How can we help our son to achieve Excellence in NCEA?
Being a teenager is difficult and one of the most challenging things to do is balance social life, sports commitments and church with academic study; making sure they are on track with every assessment but also creating quality work worth a high grade. The success of your son’s achievement begins at home. With your support and encouragement, you’ll be helping your child to persevere and succeed in both school and life.
Here are some useful tips:
Attendance: Make sure that your son attends school every day, and is on time and is punctual to all their lessons. In this way you are helping your child to not miss out on any information that will be critical and could determine the level of grade they get.
Create An Environment That Is Conducive To Doing Homework: Your son needs a comfortable permanent working space in their bedroom or another part of the home that will give them privacy. By doing this you will allow your child to concentrate on their work without the distractions of younger siblings or other things. It is also helpful to consider the effect of working while electric technologies are on (eg. TV, ipods, radios, computer etc) Monitor your child’s use of such technologies so that hours are not spent on TV, phone or computer but on their work.
Set aside time for Homework: In high school the late afternoons usually fill up with extracurricular activities, sports, part-time jobs etc. This leaves after dinner as the only time to do homework. You can help your child have more time by limiting their time for chores. This also includes church commitments; if church goes late at night, consider not having your child attend late practices. This is very important especially during exam weeks. It is considered that your son needs 2 hours a day to focus on their work. This is especially important if they are aiming for excellence.
Ensure that your child gets enough sleep: It is important that your son gets enough sleep so that they are not tired the next day. This can be done by limiting time on television, computer or cell phones. Also it is good to advise them to not spend too much time on homework but to have some leisure time.
Get involved in your teenager’s school: Be an active participant in your son’ school. This means attending parent-teachers evenings, information evening for NCEA, or even keeping up with your child’s learning.This way you will know what your son needs to focus on to better their grade, as well as how the NZQA system works, and what your child needs to do in order to achieve NCEA with an endorsement. Also you will know your child’s teachers and their progress in class. More information about NCEA in a range of Pasifika languages can be found here.
Credit Tracking: Talk to your son about their learning – ask them how many credits they currently have, when their next assessments are, help them to sort out which subjects offer the most credits, how many internal and external credits are available for them and encourage them to keep trying when the work gets challenging.
Support, Encouragement, Love: Teenagers tend to stress out when there is a lot of work, or it is hard and they do not have enough time. The most important thing that teenagers want from their parents is their love, support, understanding and encouragement during times like this. By being there for your child and helping them to keep calm and persevere, they will feel a lot calmer. You can also assist them with their work; you can help them with the little things e.g. if they have projects involving cutting and gluing papers, you can help them cut and glue while they concentrate on researching and collecting data.
Show you value learning: We know that some of us as Pasifika parents did not have the opportunity to attend University because of circumstances that changed our pathways and dreams. Therefore sharing our stories is a gift that will inspire our children to understand the importance of valuing education. It will push them to appreciate going to school, and they will always strive for success and may then fulfil your dreams of attending University.
