COVID-19 and national lockdown laws impacted us all greatly, but for the students who are completing their final year of high school in the midst of a pandemic, the situation for some has been nothing short of disastrous. 

Students were sent home to undertake home learning, with digital learning becoming a part of their new everyday life. Study groups were no more, in fact, contact with anyone outside their own household was off the cards. 

On top of navigating the education obstacles, there were also emotional challenges to deal with, such as the loss of regular physical and extracurricular activities, and mental health strain.

Here are three integral steps you can take now to help your student go from struggle and stress, to straight As in time for the QCE.

Trying to navigate ATAR? Read our ATAR FAQ’s

1) Determine the cause for the grade slip

There could be many reasons your child has seen their results go backwards. The first step is to determine what could have caused the decline in the first place. For example – is your child overwhelmed with all of the changes and the rapid rate at which their educational goal posts are moving? Did the change in their daily routine leave them with feelings of anxiety or simply struggling to get back into the daily grind of being back in the classroom with assessments coming at them thick and fast? Have they experienced social issues with changed friendships since they were last in the classroom? 

Whatever the cause, it is important to address the reason behind the results. Ask them how they are feeling about all of the recent changes in their life, and see if you can get to the root of the problem. If you are having trouble – it might be worthwhile seeking professional assistance such as an appointment with the school counsellor who can help you in facilitating a meaningful conversation with your teen. 

2) Did their time management and goals change?

Without the need to rise early in the morning and get themselves into the classroom, did your child struggle to get up and get moving in the mornings? Has this impacted them greatly with fatigue issues now that they have returned back to their school campus? A shift in a young adult’s energy levels could be part of the reason they are finding school a little more difficult post-lockdown. 

It is also possible that the career goals of your child have changed since being in lockdown, meaning particular subjects have become less appealing to them and the focus has been shifted. 

It can be tough to rally the enthusiasm for that last push after twelve and a half years of schooling, but it is really important to help your young person find that motivation to get across the finish line and get the ATAR score they have been striving for. If you need to implement structure and routine back into their day, the school holidays are a great time to hit the reset button and help them to hit the ground running for the start of their final term at school. 

Help them to define what their goals are, and clarify the steps they need to take to get them back on track to success. They may need help structuring a new routine to help them with their study goals – whatever it is they need, your support is going to be key in the last few months of their school career. 

3) Did the mid-term assessments reflect their learning preferences or is this an anomaly?

Did your child see a dip in grades in the first semester of Year 12? Did the absence from the physical classroom mean that they missed the push from their teachers to knuckle down and treat their mid-year exams like a trial run for the QCEs? It could be really easy to blame COVID and assume that all other students across the state were similarly impacted, but it’s time to bring the focus back onto your child and what went wrong for them.

Was the learning language unfamiliar to them? Could a tutor be the answer to sharpening your student’s study skills leading up to their final exams? 

A Team Tuition helps students – particularly those in their final stages of learning – to reach their full potential, and it’s not too late to enlist our help for your child. Learn more about how we helped some kids change their results from Cs to As in less than six months. 

Turning it around is about diagnosing the setback and putting real, actionable strategies in place to overcome the poor grades. As a parent, you’ve probably had just about enough of this whole “educator” thing.  That’s okay, we offer intensive ATAR tutoring blocks that all start with overcoming everything above. This is your last chance to help your child kick academic goals when it counts the most. 

Could ATAR tutoring be the answer for your child? Contact A Team Tuition today!

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There are two calls every parent of a boarder expect, and dread.  The first is the teary “I miss you” call (usually early in the semester) and the second is the call from the house master reporting some kind of tomfoolery.  It’s almost a rite of passage for parents of boarding school students.  It can leave parents feeling guilt and concern.  You’ve chosen one of Australia’s boarding schools because they offer world class education.  Children flock to your school from across Queensland, Australia and the world.  You’re giving your child the best possible educational experience.  They’re just asking for a little extra help to get on track.

That’s where A Team Tuition can change everything.

“We Believe That Any Student, Anywhere Can Achieve “A” Grades With The Right Support, Strategies and Mindset”

Our team of specially recruited and extensively trained boarding school tutors don’t just help your child improve grades.  Our program is developed in consultation with academics, coaches and child psychologists to help your child overcome the emotional challenges of boarding school life, while reaching new academic heights.

Why we’re the preferred tutoring service for the Australian Boarding Schools Association

For over a decade, we’ve been proving that simple tutoring isn’t enough to create elite academic performance.  For boarding school students, the additional emotional and mindset challenges can impact not only their wellbeing but their futures.  We are the only Australian tutoring firm implementing an “emotional wellbeing” approach to academia.  And it works.  87% of our students go from C/D grades to A/B grades, often within an single semester

We “get” your challenges

All of our tutoring programs have been developed in conjunction with educators, coaches and child psychologists.  That’s why we can help students overcome the additional psychological barriers to learning, that absence from family can create.

Whether the child is “embracing parent-free freedom” at the cost of their grades, or missing home too much to focus, our team is carefully trained to identify psychological barriers and overcome them.

We then roll out a study strategy for your child that includes time spent on attitude, mindset and emotional wellbeing.

Constant Communication, Constant Support

One of the fundamental principles of our approach to tutoring is the “child’s support network”.  Your child needs the support and influence of the school, teachers, peers, parents and tutors to thrive.  In a boarding house, this means additional support from tutors to support the parent’s key roles:

• Overseeing homework and study at home
• Acting as a cheerleader
• Providing positive influence
• Providing mentoring
• Assisting in navigating social and emotional situations

We liase with your child’s support network to ensure there are no gaps and provide feedback and communication with the whole network – so your child’s educational needs are seamlessly met.

Australian Boarding Schools

Our tutors visit students in house across Australian boarding schools and provide online tutoring to boarders across Australia.   There are two ways to engage A Team Tuition to assist your boarder.

Work directly with A Team Tuition

We provide a direct service to parents on campus in South East Queensland and Sydeny boarding schools or online across the rest of Australia.  You must speak to your school about our tutors visiting campus.  (Note that all our tutors are fully insured, blue carded and trained in child safety as well as COVID-19 best practices)

Talk to your boarding school

As the exclusive supplier of tutors through the Australian Boarding Schools Association, we partner directly with schools to manage their Boarder Prep sessions.  These two hour daily sessions are designed to give students time to do study and exam preparation.  Our tutors attend these sessions and offer both one on one customised help, and group assistance where needed.

Not sure which service suits your child best?

Talk to us now.  We’ll help your child to thrive.

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Every single student, out of thousands of students, had one thing holding them back: Mindset

That means that every single student underperforming at school has the potential to raise their grades. How can you tell if your child is underperforming at school? Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

The Distracted/Unmotivated Mindset

Your teen sits down to start an assignment and then “bing” the phone notifies her of a TikTok she must watch. So you take her phone. And that goes down a treat. Then, you find her in her room, not studying, she’s going through drawers looking for something. So you sit her back at her desk. Finally, she even attempts to tidy her room as a procrastination tool. You don’t rush to stop her… because you know, you’re witnessing a miracle in front of your very eyes… but eventually, she MUST do the assignment. She’s distracting herself. Putting off work. It’s not that she’s lazy. Distraction is actually an issue of poor confidence. She’s trying to communicate that she’s so unsure of her work that she’d rather clean her room than attempt it.

How we change the “Distracted/Unmotivated” mindset

We get to the root of your child’s confidence issues and remove the barriers they’re facing.  By creating more engaging lessons that help your child to break down the workload and to explore it on their terms, they find the confidence to take ownership of their work.  This looks different for every child.  For some kids, it’s about turning the workload into a game of sorts, where there is reward for discovering steps to tackle the subject matter.  For others, it’s about a change of scene, where they are free to move around and take in some sunshine while they work.  For some kids, it’s about improving their study strategy.  It’s very, very rarely about closing them up in a dull room!

What does it mean in practice?

Ethan was a B student.  Not bad.  Doing OK.  But his mother worried about his lack of motivation and she believed he wasn’t reaching his full potential.  Tutor Brit took Ethan away from the standard desk set up and attacked his workload with beanbags and whiteboards.  She let him lead the way in learning.  She introduced fun and interactive ways for him to break down the workload  – so he could focus on it, without distraction.  Ethan is now an “A” student and the recipient of the coveted Principal’s Award.

Read Ethan’s Story

The “I Can’t Do It” Mindset

Your teen tells you, “I just don’t understand it. I can’t do it.” This quickly transforms into “It’s stupid, when will I even need this in the future?” Pretty soon, an underperforming student is a failing student because they feel that they’re just not bright enough to understand the curriculum. We see this a lot in students who are heavily skewed to either left or right brain learning. If your child thrives at Art and English, every maths exam feels like a big opportunity to fail.

How we change the “I Can’t Do It” mindset

Our tutors first address their learning language. The three primary learning languages dictate how well your student can take in different information. If your child is an aural learner, who retains information through reading and listening, a sheet of formulas can feel like an utter impossibility. So, our first step is to understand how your child learns and to translate the curriculum into the messages that their brain best receives and processes. Same information, different communication. Once your child can process the information in a familiar way, the “I can’t do it” mindset disappears. They can do it. And we can do it. Our tutors are trained to make a maths lesson feel like an English lesson. To make an English lesson echo a physics lesson.

What does it mean in practice?

Meet Ava. Ava went from a B- student to an A+ student in a month with our tutor’s help. It was that fast, and that simple. She merely needed her lessons transformed into the language that suited her needs.

Read Ava’s Story 

The Overwhelm Mindset

Your child seems to take FOREVER to complete a simple assignment. They sit down to do their homework and it’s a struggle for all concerned. In the time it should take to get the first subject done, they still haven’t located a suitable pen.  As a parent, words like lazy and disorganised start popping into mind, and you worry that your child will struggle with other life skills, like holding down a job.  Deep breaths.

How we change the “Overwhelm” mindset

Every child is different, but our tutors would begin looking for clues as to the source of the child’s overwhelm.   Most often it comes down to poor study strategy skills.  We assume that by highschool, children have developed a set of skills that will carry them through their academic career but in a surprising number of students, this is not the case.  Something as simple as looking at an assignment sheet and recognising the smaller tasks required to make up the bigger submission, to order these and to begin attacking them – this gap in your child’s understanding will cause underperformance in all areas of their school life.  Our approach is to identify these gaps and help them to “relearn” how to study.

What does that look like in practice?

Joseph was a “C” student who was underperforming at school because he struggled with the “how” to study.  It’s hard for a teacher in a busy classroom to pick apart a child’s underperformance and find the cause, so our tutor Emily took on that responsibility.  Joseph, armed with an easy to follow study strategy, became an A student in no time.

Read Joseph’s Story

The Low Priority Mindset

What is the distraction your child is feeling is justified?  What if there’s something big going on in her personal life or home life?   How do you get a kid with a lot on her plate to keep focused on schoolwork?   No child is beyond helping.  We have worked with kids from all manner of backgrounds, including children who have endured terrible hardship and even trauma.  When your world is chaotic, it’s hard to find mind space to dedicate to school work.

How we change the “Low Priority” mindset

We acknowledge the stress that the child is under and help them to find ways to work within the space that they have.  It may mean finding a study strategy that helps them “do more with less time” or to give them the confidence boost they need to attack a task without hesitation and with complete focus.  Our team is carefully trained to recognise challenges to learning.  We empower children to take control of their studies and this in turn helps them feel more in control of their situations.  Our program has been developed by child psychologists to ensure that no child, no matter how much chaos they work within, is left behind.

What does this look like in practice?

Meet Skylah.  Skylah was an “E” student.  For her teachers, Skylah represents the most challenging student in the class.  She was simply unable to keep up.  What our tutor Libbie discovered was that Skylah was coping with a sick mum.  Not only did that mean she was carrying a heavy emotional load, it also meant that she was picking up the slack at home.  She had very limited time for study and her grades were suffering.  We helped her find ways to get more achieved in a very limited time.  We helped her feel more “in control” of her life by helping her take charge of her studies.    Skylah is now in the top 5% at school.  She’s killing it.  We could not be prouder of Skylah!

Read Skylah’s Story

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for underperforming at school

There are so many negative mindsets that end in your child underperforming at school.  As parents, it’s almost impossible for you to diagnose and correct a problem with your teen’s mindset.  Your child’s teacher will likely have made some progress, but nothing compares to intensive one-on-one diagnosis and correction.  That’s where A Team Tuition has focused,  with our “Academic Personal Training” program.  All of our tutors are trained in overcoming barriers to learning and we’re proud of our many, many success stories.  It’s not just these kids, we have hundreds of stories just like theirs.  Your child could be one of them.

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Fear and loathing

COVID-19 has created a pressure cooker of conditions with students undergoing their final year of secondary schooling. Not only do they have to deal with the usual amount of stress and anxiety due to their massive workload, the worry about their future, and the most important exams they’ve had to sit thus far, they also have to worry about the change from face-to-face learning to online learning and back again. How will all this disruption and distraction affect their overall grades and ATAR score? They’ve had to weigh up their goals and consider how a lower ATAR score might affect their future plans. As you can imagine, all of this is incredibly stressful, and it’s no wonder that 40% more Year 12 students are using counselling services like Lifeline.

Wanting to know more about how ATAR is calculated and other FAQ’s? Click Here

Kids are resilient though, right?

This upheaval has prompted calls for educational providers and governments to focus more on their students’ wellbeing, rather than their results. A healthier child, both physically and mentally, is going to produce better academic results. This is just basic common sense. There are ways for students to learn various coping mechanisms, to demonstrate resilience and the ability to self-motivate. This could be anywhere from meditative breathing exercises to organisation techniques to encouraging communication with other students, teachers, or parents and carers. These methods can be adopted in classrooms and will help students as they leave school and begin their lives post-school.

Another method that would be effective is private tutoring. A Team Tuition has an ATAR program designed to provide students with the skills and knowledge that will help them to reach the lofty heights of a straight A student. The program is tailor-made to suit the student, and helps them regain their confidence and motivation. They learn how to set goals and work hard to achieve them. The skills they learn throughout the program will also help set them up for success in their life after school, which is what we’re aiming for.

Positive signs

Despite the current upheaval in their education, there are signs that Year 12 students are learning to better support one another. Time away from school has given them a unique perspective and taught them the value of reaching out to other students who might be struggling. According to various educational institutions and counselling services like Lifeline, students are reporting more and more that they make a point of checking in with their friends, making sure that the people around them know that there’s someone who cares. Students are also making an effort to keep track of their own mental wellness, and feel less stigma about talking with others about their own mental health. Definitely a step in the right direction!

Discover how A Team Tuition’s tutoring programs can help ease study stress for your child. Contact us today on 07 3154 6180 or enquire online.

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 What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a term that unfortunately is widely thrown around to describe how people feel in a bunch of different situations; exams, before an important meeting or interview or even making small talk.

But it seems people seem to have forgotten than anxiety is a genuine psychological condition – that effects around 1 in 3 people. Many often think of anxiety as just being nerves or being bit uncomfortable, but it is so so much more than that.

It’s when these feelings start to become somewhat unbearable, and interfere with everyday life and prevent you from doing everyday tasks, that is becomes a proper issue.

Before this goes any further, I want to urge you that if you feel like this blog relates to you a bit too much, please go and ask for help. Many people don’t feel like they want to reach out to their parents or friends out of fear of being seen as weak. But asking for help is one of the bravest things you can do.

So ask your teachers, friends, or even just have a look at sites like Beyond Blue for ways to help manage your anxiety, because you will be better off for it.

Also,there will be times during school that you might notice friends are struggling with anxiety, or they might even tell you. When that happens, it can be a bit overwhelming because the first reaction is usually, ‘what can I do to help’.

Some of the best things you can do when you are trying to help a friend are to do some research on what anxiety is – trying to understand what your friend is going through will make it much easier for you to help them if you’ve researched some ways to do so.

Other than that, just keep an eye out for times when your friend might be getting anxious, and when that happens, just listen to what they have to say. What they are stressing over might seem completely irrational, and they probably know it is as well – but don’t mention that.

Also, probably the worst thing you could do would be to tell them to ‘clam down’.

Mental Health In Schools

While the conversation around mental health is beginning to become much less stigmatised, unfortunately, many schools are failing to equip, or are just beginning to start to help the students that they see as at risk of suffering, or are already suffering from anxiety.

Along with this, there are still many who fail to see any sort of mental health issue, such as anxiety, as a genuine problem. But if there is one thing that I know, is that anxiety can cripple you as any physical injury can.

You wouldn’t expect someone with a broken leg to run a marathon, so why are people with anxiety expected to put themselves into situations everyday where they are at risk of having an attack?

how to manage school anxiety

For myself in particular, I always had a bit of anxiety growing up, but once I hit grade 11 and 12, it became a serious problem that I had to get help for.

I put a lot of pressure on myself in school to get A’s, as I had set high goals for myself and good grades were the way to achieve these goals – but it came at a cost. Grade 12 for me, was riddled with anxiety attacks.

The worst I can remember is in week 4 of the first term when I was handed a revision sheet for my Ancient History exam. I remember thinking how everything was becoming so real, and I couldn’t contain myself anymore, I broke down and wasn’t able to calm down for what seemed like forever.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only time this happened. However, I was lucky to have some amazing teachers who recognised that I was struggling, and did everything they could to help me get through.

Anxiety can affect so many aspects of school, in particular the most important moments.Handing in an assignment, starting an exam, such as QCS and so many more.

And while unfortunately, there aren’t many ways you can get around doing these things, and many schools might not let students with anxiety take an exam indifferent conditions to the usual silent room with 30 people in it, there are ways to manage anxiety yourself.

Steps To Take To Manage Your Anxiety When In School

First,gain an understanding of what your anxiety is and how to recognise it. This is best done by going to a psychologist, as it is important to never try and self-diagnose.

From there learn some coping mechanisms to try and handle your anxiety when you feel it being triggered. The simplest, and often most effective of which, being breathing.

From there, it is important to reach out to a teach or staff member at your school who you feel comfortable opening up to about this.

While this may be scary, I promise that they will be willing to listen to everything you have to say, and will do everything they can to help you manage your anxiety.

As an Academic Personal Trainer, If I were to see a student suffering from anxiety – I would make sure getting that anxiety under control becomes to top priority. Trying to work while feeling anxious, or even having an anxiety attack is nearly impossible.

So it is usually best to put the work at hand aside, which might stress the student out more, but that is when you need to explain that no good results can come from when they are feeling like they are. And again, it is the same if your friend were to be suffering from anxiety, the best thing you can do is listen to everything they have to say and just be there for them.

They generally aren’t asking for advice, and someone suffering with anxiety generally won’t accept advice in that moment, but if you have some which is based on personal experience, it is best to ask if they wish to hear what you have to say, and if yes, then do what you can to help them.

Something you can also do is talk to your Academic Personal Trainer, as they often are happy to mentor students and genuinely want to see you do your best. They will sit with you and listen to you and whatever you feel you need to vent about so that you can continue achieving at the highest standard that you can.

Next, learn to recognise when you feel your anxiety coming on, and with as many teachers as you can, have a subtle way to let them know that you might just need a minute out of the class or your exam to try and calm yourself down. Something I like to do is find a certain song, or even a 3-minute meditation on Headspace to try and calm down.

While these are ways to cope in class, exams can be a whole different story for students with anxiety. While it is normal to get nervous before exams, those with anxiety may feel like the exam is the absolute be all and end all, and if you try to tell them that ‘it’s going to be okay, it will be over soon’, chances are you are making them feel worse.

Some things I would do before an exam when I feel an anxiety attack coming on (which, let’s be honest, it was all of them) would make sure the night before and morning of the exam were as relaxed as a I could make them. I was always a student who was on top of their work, and would study hard, but I always had a rule that I wouldn’t study after 7pm the night before the exam.

This was so I could do something to relax, whether it a mediation, just listening to music, stretching or anything of the sort to take my mind off it – and to get the best night’s sleep that I could.

Also, making sure your bag is packed with every possible thing you think you might need the night before the exam is a great way to stop stressing about all the things you have to do the next morning. With that, the morning of it is best to get to school a good while before your exam, just so you can adjust to your surroundings before the exam.

In Summary

• Recognise first what your anxiety is, as well as what triggers it.
• During a time when you aren’t feeling anxious, go to a teacher or staff member and explain to them what is going on and develop a system where when you feel your anxiety coming on, that you can take a break from what you’re doing.
• When you feel anxious, do your best to remove yourself from the situation you’re in, and find one friend, or even just be be by yourself somewhere quiet, and listen to soft music or a quick mediation to try and calm down.

Now, these things are all so much easier said than done, and it took me a good while to learn to implement them into my life. But it got to the point where I didn’t really have a choice. I wanted to excel in school, and I had to come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going away, so the most important thing you can do if you still want to excel in school with anxiety is ask for help. If anything, that will be the one thing that will allow the people around you to help you get through it, as anxiety is not something that you should try and get through by yourself, especially if you want those A’s.

Here are some links to places where you can get a better understanding of anxiety and how to get some help.

Beyond Blue: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety

Headspace: https://headspace.org.au/young-people/what-is-anxiety-and-the-effects-on-mental-health/

 

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