2015-02-17
Robert Delves
Left to right: Ashley, Morgan, Beth, Ajla, Alyssa (Photo by Rob Delves)
I'm a co-convenor of the Fremantle Greens and a teacher at Melville Senior High School, a state school of 1200 students in Perth's middle southern suburbs. It's a pleasant and 'thoroughly comprehensive' school — you name it, we've got it.
Instead of trawling through my distant memories of what it's like to start in high school, I decided to ask Beth Glasson, our year 10 Coordinator, to join me in a discussion with four year 10s who volunteered to share their ideas and experiences. They were Alyssa Davies, Ajla Bosnjak and twins Ashley and Morgan Ure. In response to my suggestion that it was lucky I was there to provide gender balance, the girls firmly insisted they were very familiar with the workings of the year 10 male mind… knew it only too well.
So, I began by asking them for their number one piece of advice to new high school students.
AJLA: Find a good friend — two of them is a bonus. The big, unfamiliar new place becomes much less scary with a good friend to help you through. A good friend is someone who will stick by you, support and help you in the difficult and confusing times, as well as making the good, fun, happy experiences even better. Choose wisely, because friends have a huge influence on your experience of school life, and therefore the wrong friends can cause you to suffer — long and slowly. These students can be witty and attract others through the creative way they muck up and make “having a cool good time” their main goal at school. So they tend to stick together in groups. But my advice is don't go there if you want to have a good life at school, rather than a supposedly fun life.
ALYSSA: I agree that friends are really important, but my main advice would be to work hard at getting on well with your teachers. Be friendly towards them, get on their good side, build a good relationship… and happiness will follow you. Teachers are the essential people in helping you succeed — they can make school good for you.
AJLA: Agreed — but I still think a good friend in your year is the key. In high school, you have lots of teachers — they come and go. One teacher you really like may leave at the end of the year. By contrast, a good friend is there for you all the time, hopefully the whole six years.
MORGAN: My number one is to get into extra-curricular stuff that you enjoy. Ashley and I have just transferred from a private school, where there were lots of extra-curricular activities which we loved. However, we can already see in less than two weeks that there are masses of opportunities here as well. For example, we were both accepted into the Aviation Program and this morning we landed the 'plane' for the first time (well, the flight simulator) and there were no crashing noises! How good is that? There's debating, all the arts — music, drama, dance — plus more sports than you can name. This makes school much more interesting, as you can easily find an activity you like and are good at doing — or want to get good at doing. And it fits in with the point about friends that Ajla was making, because you often meet a great friend through participating in an activity you both really like.
ASHLEY: My advice is to be active in class. I'm talking about the need for an active brain, plus ears, eyes and mouth. Especially the mouth. Ask lots of questions. Don't be afraid to try to answer a question even if you're not quite sure you are right. You learn from your mistakes and the teachers are there to help you sort it out — to show you how and why you are wrong. If you aren't active, it's all too easy to tune out, let it all wash over you, and so you don't learn much. You've got to be involved in the lesson. Some kids never say anything because they're afraid of being wrong, afraid that the other kids will make fun of them.
ALYSSA: If you take the lead by asking questions when you don't understand, it helps the other students. I often find myself thinking “I'm glad she asked that, because I was a bit confused myself.” So you are doing others a good turn by asking. Think of yourself as the bold hero.
MORGAN: You have to make a bigger effort to be organised at high school. At primary school you are in the same room all the time and your teacher organises most things, but in high school you are expected to sort yourself out. Know where everything is. Use your school diary to write things down — deadlines, things you need to bring tomorrow — write it all down.
ASHLEY: The online CONNECT helps you a lot. Teachers set tasks on CONNECT, your parents can read them too, plus the feedback you get from doing the tasks. They put reminders on CONNECT.
ALYSSA: You have to spend some time doing school stuff at home every day too. That helps with organisation. In Year 7, you don't have to spend too much time, just some time every afternoon or evening to make sure you are up-to-date and don't get behind.
Finally, what can go wrong? How can you deal with these problems?
AJLA: Don't give up. If you are really struggling and just don't get some topic, keep asking questions.
ALYSSA: If you're worried about other kids giving you a hard time about asking for help, then you can always ask the teacher in private at the end of the lesson or some other private time, like lunch.
MORGAN: What can go wrong is that other kids try to get at you and make fun of you, they get on your nerves.
ASHLEY: What she means is boys. Some of them enjoy giving girls a hard time.
MORGAN: Just walk away. Don't get into these conflicts.
AJLA: It comes back to having a close group of friends. They can help you tell them to get lost — or you can walk away together.
ALYSSA: The Year Coordinators are the best teachers to help you with conflicts and bullying, even problems at home that are worrying you..
ALL: Agreed.
With that display of unity and sweet faith in the conflict-resolving skills of all those Year Coordinators in the teaching profession, I decided to conclude by asking Beth Glasson if she had anything to add.
BETH: Not much. They've done well! I absolutely agree with the points about good friends, asking lots of questions and getting organised. I also like to remind students to lead a balanced life. Not too much of just one thing: make time to socialise, play sport, do homework, indulge in the Arts and just relax too.