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Having two teenagers who are both in the final year of GCSE and A-level respectively, means the notion of “hard work vs smart work” is a constant topic of conversation in my household… If you ask anyone which is better: smart work or hard work, the answer is a no-brainer, as the Americans say! My…
I’m using the word “tribe” here as I struggle to come up with a better word, despite the risk of this word being open to all sorts of interpretations. In my three or so decades as a teacher in the English secondary education system, for half of which my role also includes being a parent,…
Following up from my last blogpost…. The notion of fingers not being equal should not be interpreted as some people being inherently better than others as human beings, as that is not only dangerous but untrue. Yes, some of us can do certain things much better than others; each individual has his or her own…
Many parents actually enjoy the relative peace and tranquillity now that the children are back at school, particularly when they are working at home. It’s not only those who work in a school or college who will understand what I mean by optimism in the air at the beginning of a new academic year, parents…
I don’t know if the summer holiday in your household is any similar to mine? I’m beginning to get that familiar feeling, that “the anticipation of the summer is sometimes better than the reality of the actual summer”. This is not about the weather in the UK at present, so I’ll do my best not…
For me, yesterday was one of those days when events turned out differently than I had planned. I won’t say it is a wasted day necessarily, but I had to invest my time differently from the way I had anticipated, as I decided to go to a university open day with my seventeen-year old son.…
It’s never over until it’s all over – not until the last exam paper is done … Now the summer exams have started for GCSE and A-level students, many are relieved as they have realised that it’s not as bad as they had anticipated it was going to be. Other teenagers wish they had been…
Exam preparation – Is there much we parents can do to help the teenager at this crucial time? For parents who have children in the final year of their courses GCSE or A-level (Y11 or Y13 – 5th form and U6th), they will experience what goes on when their child is preparing for an exam…
The only thing to fear is FEAR itself This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt brought hope to the American people during the Great Depression. Like in any endeavour that is aimed at succeeding, there is an element of fear in the minds of teenagers who are taking GCSE and A-level examinations. There are a couple…
There are not many things that give me as much pleasure as speaking to parents and teenagers about their dreams and aspirations, and this is a journey that I’ve been on since 1993. It has been largely a tremendous experience and I’m glad to say that it’s been overwhelmingly filled with jubilations; however, it would…
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