Top 10 Tips for parents to manage and communicate expectations about schoolwork and results

If parental expectations are too low, students may not strive to achieve their personal best. If parental expectations are too high, this can contribute to high levels of student stress. So how can parents find the right balance? Some areas to consider are: 

1. Understand your own motivations: Why do you want your child to achieve particular marks in their studies?  Is it because you have pressure from family/friends/society about what your child will achieve?  Do you want them to follow in your career footsteps?  Do you want them to have opportunities you never had as a child or young person?  Understanding your own motivations will help you find balance in your expectations of your children.
2. Help your children to set realistic goals: Keep talking to your children about what they want to achieve, in individual subjects, at school overall and in other aspects of their life.  Their career goals may mean they want to focus intensively on something like art or music, rather than maths or science.  Helping them to identify their goals will enable them to determine what subjects they need to focus on and what marks they are likely to need, which means that effort can be concentrated on the areas which will help them to achieve their goals. 
3. Be involved in your children’s learning: Throughout the term talk to your children about what they are studying.  Ask them to show you their bookwork and homework.  The more you understand about what they are doing and how they are going along the way, the better you will be able to set and manage your expectations.
4. Make sure you really communicate what you expect: Many students feel like they are not meeting their parents’ expectations.  Often this is a result of poor communication about expectations by both parties.  Reflect on your motivations (see 1 above) and think about how you communicate your expectations to your children.  Remember to praise them for the effort they make rather than the results they achieve, this way they are motivated to keep on trying, even when learning is difficult.
5. Develop an understanding of the school’s assessment and reporting structures: Assessment and reporting systems change over time and are different in different schools, states and countries.  Making sure you really understand what your children’s reports mean may help you to understand what they are actually achieving.  Sometimes students are excelling in certain skills or areas, but reporting structures may not highlight these.
6. Remember nobody is perfect: Even the brightest, most highly motivated child will struggle at times.  They may struggle to understand a particular topic or concept, or they may struggle with motivation, particularly for a subject they don’t particularly enjoy.  Problems with teachers or peers can also contribute.  It is unrealistic that anyone can work with 100%  effort all the time.
7. Provide practical homework and exam support: Provide practical help to your children with things like proofreading and reviewing drafts, checking work and listening to speeches.  Remember though, it is not your work, so don’t make changes, rather make suggestions and provide guidance.
8. Spend time together doing something fun: Make sure your relationship with your child is about more than homework and study.  Allocate some time to do fun things together.  This is the time in which your child is most likely to open up to you about the things that they are struggling with and you can work out how best to help them.  Ideas include going for a walk or run together, having a dinner date (even to Maccas) or having them show you the latest funny videos they like.
9. Support your child to do their best: You can do this by providing healthy, nutrient rich food; opportunities for exercise, rest and relaxation and an environment which is supportive of and conducive to study.   
10. Keep alert for the physical and mental signs of stress: Familiarise yourself with how your child responds to stress.  Do they withdraw?  Act out?  Work harder or stop working?  When you notice that your child is stressed provide them opportunities to discuss what is worrying them and work with them to identify how you can help them.  You may wish to involve the school counsellor, a teacher or tutor at this point.

Term 3 Week 4

Trial HSC Exams/Major Projects
Yr 12 finish their trial exams this week. This is a pivotal moment in any students HSC year and students generally have met this challenge very positively. The remaining weeks of the term are a time to finish course work and begin the process of revision and preparation for the HSC exams starting in Term 4. From next week Yr 12 classes will run as normal and students are expected to attend all lessons as normal.

Students enrolled in subjects with major projects are currently working feverishly to finalise their works for submission in coming weeks. We look forward to seeing their finished products after 12 months of toil. I would also like to pass on an expression of gratitude to the teachers of these subjects who have given up lots of free periods, lunch times, before/after school time as well as the odd weekend and holiday time to support students in this endeavour over the past 12
months.

Yr 11 Exams
Yr 11 will complete their end of year exams across Weeks 9 and 10 of this term. Details will be provided once finalised. Students should be making efforts now to start preparing for these exams. Any students needing assistance with this process should talk to their class teacher first but Yr 11 PALS and the Curriculum Office can also assist if required. A reminder that all students have access to the online Study Samurai platform that has lots of useful strategies to help with study and exam preparation as well as subject specific preparation ideas also.

Subject Selection
Yr 11 2023 - Yr 10 students have now completed the process of subject selection for Yr 11 2023. In coming weeks we will be meeting with students to review their selections and make sure they align with the students ability level and intended post school pathway.

Yr 10 2023 - This week Yr 9 students have been assessing whether they take up a Pathways option in 2023 instead of their normal Yr 10 electives. There was a zoom for students and parents/carers that was well attended, I would like to especially thank Owen Micovski (Yr 10) who gave up his time to provide his perspective of Pathways as a current student in Yr 10 who has engaged in this opportunity this year. Applications to be considered for Pathways close on Monday (15th August). Once the applications for Pathways have been finalised we will look at finalising the process for Yr 10 2023 elective choices. This should happen across Weeks 5-7.

Yr 9 2023 - Once Yr 10 2023 electives have been completed we will start the process of choosing electives with Yr 8 for Yr 9 2023. In coming weeks students will receive a subject selection manual with all the details about this process and the subjects being offered. They will complete this process across Weeks 7 and 8 at this stage.

Your URGENT attention to school fees payments is requested. For those falling behind we urge you to make every effort to bring your account up to date.

For those experiencing financial difficulties, please contact the finance office or email accounts@sjchsdow.catholic.edu.au.

Joey’s Sport T3 Wk 4

Hockey Invitational Cup
Our Open Girls and Boys Hockey teams had a great day yesterday competing at an invitational tournament held at the Illawarra Hockey Centre. The girls had a close loss to St. Mary's, followed by a convincing win against Corpus. This put them into the final v St. Mary's. They had two excellent quarters, with chances to score, but unfortunately St. Mary's rallied in the 3rd quarter, putting away 3 quick goals. A tired 4th quarter saw the final result of 0-3.
The boys lost Ethan Thompson early in the first game due to a hand injury (he was unable to play for the rest of the day). They still played well, however, were outclassed by the eventual winners Corpus in their first game and had a narrow loss to Edmund Rice in the second game.
Thank you to Mrs Davis and Mr Amstrong for coaching the teams and to the event convenors from Corpus Christi Catholic High School. It was wonderful to see the students back out playing hockey together as a team, especially after a covid interrupted the past two years of Diocesan Hockey.

Congratulations to the following students who were excellent ambassadors for our school:
Open Female Team: Sarah Eastham , Latisha James, Mackenzie Hutchinson, Kaliah Tindall, Jazmin Jensen, Mia Haslam, Billie Elliott, Gemma Cresswell, Amali Warrener, Charlee Buckman, Breanna Cresswell, Tatum Sawtell, Emma-Jane Johnson.
Open Male Team: Sam Huetter, Lucas Ruprecht, Bailey Miller, Jackson Rieck, Kai Correa, Ethan Aleckson, Kobi Shaw, James Billett, Cooper Smith, Thomas Frew, Lucas Thompson, Robert Frew.

Congratulations and Good Luck

Thomas Hofman (Year 8) competed at the State Basketball Finals last weekend in Newcastle as part of the U14 Illawarra Rep team. His team qualified for Club Nationals which will be held in Sydney from September 25-30. This is a wonderful achievement. Thomas is also representing the Wollongong Diocese at the NSWCCC Secondary Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park on Monday 12 September. Grace Pomery and Tayissa Buchanan are also representing at this athletics event. We wish all 3 of our talented athletes the best of luck in their events.

Upcoming Events

Mrs Michelle Garbutt

Representative Sports Coordinator

In Term 2 Year 8 History students studied Medieval Europe. As a part of the unit they completed an assessment task that required them to research and replicate an authentic artefact from time. Here are some of the examples of the amazing artefacts they created on display in our school library! If you visit the library please go check it out.

Well done Year 8! Awesome work.

Year 7 Started their Food & Ag Unit this term. Their first practical was fruit salad & icecream. They enjoyed this practical experience and did really well. They learnt knife skills, misc en place, mixing, plating, cleaned the kitchen and swept the floors.

Year 11 Hospitality made a beef lasagne, salad and garlic bread this week. Greatly enjoyed by all. 

Year 10 Food Technology made Crispy filo scrolls with a filling of bacon, ricotta, spinach and roasted pumpkin. A healthy meal with a salad that fits into our Food Selection & Health unit.

Romantically-challenged Prince Freddy, having just received his Doctor of Philosophy, has returned to his home kingdom and is being pressured by his all-business father, King Frederick, to quickly choose a bride at the upcoming royal ball.

Domineering Brunhilda and greedy daughters, Clarissa and Priscilla, are excited to go to the ball but smart and modern stepdaughter Cinderella would rather stay home and read with her animal friends Aristotle the Crow, Plato the Toad, and Socrates the Spider.

Magical Gwendolyn the Well-Wisher appears and urges Cinderella to go to the ball. Stubborn Cinderella finally agrees to go... provided she doesn't have to wear any silly glass slippers.

At the ball, Cinderella and Prince Freddy dance and fall in love, but the ball erupts into chaos at midnight with every girl losing a glass slipper; Cinderella loses her sneaker. Prince Freddy tours the countryside with his trusty friend, Gaston to reunite the sneaker with its rightful owner.

Brunhilda, Clarissa and Priscilla throw obstacles in the would-be princess' way, but Cinderella and Freddy find each other by learning that appearances aren't important and it's better to trust your heart.

Wednesday special - Bacon egg rolls $5-00 for breakfast and recess