Why is my child not doing well in school? (Part 1)

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With the paper-chase culture still going strong in Singapore, it is of no surprise that parents are anxious and worried about their child’s academic performance in school. In particular, with the education scene in Singapore becoming more competitive than ever with the influx of foreign talent and the blooming of the tuition industry, a prime concern for parents is to ensure that your child stays ahead of the intense competition.

However, most parents here face the perennial concern that their child seems to be unable to cope well in school. The worrying bit of this is that most parents may be oblivious to their child’s performance in school in a particular subject or across subjects until a fail grade shows up on their child’s examination papers. And when that happens, panic mode turns on and all hell breaks loose. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? To prevent that panic button from being pressed too late, as parents, early detections of signs and symptoms coupled with frequent communication with your child are imperative. Below are some tips for you to understand more about your child’s learning in school:

Tip #1 What does your child bring (or not bring) to school everyday?

As a teacher in a neighbourhood (heartland) school, I have come across a wide spectrum of students with many differing characteristics, habits and attitude. Of course, there are always the highly motivated and studious ones who are always ready for every lesson—eyes, ears and hands ready to look, listen and take down notes furiously, never miss a deadline for homework submission, and come to school with a substantially heavy backpack along with another shoulder bag for textbooks and files. On the other end of the spectrum, we have “Mr and Miss Zen” who seem to have it all in their brain and bring nothingness to school. As an adult, we often make the dangerous assumption that if our child were given a timetable or instructions by the teacher on what to bring to school, they will be automatically powered to know how and what to pack. The truth is, many students that I have seen struggle even with the issue of bringing the right materials to school.

On that note, this brings us to the first point on early detection of signs and symptoms—first and foremost, observe what your child packs for school everyday. It is not enough to solely base this on the size of your child’s bag—the bag may be pretty huge but essentially flat and empty. If this were the case, warning bells should sound in your head that your child does not have the habit of checking his timetable for school daily (some may have even misplaced the timetable), and thus he/she is basically going to school everyday unprepared. Without the essential materials for school, it is of no wonder that your child is not performing well— he or she may just be daydreaming away during lesson time, with no materials to refer to or worse still, being punished by the teacher and made to stand outside the class, essentially being excluded from lessons. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to expect good results from them. On the contrary, for parents of children who bring a heavy bag to school, it does not mean that you do not have to worry – your child may be equally clueless about his/her timetable and thus bringing everything that he/she can find, or your child simply does not have a filing and categorisation system to organise their school materials, resulting in them stashing whatever they have into their one and only school-related-“container”—their backpack. This is a whole new problem in itself, because it means that your child does not keep track of the materials needed for examinations, and thus are virtually clueless about what materials are needed for exam revision. To resolve all these issues, you can consider adopting the following steps:

1) Ask your child politely for his/her school timetable. If they can produce it with ease, it generally means that they have the habit of referring to their timetable and know what to pack daily. If your child has difficulties retrieving his/her timetable, it is a tell-tale sign that you have to interfere and help them. Usually, schools will upload timetables of each class on the school website. You can thus help to download your child’s timetable from the school website and have it printed out. Make it a point to tell your child to keep the timetable properly for easy reference everyday so that they can pack correctly for school each day.

2) If you notice that your child is tardy in organising their worksheets, purchase clear-folder files with separate pockets for containing worksheets of different subjects. Have your child label each pocket with the names of the various subjects so that it is easy for them to store and retrieve their worksheets.

3) From time to time, if you observe that the clear folder-file is getting too thick, get your child to file their worksheets in the respective subject files required by the school. This ensures that worksheets do not go missing easily, exam revision can be done efficiently, and your child does not find it cumbersome to bring too much unnecessary materials to school everyday.

Bottomline: Being organised and prepared for school everyday goes a long way in achieving academic success in the long run. Pay attention to the small details, and great results will surely come.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about my tutoring services, feel free to contact me directly or drop a message on my website!

P.S. Stay tuned for part 2 of this series!

Yours Sincerely, Mr Kenneth Lim Your highly qualified and experienced math teacher and tutor