Three keys to setting students up for success
Back to School
Nadia Sinkovich, a registered teacher and counsellor, says there’s three keys to helping a student of any age and any stage of their school journey, not only to return to school more smoothly, but cope with it across the year.
The founder of Behaviour Boost - established to create a safe, engaging, and familiar space where young people can grow and thrive - says those keys are to acknowledge that you, the parent, are your child’s: Advocate, Time Keeper and Co-regulator.
“Being your child’s advocate is about advocating for your child within the school setting,’’ Nadia says.
“One of the great things that parents can do on the onset of schooling is getting to know their child’s classroom teacher.
“A lot of families are working and they don’t have time to go into the classroom, so one of the great ways of connecting with the teacher is to send them an email.’’
Nadia says teachers often check their emails before school and not usually during school hours because they are teaching and a quick email is a great way to introduce yourself.
“Having that strong relationship paves the pathway for a joint academic venture and it really is about having those connections within a school setting,’’ she said.
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“Another way that you can advocate for your child is being in touch with or aware of who to contact if you think that your child is in need of mental health support,’’ Nadia said.
“The research shows that the majority of mental health conditions are at the onset of adolescence. If you notice that your child is getting a little bit wobbly, seek support.’’
Time management for youth is a key to setting them up for success.
“Particularly for our little kiddos, managing time in the morning is really tricky.
“So having uniforms laid out with socks and shoes and things laid out for them helps them to manage their time to get out the door on time.
“For our older kids, managing time looks like having regular check-ins about how they are going on particular subjects.
“Do they know when particular assessment tasks are due, because kids can’t moderate time.
“The third time management advice is about bed times and managing device use.
“This is across the board with all age groups and it is an epidemic that every family is coming into contact with and it is causing problems. Having a conversation at the beginning of term about what the expectations are so that they know what the rules are.’’
Nadia says children from a very early age experience a range of emotions that they don’t know how to handle.
“Being our child’s co-regulator is important,’’ Nadia said.
“It is very nerve wracking going into their first day of school and that’s really normal. We can help our kids premeditate their first day of school and what it’s going to look like by speaking to them about what it will look, sound, feel like and what to expect.
“Having those conversations prior to the event helps their brain to process what’s going to happen so when it plays out they’ve practiced it before they have got to their first day of school.’’
She added another thing to do, no matter what the age of the student is, is to listen and potentially help problem solve and help children come up with their own solutions to issues and then sometimes we then have to move into advocacy.
Nadia, who did her primary schooling at St Augustines and attended Mossman State High School, is the local face for the nationally operational Behaviour Boost.
Servicing the Douglas region, Nadia supports more than 50 families through tailored tutoring and mental health support.
“We have a diverse range of workers, a broad range of specialists and we all are extremely passionate about doing work with young people,’’ she said.
“Our reach is Australia-wide, we have parenting programs as well as counselling and tutoring that is online and available Australia wide.
“We do offer outreach for counselling and NDIS from Atherton to Daintree but predominantly we are an online service.’’
You can learn more about Behaviour Boost by visiting the website: behaviourboost.com.au
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