Moving up to the next year group can feel like a big deal and can be pretty daunting (whether students choose to show it, or not).
There might be butterflies of excitement (‘Yesssss – Year 11 – I always wanted to be a Senior’).
Or butterflies of anxiety or worry (in an ‘Eek! Y11! OMG – Things are gonna start getting tough!’ kinda way).
Or both!
So, here’s what your teen can expect and should be ready to look out for as they embark on Year 11 – so they’re not only feeling cool and calm about what lies ahead, but can also really make the most of the opportunities to show their best work.
Okay, so your teen’s going into Year 11
The start of those all-important senior years!
They’ll likely have already had it drummed into them by their school and teachers (or are about to be) how seriously they need to take these next two years.
So I won’t focus on that side of things here, but more the specific changes and challenges they’ll see in comparison to Year 10.
First of all, they’re gonna have to be really good at working independently.
Help is still gonna be there, but they’ll have more times when they are expected to progress by themselves. For example, they may have dropped one or two subjects in their senior subject selections and will therefore have a couple of spares through the week where they need to prioritise their study tasks and get motivated to work efficiently, when the temptation of chatting to friends or have time slip away online is all too easy to succumb to whilst sat in the library, despite all the best intentions.
They’ll also be expected to work more independently in class and be able to run with tasks without the higher levels of scaffolding or teacher input that have been there in previous years.
Therefore, having excellent skills in being able to dissect the wording of a question, or break down a task and know how to tackle it are going to be hugely beneficial.
I’ll be covering some of these skills in my Term 1 Parent online event coming up at the start of Feb, so be sure to join me at that 🙂
In addition, larger, open-ended and extended tasks, like essays and inquiries will become a bigger part of their study and assessments. They’ll likely have had a few of these set in Year 10, but these will become even more significant this year.
Not only will they need the templates and structures to help them tackle these strategically, so that they work efficiently and don’t end up spending every waking hour studying, but they also really need to pay attention to their QWC – quality of written communication.
In these senior years, students are expected to be able to write with clarity and sophistication, to have a wide vocabulary and have accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar.
I train students on these elements in detail – and more – in my Write Like an A-Grader Training,
but for a couple of quick and free tips, also check out my blog post ‘Competing with classmates’ where I whined ‘how does she WRITE like that?’.
So there you have it.
Quite a few expectations to be aware of.
That jump from Year 10 to Senior is significant, I’m not gonna lie, but it’s more in terms of the types of and quality of the tasks, and the levels of detail and analysis required in them.
I really hope that helps with any pre-Term 1 nerves or anxieties, as well as giving you some go-to tips and strategies.
Leave me a comment or drop me an email and let me know… What’s the thing your teen’s most concerned about for the next school year, or the thing they’re most looking forward to?
And look out for my Term 1 parent information event coming up very soon.
(Totally free and with a new twist for 2019! Woop woop!).
Here’s to a SUPER- happy and successful year ahead and until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week!
Katie ?
