School work and exam advice

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Exams might seem like a long way off at the moment, but if you help your kids to be organised now it could really help them when that stressful time comes.

And although younger kids might not have exams this year, you can still get involved in what they're learning and help them with their homework.

Primary school help

Encourage your kids into good homework habits now and it'll stick with them throughout their whole school life. These links explain what your kids are learning at school and what you can do to help them.

- What your kids are learning at school: Key Stage 1 & 2
- How much homework should they get?
- Tips on getting your kids to read
- Top children's books - get some ideas

Secondary school help

If your kids are in secondary school, they'll have a bit more responsibility with their work and good organisational skills will really come in handy. It's no good waiting until 2 weeks before exams to try and organise all their notes!

These links will help you understand what your teens or pre-teens are learning in school:

- Facts on Key Stage 3
- Info on Key Stage 4
- What the new school diplomas mean for your kids

Exams

When they're in secondary school, exams become a much bigger part of school life - these links will show you how to help them with revision, understand their results and make sure the stress doesn't get too much for them:

- A parents' guide to exams
- A parents' guide to exam results
- How to encourage your child to revise
- Top tips for coping with exams
- Does your child need the Exam Diet?
- How to spot a stressed teen
- How to help your stressed teen

Some extra advice

Geography teacher Victoria Crawford from Coventry gave us these tips on helping your teen to be organised:

For GCSE and post-16 studies, buy your teen a file for each subject and have dividers for each terms - encourage them to be organised.
Copy or photocopy your teen's school timetable and stick it on their bedroom door - that way you'll know when they're supposed to be in school - lots of kids truant their morning registration now.
If they get a homework timetable stick that on their door too - then you'll know which nights they should get homework from which subjects.
Have boxes in their bedrooms to keep homework that needs to be done in - this is especially useful for dyslexic or autistic children who find it hard to organise themselves.
Send them to school with an umbrella - some schools have no wet lunch rooms so the kids have to go outside - and they just get wet.
If you can, do your back to school preparation 7-14 days before school starts so the last week of the holidays is just fun.
The best films for teens to watch the night before going back to school are:

- For 12-14 year olds: High School Musical or School of Rock
- For GCSE/post-16 students: Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting

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