I’ve seen a lot of valuable advice for pupils starting High School in the last week. Practical tips for settling into the new scary environment and overcoming those initial anxieties are really valuable. However, I haven’t seen much in regard to advice for coping with and adjusting to the demands of ten or more teachers when the pupils have generally been used to only having one. No ‘tween’ starting High School wants to be the one singled out for making a mistake that teachers will inevitably highlight in order to set expectations for the whole class moving forward. As with anything in life, make a great first impression and people will think well of you instinctively. Teachers are no different so getting them onside early can give your kids a great start to High School and make it easier to adjust to the new challenges. So here are my 10 top tips for wowing the teachers often and early:
1. Be Organised
Adjust quickly to spending your days moving from room to room. You don’t need to pack a small suitcase but have everything you need for every lesson (just for that day) with you. Teachers will have a shiny new pen and pencil stash but they will not part with them lightly. When the teacher sets a task, it is frustrating to then get a sea of hands from disorganised pupils who don’t have the essentials. Some schools will have rules about what you must have and check during form period. Don’t get moaned at, shouted at or even given a detention (I know! But some do it) for not having what you need.
2. Your Books Speak Volumes
Your exercise books say a lot about you, just like a brochure says a lot about a company. As a teacher, sitting down to mark a set of books, I would start with the ones I knew would be the best and judge the rest against those that had met my expectation. Be the owner of that book! Titles, dates, lay it out neatly, etc. If you’re given a worksheet, fold it, stick it in where it should be and write on it what it is. Little touches like this make marking so much quicker and less stressful. When it’s 11 pm on a Sunday and you’re 24 books into a marking session and have to go hunting for the rogue homework worksheet in a hidden stockpile at the back of the book, you don’t think great things about that pupil and mark accordingly. A tidy, organised book is also much easier to revise from.
Work stuck in the book when it was done, keeping everything in order for revision
So many kids try and revise from work when they haven’t stuck the quesitons in so it’s useless!
3. Know When To Listen
Teaching is tiring, repeating yourself is tiring. Whatever is going on around you always have one ear switched on to the teacher. They will get irritated pretty quickly with pupils who don’t listen when they should and miss instructions that should be followed. In some lessons, there is a safety consideration here that can land you on the naughty step instantaneously. Your mates will disagree but there is really one voice that you need to pay attention to unless told otherwise.
4. Take Responsibility
High school teachers are not interested in excuses barring exceptional circumstances. They have heard them all before no matter how creative you think you are being! They teach roughly 300 pupils a week so hear a lot of excuses! Do what you need to do when you need to do it by and your teacher will appreciate it.
5. Be Early Not On Time
This is especially important when you’re new to the school and are still unsure of your way around. Teachers will be tolerant of this at first but not for long. Don’t increase your stress and anxiety for the lesson by arriving late and starting it negatively.
6. Be Positive, Smile!
High school is hard and can be stressful but you’re going to have to get through it anyway! It is also a world of opportunities and the kids that realise that and throw themselves into it are the ones smiling on results day. Get involved and enjoy it. A positive mindset towards its challenges will yield much more success than moaning and grumbling about it.
7. Become A Homework Jedi!
Schools take the time to organise a homework timetable for all subjects and classes for a reason. It is so a pupil should never have too much to do in one night (3 max usually). Maths and English can be daily subjects so if you’ve left some homework from another night suddenly you have 4 or 5 pieces to do. Do it on the night you get it and get it out of the way! Forming this habit in Year 7 will have massive benefits come Year 11! It is so important, do it!
8. Be Polite & Helpful
As with everyday life, people will help you more and treat you better if you show them kindness and respect. Teachers are human beings too, some teenagers forget that occasionally. If you drop something, pick it up and so on. It’s just common sense but makes such a difference to the way people respond to you. Hint: this works on your parents too!
9. Know Your Syllabus
You wouldn’t pack for your holiday without a list (well, your mum wouldn’t!). So why do the vast majority of pupils go into an exam having never looked at the syllabus from the exam board? It’s a checklist for you to use to prepare and tick off. Better still use highlighters as you go along to keep track of what you’ve done and how well you understood it. This is an invaluable revision strategy. Understand the structure of the course too. All the kids that get a Grade 9 will do these things…it’s not a coincidence!
Green: confident
Yellow: Needs to revisit this
Red: “Er… Have we even done this?”
Pupils who understand the structure of their course are already ahead of the rest and prepare better for the exams
Pupils who check the specification and syllabus know exactly what to expect in the exam so experience (slightly) less stress
10. Do Not Be Disruptive!
So obvious but still so difficult for some. Some pupils find it hard to learn the difference between disruption and conversation, etc. If the teacher is chatting (we like humans and we like banter!) then chat back. If the teacher is teaching or trying to settle the class, don’t interrupt! Also, turn your phone off obviously!
A Final Thought......
It is NEVER too late to adopt these strategies. Even if your kids are starting Year 10 or 11, the kids that do the things on this list achieve better results, are less stressed and enjoy school more. So do all you can to encourage your kids to adopt these strategies and monitor the ones you can such as books, homework diaries, etc.
The Classmate Team
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