The most effective and positive parenting tip we have for preparing for secondary school is – listen, listen and listen! Listening is an act of love, being present not judging or evaluating just being there for your child in their hard moments. When your teenager is having a hard time try to remain in the being state not the doing or the fixing state. See our mindfulness section for that will help with the “being state” rather than the “doing or fixing”! Mindfulness

Our Parentin Toolkit course dives deeper into the ‘being’ rather than the ‘doing’ and helps you as a parent to reflect on why you might be caught up in the reverse. 

Our Connected Consultations offer time and space to gain insights and clarity and form a plan for moving forward right now.

List of things I might need – add to it as you need

Things your child might need to do to get ready for the school day. 

Your child may need support with doing some of these tasks but also will need the time and space to be allowed to try to organise themselves on their own, at their own pace. This may be a little slower than you would like! Having a go at it themselves is so important. Some of the items on this list may not be applicable to your child and add to it where appropriate!

• Charge their mobile phone and have it switched off.
•  Check their time-table and see what homework and materials they need for the following school day.
• Do the homework/study they need to do that night. They can be strategic about this, not all homework needs to be done on the day they are given it. Their timetable will determine when they do their homework.
• Take all the things they don’t need for the next day out of their bag.
• File any notes they got in school in the appropriate folder (don’t leave them at the end of the bag as they’ll get ruined).
• Get all the materials they need for the next day and pack them.
• Check if they have PE or a subject like Tech Graph  that they need extra equipment for and make sure they pack this – they might like to have a separate list of the equipment needed so they can check it.
• Make sure they have their uniform ready.
• Pack their lunch and drink.
• Check that they have enough pens and pencils and pack their pencil case, ruler and calculator.
• If they use an I-Pad or laptop they need to make sure that it’s charged and that they have packed the chargers.  Pack the I-pad / laptop if they use one
• Make sure they have given any relevant notes to their parents.

Time-table and Locker

Hopefully your child  will get the chance to go into your new school and practice locking and opening one of the lockers there and making a plan for how to organise it.

Your child will most likely only be allowed go to their locker at the following times:

Before classes

During mid-morning break

During lunch break

After school

Your child will need to learn to quickly change the books for the classes that follow these periods and your child may need to practice this with a mock time-table when they get their books.

Recommended system for your child for organising their books

All books and copies for each subject should be placed in a sturdy see- through zipped folder – A3 should suffice. Label the folders so that the students can see the labels when they’re in the locker. Alternatively they could colour code them with a small dot if they are going for this system. Folders can break so have a good supply of them at home and replace them when necessary. The student will bring a folder with their time-table, pencil case and journal with them to each class.

Prepared to Parent

If you feel you need support on your parenting journey, our Connected Consultation might be what you need,  together we find that ‘missing piece’ for you, look at what might be going on for your child and how best you can support them in whatever is coming up for them. Connected Consultations