publication date: Aug 27, 2007
My
daughter has just left
secondary school. Nearly
eight years ago, I made
decisions based on what I knew about
Libby, the type of
education I thought she
should have and the
sort of school I wanted her to attend. So
how do I
feel about my
decisions now?
Basically I got it
right but please don’t
think I’m
smug – there was a lot of
heartache in “
choosing” a school and
everything wasn’t smooth
sailing. (I put
choosing in
inverted commas because most of the time schools choose you.)
Making the
transition to
secondary school can be very
unsettling for your
son or daughter and
planning things in
advance – like
buying school
uniform while the
shops still have a
full stock of all
sizes – can help to make your
child more
comfortable and
confident about the
change.
The
first day is a major
milestone and - to my
shame! – I made a very
silly mistake about the
school bus. There were
two branches of the
shop it
stopped by and we
went to the
wrong one. To get to school in
reasonable time I had to
hail a taxi – and we arrived
flustered and a little
late. Not the
ideal way!
If your
child is
starting secondary school this
September, start reading
What every parent should know... at Chapter 4 and keep the
book at hand to
dip into as and when you
need to. If your child will be
going into
Year 6 in
September, start at
Chapter 1. Better still
read this
book when your child is in
Year 5 and
congratulate yourself for your
forward planning!
What every parent should know... is easy to read and
dip into, contains
check lists and sample
questions to ask, plus helps the parent
navigate the years at
school so that your child gets the
best from the
education on offer. It
contains a wealth of i
nformation from parents who’ve been through the
system to what the
experts say. Some of the
advice is very
basic but it doesn’t
hurt to state the
obvious and remind us to be
confident about our own
ability to help our
children through school.
Full marks to Jane Bidder for
producing such a
user-friendly book for
parents.
What every parent should know before their child goes to secondary school is published by
White Ladder Press, to order a copy from
Amazon please
click the link below:
What Every Parent Should Know Before Their Child Goes to Secondary School
