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As a parent, you want your child to do well in life. Kids go to school for a large portion of their childhood and they are taught and guided through the ups and downs by fantastic teachers.

Although teachers are fundamentally responsible for your child’s success, there are little things you can do that can help nurture their success in school. Between the school run, prepping meals, and everything else busy super-parents have to do, these small things can go a long way. This article will give you some things you can do at home to give your kid a boost-up at school.

Tests, Tests, and More Tests

Although arguably not the best way to measure a child’s abilities, it is still the method adopted by the majority of schools. Learning in school will take your child a long way towards achieving their full potential but with a little nudge in the right direction at home, they will for even further. For example, most people are aware of the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT), which is used by the majority of schools and taken in Year 7, to help teachers work out where a child’s current level is and where their potential level could be. To prepare your child for these tests and give them a good start, you can sign them up for some helpful pre-CAT tests.

You Can Only Do Your Best

There’s a lot of pressure on children to perform well in school in this day and age, with a huge focus on test scores and an even bigger push for your children to go to University one day. When your child isn’t doing so well at school, it can have a massive impact on their confidence and could even lead to behavioural issues. The good news is, with a simple anecdote you can teach your child that it’s okay to fail – ‘If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.’ You’ve probably heard this phrase, and the premise is rather self-explanatory, but it can have a massive positive impact. As your child looks up to you, you could talk to them about some of your failures and how you never gave up.

Have Some Fun

Most people don’t like doing housework because it’s not fun and it’s really laborious. The same goes for learning. Everyone had that one subject in school that they dreaded because it was seen as a massive chore. You can help nurture a positive mindset by showing your child that learning can be fun. Take their favourite games and add an element of learning to them. Research shows us that being in a good mood makes us more susceptible to tackling more difficult tasks.

Follow The Leader

As mentioned previously, your child looks up to you and sees you as a role model. One of the most simple things you can do for your child, that won’t take a lot of time from your potential busy schedule, is to act the way you would like your child to act – because your child will copy actions from the adults around them. You could do this in so many ways but show your child that you love to learn, demonstrate empathy, embrace your failures, and learn from them.

Whether you’re a busy parent or one with all the time in the world, there are so many things you can do to support your child in succeeding at school. This is just the very tip of the iceberg but as you can see, you can have a massive impact, one small action at a time.

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