Time to go back to school! Every year, we swear that it comes around more quickly. One day, everyone is anticipating the countdown to the breakup of school.
Plans are being made, uniforms become abandoned, and the summer stretches out ahead, a seemingly endless haze of water fights, BBQs, plane trips and long, light evenings spent socialising and having fun.
All of a sudden, you blink, and it is the end of August. The long, lazy days of summer are drawing to a close and a brand-new school year is on the horizon. The end of the summer holidays can be a shock.
It can be an adjustment for both parents and pupils at every stage of education; whether you are a seasoned veteran heading into crucial exam years, or a fresh-faced newbie tackling school for the first time.
For parents, no matter how many PE kits you have bought, or pencil cases you have filled in the past, each new year has a sense of trepidation and a seemingly bottomless list of things to do. Here are the top tips to prepare and allow you all to enter the new academic year in (relative) peace!
1. Be prepared!
It may seem that you are getting ahead of yourself, but sometimes it can really pay to be prepared as much as possible.
At the end of the summer term, and through the holidays, there are often sales and discounts on school uniforms, potentially saving you money on costly clothing.
If you do need to buy new, go as early as possible – the last week is always overly busy with parents who left it too late and are caught in the back-to-school rush, so save yourself a headache by getting ahead of the game!
2. Take a chance to refresh supplies
School supplies, such as stationery and notebooks, work hard throughout the school year, so take advantage of the break to check things out and replenish as needed.
This doesn’t mean that you have to buy everything brand new and fresh, but it is a good opportunity to sort through used pens, update lunch boxes and bags, bin broken pencils and equipment, check calculator batteries and so on, and replace that which needs it to make sure that you are in the best possible shape and ready to go on the first day of the new term!
3. Build a system
As well as replenishing school supplies, this is a good opportunity to create a system to keep organised throughout the school year.
Maybe consider different coloured notebooks or sections in a file for different subjects, or even separate binders altogether if your child has a lot of hefty paperwork.
Use a colour coding system to unite the timetable and physical work, to make sure you stay on top of paperwork and don’t waste valuable time searching for sheets or resources.
4. Break work into manageable chunks
As part of this, plan revision into your pupil’s everyday routine – maybe take half an hour a day to tidy and summarise the notes you have taken, and have a specific place to store these.
Then, when exams come around, there already exists a brief summary of a topic to jog your child’s memory, highlight any confusion or weak spots, and help plan any revision more thoroughly.
By presenting this as a quick option which will save time, you can save your child a lot of drama when exam season rolls around!
5. Don’t forget everything over the summer!
This technique, of small but regular revision, can also help you in the summer.
Don’t wait until you get back to school to start learning again – get your child to read over old resources and notes, maybe practice some language vocabulary or a few Mathematics exercises.
Just a few minutes of keeping your knowledge fresh will be a huge benefit in September and ensure that your child is a step ahead.
There is no need to make it boring – this is the summer break after all! – but just five minutes a day of refreshing basic facts keeps the brain alive and awake and can be a massive help for the return back to school.
6. Get into a routine in time
In a similar vein, don’t wait until the first day to get a routine established. In the break, you will likely all have had later nights and more lie-ins, and it is hard for the body to adjust.
A couple of weeks before the start of term, adjust bedtimes and risings by ten minutes. Increase this by two or three minutes a day until you are back to your term-time routine.
This gives the body a chance to get used to what is going to happen and can prevent an unpleasant awakening on day one!
GasanMamo Insurance would like to wish you the best of luck as you return back to school to begin the new scholastic year. Happy Learning!