Talking to your child about their education and your hopes and dreams for their academic future, is the single most important factor in a child’s school performance. That’s the finding of the first edition of the Parent’s Report Card, a research collaboration between the Australian Scholarships Group and Monash University.
We consider this to be both good news, and bad news.
The good news is that parent’s are the glue that holds a child’s academic success together, not their friends, not the brands of stationary they choose, but you. The bad news is that in our crazy-busy modern world, this may not come as good news to many parents who already feel stretched in a million different directions every single day.
We've broken the results of the report down for you, so you know exactly what to do to get one of those academically-successful children. It's not as time intensive as you think. All it takes is support, not hours of homework or endless tutoring sessions. Just support, and proper communication with them, and ideally, with their teachers.
John Velegrinis, CEO of ASG, says parents can start off by sharing their aspirations with their child.
Regular communication with children about the importance of education and the aspirations for their future from an early age, helps children to feel supported and achieve their learning potential.
It's also about how we perceive our child's education. All this means is that parents who have an understanding of their child's abilities and how they can apply these skills to situations like the dreaded NAPLAN testing, can be all it takes to having a child who is confident in their own abilities to perform in an academic setting. If you know their strengths and they know their strengths, they'll do better. Simple as that.
Mr Velegrinis says going forward, education should take a more holistic approach where parents, teachers, schools and the community all work together to help children reach their full potential, which makes total sense.
The findings of the ASG Parents Report Card show that, generally speaking, Australian parents have an acute focus on, and understanding of, their child’s knowledge, skills and ability. This demonstrates the importance of schools, teachers and policy makers working together to model a more holistic approach to communicating with parents.
School is back for most students this week and you can get the term off to a running start by just chatting with your child about their education this afternoon.
Dr Shane Phillipson, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University and co-author of the report, says they also found that parents have a desire to understand what and how their children are learning, however some have little understanding of the current school curriculum.
He also revealed that most parents are happy with the performance of teachers.
The education system has procedures in place to ensure parents and teachers are communicating on both behavioural and performance progress. However, there is a call from parents to be educated about the teaching methodology, so they can ensure they’re supporting their child’s education in the home setting.
The report even suggested that the reason private school children may do better than children in the government system has nothing to do with the cost of their education.
Parents of children attending private schools generally have higher aspirations for their children; 95 per cent talk about higher education and 88 per cent believe a degree will help their child achieve their ambitions.
The reports key finding stressed the role parents have to play in their child's education, and in their future academic achievement;
1. Talk to them positively about education;
2. Share with them your hopes and dreams for their future;
3. Talk to them about your own education experiences;
4. Communicate with their teachers and find out how you can support their teachings at home;
5. Let your child know that they can ask for help at any time.
How do you think parents can help their child achieve academic success?