him, entrust household chores so that he learns to do his job without the help of adults. For example: set the table, wash the dishes, heat food in the microwave, water the flowers, clean your shoes, feed the kitten. nine0005

Teach your child to listen and hear, answer questions, perform tasks, highlighting the conditions and the question in them, and perform certain mental operations.

It is very important that the child's attention is formed and he can concentrate on the task for at least 3-5 minutes. He must also be able to navigate well in space and on a sheet of paper. The most important thing is to teach your child to follow your requests or instructions the first time.

Recommendations for parents of future first graders: