Eduarda Madeira, a curriculum leader of guidance and co-op education at Western Technical Commercial School in Toronto, offers five tips to help your teen start his high school career off on the right foot.
1. Have your teen visit the school a few times before his first day so he’s familiar with the building, facilities and teachers. Most schools offer a spring orientation as well as one before classes start in September.
2. Encourage your teen to take advantage of all the resources available at the high school, such as teachers, vice-principals, guidance counsellors, librarians and coaches.
3. Let your teen know that while high school gives kids more independence, such as going off school grounds for lunch, students are expected to handle this new freedom maturely and ensure their school commitments don’t fall by the wayside.
4. Because there is a greater emphasis on academic achievement in high school, Madeira says students need to understand the importance of being organized. She encourages parents to make sure their teens are using an agenda to record assignments, test dates and homework.
5. Time management is also important. Talk to your teen about limiting his extracurricular activities for the first semester to give him time to adapt to his new workload.
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