Parents

Despite Sixth Form students being older, their success will continue to depend on parental support, so we value the role of parents/carers highly.

Parents/carers receive academic feedback every Term throughout the Autumn and Spring terms.

Autumn Term

  • October – Tutor Parents’/Carers Evening – includes target grades and a higher education information session
  • November – First academic report sent home

Spring Term

  • February – Subject Parents’/Carer’s Evening with each teacher with academic report issued

Summer Term

  • June – parents’/carers higher education and apprenticeship information evening
  • July – Progression Review – personalised meeting regarding concerns with progression to Year 13

Parents/carers will be invited to take part in a survey to offer feedback as part of routine parent review across the School. We are also keen to seek any feedback on an ad hoc basis – feel free to email us at office@magusacademy.co.uk and ensure the subject line refers to the Sixth Form.

Parental Guidance

  1. Timetable
    Display the student’s timetable so everyone is reminded about when your child needs to be in school and by what time.
  2. Area to study
    Create a ‘silent study’ area in the house (free from distractions and siblings) to enable focused study.
  3. Gadgets
    Keep bedrooms a gadget free zone – insist on laptops/TVs in public areas of the home only and avoid having phones being used in bed at night as it prevents sleep and causes students to be tired/late in the morning. Mobile phone charging at night could be in the kitchen rather than the bedroom.
  4. Discuss
    Ask specifically about private study and how is a student learning e.g. “What three things did you learn in private study today that you didn’t know before?” Also discuss the reports and praise Attitude to Learning scores of 1s (Excellent) and 2 (Good). But be concerned about 3s (Concern – needs to improve) and 4 (Serious concern).
  5. Insist on active study
    Passively reading from notes/exercise/text books isn’t learning. They need to be: note‐taking; mind‐mapping; creating revision cards; storyboards; attempting timed condition responses (with no books or resources).
  6. Revision time
    Students ought to be studying about 3 hours a night four nights a week and another 6-8 hours at the weekend. Split revision and independent study completed at home into bite size chunks: 1 hour per subject; avoid spending prolonged periods only focussing on one subject.
  7. Insist on breaks and relaxation time
    Studying every minute of every day isn’t effective or healthy – it’s important to take regular breaks.
  8. Limit the amount of time expected to assist with helping with siblings and house chores
    Whilst it is important that students learn to balance multiple tasks, they must also be allowed to spend adequate time on their studies – that is, after all, why they are in the sixth form!
  9. Limit the amount of time spent on part‐time jobs
    One day at the weekend is more than enough, any more (for example in the evenings or more than one ‘shift’ a week) is too much and simply won’t give the student enough time to dedicate to their studies.
  10. Lessons count
    Limit the amount of time out of lessons through trips in term time and sickness so encourage healthy eating and lifestyle. Book Open Days for university in January so you get the weekend dates rather than weekdays. www.opendays.com is a useful site to use to find out about Open Days. Start looking from January in Year 12.