An Introduction to Senior Success

Kate Bricknell

Project Office Positive Learning Initiatives

New England

Senior Success – Connecting Families and School in Stage 6

What is Senior Success? Senior Success is a program for Stage 6

students and their families. It is designed to facilitate communication

between school, home and the student. It is a series of 90 minute workshops,

conducted by an experienced later years teacher and the Stage 6 Year Advisers.

Why?

Psychologist Karen McGraw, who carried out a new Swinburne University study, said that stress and its effects on students was alarming."The pressure of Year 12 can topple these kids into feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, with thoughts of self-harm," Of the 941 Victorian final-year high school students surveyed, 181 students or 19 per cent had thought of suicide or self-harm.About a third were severely depressed and 41 per cent suffered anxiety.Dr McGraw said the research confirmed students who felt valued and supported were more resilient and were protected from the extreme stresses of Year 12.

And .. In NSW

Results show 31% of Year 12 and 25% of Year 11 students are reporting symptoms of anxiety, depression and/or stress which fall outside the normal range

Performance-avoidance goals were significantly and positively correlated with stress responses. Self-efficacy was significantly and positively correlated with mastery.

Lorraine Smith Faculty of Nursing, University of Sydney Kenneth E. Sinclair Faculty of Education, University of Sydney

 

 

And…

That was in 1998!! What is it like now? What pressures have increased since

1998? What issues of health, mental health,

behaviour and work ethic do you recognise in your Stage 6 students?

Kick Some Ideas Around

In groups read the “Little bit of Theory” notes.

Select the three most important points from these notes.

Share these points with the other groups.

We need to explicitly support Stage 6 students The Office of Schools Plan indicates this… The 15 to 19 years olds policy indicates

this… Our Regional Plan indicates this… The Family – School Partnerships

Framework, Federal Government indicates this…

And good sense tells us this.

Stage 6 is tricky

We are working with young people taking their first steps into adulthood…a tricky time for teachers and parents to be supportive and have that support accepted by their fledgling adult.

Senior Success aims to provide structures for that support to be given and received.

How does it work?

Under the leadership of an experienced Stage 6 teacher, a series of two workshops per term are held for students and their Study Support Person.

Each workshop is 90 minutes in duration. Workshops are scheduled to respond to

the needs of the students at that particular time of year.

What is a Study Support Person?

An SSP is a coach. They support the student, act as a sounding board, assist with the thinking processes of what has to be achieved and are the voice of reason through Stage 6.

They are usually a parent BUT they can be any responsible, reliable adult in the student’s life.

When? Where?

Each school will need to consider their own community needs.

Week 2 and 4 of each term are the suggested timeframe, but it depends on your school’s calendar as to what is a suitable timeframe for your community.

An evening at the school in a relaxed space is ideal – however if this does not suit your school you need to negotiate a suitable time and place.

What is in the training package?

An explanation of the program Links to relevant policy documents Planning proformas Workshops and activity sheets Evaluation tools Handouts for Study Support People

How will the training work?

There will be 2 hour training in Week 3 of each Term.

Schools may then request a follow up workshop to gain support through the contextualisation process for their own school.

Schools will then have access to ongoing online support and new workshops as they are developed over time.

Cost

A $500 training fee payable to Tamworth High School. This fee includes training, workshops and ongoing access to the online Senior Success community.

Funding the Implementation

Look for tutoring programs that may provide funds for study skills development.

Look for ways of giving some time in lieu for the staff involved.

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Some Comments

Handout 1.5 offers some comments from previous participants. You may use these in your promotion of Senior Success.

Words of Wisdom that are the motif for this program

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.

Albert Einstein

Some Samples from the Workshops

Finding Space to

work

Teacher expectations

Parents’ & carers’

expectations

Getting a Driver’s Licence

The Future???????.

Sport/ Physical Fitness

Friendsexpectations of myself

Money

Family responsibilities

Assessment Tasks

Stress and anxiety in my

mates

HSC Exams

Finding resource

s

A Job!The Community

Organising my work

Doing the extra curricular activities

that my resume needs

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Kicking some ideas around

What are some of the expectationsthat you and your SSP may haveof each other?

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What generation gap?!

Understanding where we are all coming from.

(And learning how to study in groups while we do it!)

Studying helps you to REALLY remember something - to understand so that you don’t forget.

Studying now ensures that you don’t need to “stress out” when exam time comes along.

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How do you boil an egg?

How do you turn on a computer?

How do you ring someone on a mobile phone?

These are all things that we REALLY know- that are part of what is genuinely known and understood- we need to get our school knowledge into the way we really think.

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In the “olden days” we could “cram” before an exam and get enough into our short term memory that we could sit the exam with some hope of success-

This is not the case today - they have FAR TOO MUCH TO KNOW!

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Review Preview

Review Preview

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relaxation

Health & happiness

Handwriting etc

Party planning

Design this workshop to suit your students..