For the first time there is an easy read book on how NZ secondary schools actually work!
This is the time of the year when parents are starting to think about making the transition to secondary education with their sons / daughters.
For many families this is a whole new system .
“What You Need to Know Before Your Child Starts Secondary School,” by Debbie Knowles & Julie Mulcahy is a handbook to help parents understand secondary schools:
- How to choose the right school for your child
- Systems of assessment
- Special Needs
- Pastoral Care
- The discipline systems
- Where to go to get the help you need.Are just some of the areas covered in this handy manual, packed full of tips and information for parents and future parents of secondary students.
Although successive governments claim to have improved the quality of secondary school education in New Zealand, today’s parents are more anxious than ever about what may confront their teenagers when they start secondary school. Many parents are opting to enrol their children in out-of-zone schools for a variety of reasons, and many also send their children to private schools so that they can bypass the NCEA system.
In What You Need to Know Before Your Child Starts Secondary School two educational experts (who are also parents) provide guidelines, advice and anecdotal stories covering everything parents need to know about New Zealand’s secondary school system – how the different types of schools operate, what they are expected to provide to students, and what to do if communication between parents and the school breaks down.
This is an essential directory of knowledge for every parent.
THE AUTHORS
Debbie Knowles is a former teacher and Coordinator of Learning Support in a large Auckland secondary school while Julie Mulcahy, also a teacher, has more recently been working in secondary schools on the North Shore as the Year 11–13 Funded Classroom Specialist Teacher. Together they run an educational consultancy business.
4 Comments
There has definately been a wide gap in the market which this book has filled. Being one of the first students to go through high school in the NCEA system, I know it has definately got its facts straight in the education department. However high school is also about young people learning about who they are and molding a position for themselves within the world. Knowles and Mulcahy know this environment and have diligently penned a thorough guide through all these aspects of the college experience. I recommend every parent, school, community organisation arm themselves with a copy today.
Helpful advice for parents as our children today face their future. I wish books like this were available when my children were youger.
Answers easily the questions you want to ask about secondary education for your child. Good practical advice.
I found this book user friendly and very easy to read. It gives practical and insightful information and is very relevant to the issues arising in secondary schools today.