Starting secondary school serves as a significant milestone in a child’s life, so it’s no wonder that they can often find it quite daunting! Ensuring that your child is fully prepared for their first day of school can do a world of good for their nerves. So, here are a few of the best ways to help prepare your child for their next big step!
Empathise with their feelings
For starters, try not to shrug off any apprehensions that your child may have about starting secondary school. Of course they’ll be nervous, and this can be due to fears surrounding a variety of different factors like having to make the school journey on their own, making new friends, and the fear of being bullied.
So, it’s important to reassure your child that everybody has the same fears when starting high school, and try to be positive and enthusiastic about the journey they’re about to embark on. By establishing any fears that your child might have early on, you can quickly pinpoint areas where you might need to set time aside to talk through with them. This will allow you to come up with any strategies that could help put them at ease.
Prepare them for the first day
When your child is starting high school, there are loads of practical things that you as a parent need to take into consideration. The biggest one is that that you definitely need to make sure that you’ve sorted all your child’s uniform out early on, so you have plenty of time to change things if it’s too big or small.
You’ll also need to make sure that your child is fully equipped with the correct exercise books and supplementary reading material before their first day. We can help with that here at EPSL - you can view our full range of products right here on our site. Plus, you’ll need to get all the stationary and equipment they’ll need (things like calculators, pencil cases, pens, erasers, a ruler and so on.). As a final note - spares are always a good idea when it comes to school equipment!
Teach them how to be responsible
The sooner you establish a routine that will make mornings less stressful, the easier your child will find it to get themselves ready both physically and mentally for the day ahead. Little things like encouraging them to lay their uniform out and pack their school bag the night before can save valuable time in the mornings. What’s more, try to commit to marking important deadlines such as homework and test days on a calendar to help your child understand the value of time management and preparation.
Of course, the trick to all this is resisting the urge to do all of this yourself, and placing the responsibility in the hands of your child. It doesn’t hurt to give them lots of support and encouragement – and maybe intervene from time to time – but ultimately the end goal is for them to learn to be independent!
Ultimately, you know what’s best for your children, these are just a few tips! While you’re busy preparing your child for secondary school, we’ll carry on doing what we do best - supplying a huge range of school exercise books, personalised exercise books, and supplementary reading material to students of all ages so they have everything they need to achieve greatness in the classroom. Take a look through what we’ve got available on our site - and if you have any questions, feel free to give us a call on 01254 686 500. We’re always happy to help!
