Secrets to Success in High School English – A Parent Guide

It’s that time of year when your child comes back with their school reports. You hope that their grades have gotten better but to your disappointment, they have scored a B in English again. You would have assumed that this time it would have been an A – this time your child has read the Shakespearean play that they studied in class all term and even wrote a practice essay. Their teachers have even approved of their first draft before the assessment, so why is it that they are getting Bs? Since when was it so difficult to navigate high school? Back in your day, things were simple – you’d attend school, participate in class discussions, write up an essay in the exam, and you’d score well. But things have changed in last ten to twenty years. School teachers are expecting more, competition has gotten tougher, and the vast majority of top scoring students attend tutoring.

So what can you do as a parent to help your child?

       1. Review the assessment criteria.

If your child has been putting in the work and not achieving results, it is time to recognise that your child may not be understanding what teachers expect. The rubric would be the first thing to review. Often times, students don’t read the details of the rubric, assuming that they already know what is needed of the task. Make sure your child highlights the keywords of the notification task description. This will be a visual reminder for your child so they can continually engage with the task at hand. 

       2. Encourage your child to read more. 

To improve creative writing, it is essential to read good short stories. Notice that I didn’t mention novels. Often times, novels are so much longer than the 500-1000 words of creative writing your child needs to do in school, which means that the pacing of the plot and characterisation will be too slow. Therefore, reading novels won’t be effective in understanding how you’d implement an effective plot in the little amount of words you have to impress the marker. Furthermore, at JP English, our english tutors understand that students need to balance time between their many subjects. Therefore, we teach English essay and creative writing in an efficient way to maximise
their marks. In a similar way, we encourage the reading of short stories which often times take a fraction of the time needed to read novels, maximising our student’s efficiency. For all our students, we give a list of short story recommendations to help with this.

3.  Make sure your child builds their vocabulary

This tip is especially important for Year 7-10 students, and even primary students. Vocabulary forms the basis of all good writing. Essay writing naturally needs sophistication to achieve higher marks, so encourage your child to learn a broader range of vocabulary to elevate their writing. One tip that I personally tell students is to write down every new word that they come across in a notebook with its meaning, and also search up how the word is used within a sentence. Every week, they need to review all the words that they have written in that notebook, and if they still remember the meaning of the word after 2 weeks, they can cross it off as it will be in their long term memory. At JP English, we include a vocabulary list of 10 new words at the end of each booklet. Students are encouraged to know
those words and use it in their essays. One thing to note is that it is not necessary to learn the hardest, most complex words. In fact, it is seen in a negative light by school teachers as they assume students are just putting in  hard words without much substance. We need to make sure that the word is actually applicable to sophisticated essay writing which is why we provide these specialised vocabulary lists every week.

4.  Encourage independence.

While this blog post is all about how parents can help their child with school work, we also do encourage parents to build a sense of responsibility in their child. This will not only be beneficial in high school, but also in life after school. At
JP English, we bestow this responsibility in students by communicating to them directly rather than their parents. For example, for announcements about end of term exams, we send this directly to the student since they should be taking ownership of their studies. However, we do understand that parents still have a role to play in their child’s progress, which is why we send progress reports to parents at the end of each term once their child’s end of term results have been collated.

5.  Enlist outside help.

As I have alluded to earlier, standards have changed in high school since 10-20 years ago. More and more people are getting tutored as they recognise that this is an efficient way to boost their marks. Tutors who have personally done well in the high school system know the tips and tricks that is needed for tackling school assessment tasks. While school teachers are excellent at what they do, it is difficult to give individualised attention to every student. Meanwhile, our year group classes are generally 5-9 students for Year 7-10, with year 11 and 12 students having the option to do small groups of 2-5 students. Just like having an elite athlete or sports team having coaches, the NSW education system is becoming more competitive which is why it is becoming more necessary to invest in a capable english tutor.

As a parent, you are responsible for shaping your child’s most formative years. We hope this article has been useful to you and if you have any further questions or are interested in what we have to offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us!ly