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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, I’ve never met a single parent who does not care about their child. Every parent cares about their child, it just we do things in different ways to show how much we care. This is a week in which, globally, so many children have been and are still being killed senselessly. No killing is good but killing of children in particular is difficult to justify under any circumstances.  I’ll leave politics to those who are good at it, as I am not one of those. One thing we must do, however, in this part of the world, is not to take for granted  how fortunate we are to live in a relatively safer part of the planet.

Back to the word tribe, I am using this word to describe those of us, who as parents, place great value on the education of our children, as if it is everything.  It isn’t, of course, but it comes close. After health and food, education comes a close third, and I’m not just speaking about academic qualifications alone. In my categorisation, I put safety and shelter under health.  I will shed more light on certain news items with regard  to education in the next part of this blogpost, and, hopefully, that will help you, as a reader, to try and see how I define this tribe of parents.

As is always the case, there has been so much in the news about education recently. Despite the fact that the adverse effect and legacies of things like COVID and the teachers’ strike linger on, they are not so pronounced at present.

The main items of education news in the media at present are about RAAC, post-sixteen qualifications and school attendance. RAAC affects a tiny number of students and school attendance is not much of an issue for this tribe. This is because they are the type who will make sure their children do not miss school unnecessarily; unless they are in intensive care or something close (an exaggeration!) or unavoidable. The post-sixteen issue is something the tribe keeps a close eye on, and whilst good leadership and direction by politicians are helpful, they’re not absolute, these parents will do their own research and choose the option they consider best for their offspring.

I must say there is not necessarily an ethnic connection to this tribe, as I see people from a diverse ethnic groups subscribing to the values that I am speaking about. The people I put loosely in this so-called tribe are represented disproportionally by those of certain ethnic minorities. In my observation, it is in the order of, first,  East Asians – mainly Chinese people, but others as well, followed by South Asians, Africans, Eastern Europeans, Scottish, Irish and English; however, this is a generalisation and not completely accurate.  This should not be too surprising, as non-native (another colloquial phrase!) or foreigners, tend to be over ambitious in any country in the world you go.

Some of the issues that I think are more immediate to people in this tribe, in terms of motivating their teenagers, is getting them to do what I list below.

1. Put sufficient number of hours into their schoolwork – including homework assignments and revision for exams
2. Be better organised
3. Spending less time on their electronic devices – mobile phone; game machines like X-Box, etc.
4. Better sleep – like going to bed earlier…
5. Learning for the joy gaining knowledge, and not just for passing exams
6. Wanting to work, mainly for the purpose of buying more gadgets!
7. Eating healthier

I must stress that I am not speaking here as an expert, as I am not; and I do not have the solution. In my own household, it is an ongoing thing, as we struggle as parents with these matters. We just try to do our best all the time.

I must say that there are other serious matters that are perhaps more important than what I’ve listed above. Things like mental health and other health issues, abuse of drugs or of others or by others and so on. These areas are where I have zero expertise, so I must not try to address them, as this is better left to other people.

Before I conclude this, I’ll quickly mention one main issue which is beyond the control of the teenagers, and, in fact, well beyond the control of we parents. It is that thing which society has not yet decided to address. But, if dealt with, it will not only save money and time, but will make learning and teaching more fun.

I am speaking about the issue of class disruption. The set of behaviours that are acceptable in the classroom vary from school to school. However, in my view the barrier is set pitifully too low. I recently went to cover a sixty-minute lesson at a grammar school, but my reputation in teaching as a disciplinarian teacher did not prepare me for what I experienced in that lesson.

I was utterly appalled and shocked about the behaviour of the teenagers. If this is happening in a grammar school, God, help us. Of course, it is the teacher’s fault that children are badly behaved, as he or she is lacking in classroom behaviour management skills! At least, this is what the people in the profession often say. We like to blame the government on not spending enough and tinkering around the edges on certain issues. Yes, there is some truth in that but until we recognise the adverse effect of classroom disruption, and its impact on better behaved young people, and we are prepared to deal with it, it will only get worse and ruin more lives. This is too big an issue to address here, but I will be doing so in the future.

In the next few blogpost in this series, I will make an  attempt to address each of the seven or so points that I’ve listed above. This is because these are things that we as parents have a chance of perhaps trying to do something about. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not at all an expert and I have no solution to offer as such, I’d just like to highlight and perhaps share some experiences and ideas.

Please do make a comment, as we are trying to share ideas because every parent has something to say about the points I’ve listed above.

The post The Intentional Parent: How to Advocate for Your Child’s Education appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

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 strengths and weaknesses. The eagle is happier soaring high in the sky whilst looking for its prey. If you want to sit in your lovely garden, around your big pond, and take great pleasure in feeding eagles and watching them waddling about and quacking – like a neighbour of mine used to do with his ducks when I was a child, you will be very frustrated. On the other hand, if you want to get your duck to fly and soar high in the sky so you can watch it in its magnificence like the eagle, you will be extremely disappointed. All the duck wants to do is to quack and waddle, and, in fact, if you push the duck too hard, it may poo on your head!

I do not know if one could apply the analogy of eagle and duck to university students. My recent experience of interviewing and working with young people from Imperial College reminds me of the pleasure I get when I teach Physics to bright seventeen and eighteen year olds, most of whom are much brighter than me. I will restrict myself and not go too much into this, as I may end up overindulging myself. Before I conclude, though, I’d like to explain the second point I made above: nurture and nature, as this leads nicely into it.

Nurture vs Nature

I specifically targeted Imperial College students when I advertised for scholars to do some tutoring over the summer. Not because these are the only bright university students around, as I could have widened the net and targeted students at other institutions. There are young people at less reputable universities who are brighter than many students at Imperial College, but I’m not going to go deeper into this.

What I discovered in my several interactions with Imperial College students is the amount of work they have to do to keep up with their degree course. Despite the fact that I studied a similar degree course to many of these your people, I was wrong in my assumption that although getting to Imperial is hard, but your life become a little easier once you become an undergraduate there.

Almost all the Imperial scholars I spoke to told me that it is harder work to keep up with the rigour and demand at the university than when they were studying for A-levels. I can see that all these young people are bright, of course, as they’ve got at least two A*s at A-level, with a handful of them having gained five A-level grades that include four A*s and one A. Despite this rather impressive academic achievement, the interaction that I had with them, and my experience of teaching A-level Physics to high achieving teenagers since the early 1990s,  tells me that nurture has a greater role to play in achieving academic excellence than nature. Yes, in most cases, bright students get top grades, and there is nothing necessarily too extraordinary about that. At the same time, I’ve seen young people of just above average academic ability getting the very top grades at GCSE and A-level. Sadly, I’ve also seen very bright teenagers drifting about, doing very little study and ending up with low exam grades, and in some cases failing their exams.

I’d just like to clarify one key point, which is that the norm for Excel in terms of the teachers we’ve been working with in the last 19 years is professional teachers. Those who are either teaching full time in secondary schools and working for us part time on weekends or those who are semi-retired, with a vast knowledge and experience in teaching. At the same time, I’ve employed a handful of undergraduates and graduates who are not professionally qualified teachers, but who are exceptional teachers and who have helped the students they taught to achieve highly.

In concluding, I think every human being has something unique to offer; and in most cases it is something that is useful to the marketplace, i.e. something that other people value highly and are  willing to invest heavily in. That thing that each of us has can be brought out in all sorts of ways. For young people, it can be by the parent’s guidance and direction, the inspiration of a good teacher or by the child themselves being very determined and focused.  Last month, my niece got 12 Grade 9s in her GCSE and she is not even aware of how exceptional this achievement is. She is not aware that, in 2022, only 13 students obtained 12 or more Grade 9s at GCSE in the whole country.

In concluding, one has to commend the young people who are doing well and shining in any field of endeavour, be it academic, sport, music dance, or other areas. There are so many distractions these days and those who do well do so by being better at avoiding distractions and focusing on what they need to do to achieve the results they get.

Yes, there is a lot of optimism in the air; and no, fingers are not equal, but everyone has something great to offer. It is hard work for us parents to convince our teenagers of the potential they have, and it is even harder to motivate them to do what they need to do to achieve their best. Thank you for reading this, and please don’t forget to make a comment. I value what you have to say, and you do not even have to agree with me.

The post Leveling the Playing Field: Personalized Learning Strategies for Teenagers appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

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 to dwell too much on that. Considering June was all very sunny, we should know better not to expect our good fortune to carry onto July and August.  I am an optimist, and one of those people who try to pretend that the weather doesn’t matter. Of course it does, as the weather alters your mood, even when you try to ignore it. Anyway, it’s a green and pleasant land after all, and the rain certainly helps to keep it that way!

Back to the small matter of teenagers at home in the summer. On the one hand you can’t help thinking that the teenagers haven’t got too long now to leave the nest and fly away into the world, so you want to spend some so-called quality time with them – if there is such a thing. On the other hand, the idea of finding the fridge empty and so much mess in the kitchen all the time can be rather irritating and sometimes exhausting. One solution is to try and get them to do the at least some of the food shopping and   even the cooking. My advice on that is “don’t try this at home” and, if you have to, give them a list and do not give them your card.

I’m beginning to regret slightly my opposition to my 17-year-old getting a job. My wife is more sensible, as she had perhaps foreseen that the fact that the teenager is not working does not necessarily mean they will be spending their time in a productive way. Yes, relaxation is important and it’s good for the teenager to relax a bit, as that is the way to refresh and re-energise. I’m struggling to get both my son and daughter to buy into the idea of spending some of their summer on self-development and a little bit of revision in preparation for the next academic year.

My idea of productive use of time by youngsters is not all about doing schoolwork, as there is more to life. But one would have thought that if the teenager is not working or volunteering over the summer, at least he or she could be spending time learning a new skill or sport or getting involved in some sort of adventure. I don’t think we parents will ever win the battle against our teenagers spending too much time on their devices, but with my son and daughter, one slight compromise is see them cycling to the gym despite the weather, as opposed to asking for a lift all the time.

The other is to see my daughter being more creative in cooking basic food or just preparing food for herself, and what she makes usually looks rather sensible. That’s never been an issue with my son. In fact, it’s the other extreme, as he spends endless time cooking, and I can’t begin to comprehend how much time he spends making pizza.

One thing that I am learning fast is that bringing up teenagers is more of an art than science. It is putting my creativity and negotiation skills to test, but I’m someone who relishes a challenge and I’ll keep trying and we’ll see how it all pans out.

Over the years, I’ve written quite a bit on all sorts of things that teenagers could be doing over the summer to keep themselves productively engaged.  Please see below for links to some of my previous blogs on the issue of teenagers and their summer holidays.

The post Beyond the Screen: How to Spend Quality Time with Teenagers appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

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 of other F words such as false and failure that are just as bad as fear. 

I suppose we’ve all been there as adults, and the truth is that failure is real, but it is not so helpful to devote too much energy into being fearful. It is more productive to invest valuable resources such as energy into doing what needs to be done in order to thrive.

It is perfectly normal for there to be a tiny bit of trepidation when one is going for something big. Afterall these examinations are the first major tests in the lives of these young people and they have wider ramifications for the future.

What we can do as parents is to help reassure our teenagers at this crucial time in their lives. The reality is that some of us parents are more anxious about the whole exam thing than the teenager who is actually sitting the tests!

It is perhaps more fruitful for us not to show so much anxiety as this can make the teenager nervous, which is not good for anyone. I’m probably as guilty as some other parents on this, as I can’t help myself sometimes. Whatever we do as parents, we have a duty to help calm the nerves and, although it may be difficult, it has to be done.

The most popular acronym for the word fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, and there is a lot in those four words that sums up why young people should not be fearful, as long as they do what has to be done to prepare for their exams.

My seventeen-year old son was fearful of two things at the start of his A-level in the autumn: the volume and content of Medieval History and Mechanics in Further Maths. He finds the content dark and dry in that aspect of the History curriculum and he was not enthusiastic about learning it. He perceived Mechanics to be challenging and feared he may not do as well.

Winding the clock ahead a few months, he now finds many aspects of medieval history fascinating and the mechanics topics are some of his strongest areas in Further Maths.

A couple of months ago, he found himself with two dilemmas: changing school in the middle of the course and taking four A-level subjects while all his friends are taking three subjects. He thought I was being cruel to ask him to do 8 to 10 hours of study over the weekend.

I will sum this up with a quote by the American author and public speaker.

“F-E-A-R: has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours.” — Zig Ziglar.

Please help me in this easy word teaser!

In the next couple or so blogposts I will be using two acronyms – CAN and SMART. I’d like to see if you can help to find a sentence that connects the three acronyms

FEAR, CAN and SMART – I’m trying come up with a sentence that is positive and motivational, using other words to connect the three words (the dictionary meaning of fear, can and smart)

All you need to know is the meaning of each of the three words, and you need not know anything about the acronym.

If you have any suggestion, please send it in an e-mail to SuccessTips@ExcelinKeySubjects.com

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