Re: Planning your child’s schooling
you know when you guys say its important what we do home , I completely agree with this and definitely am passionate on this matter too. Home is and will always remain the first institution of a child from every perspective of life.
But purely to increase my knowledge I am keen to find out what sort of activities did you guys do at home that helped you achieve the grade you did at school?
Re: Planning your child’s schooling
I’m surprised at how much effort and planning is required for schooling in the UK. You’ve gotten great advice so I’ll just add to the point about polish: the kind of social grace and charisma that all of us are attracted to can’t always be taught. My only advice to you would be to encourage whatever interests your child may have. Don’t make the mistake of most Desi, and Asian, parents of thinking that an instrument is the only viable extracurricular.
Encourage your child to go above and beyond in whatever interests him. My parents were against letting me play basketball, but after assuring them that my studies wouldn’t suffer, they relented, and by my last year in high school I was also playing football and doing track. So if your child likes video games, encourage him to start a blog writing reviews. Maybe he can use that as a platform to learn about graphics design or programming. Take your passion and explore it to the fullest. I read this advice in a blog a few years ago about how a quiet girl from the midwest managed to get into Harvard.
Participating in these activities can help build self confidence and help build leadership qualities that elite universities look for. So, while I’m sure you’ll cover the academic part, I would encourage you to let him explore his interests and give him room to grow. Don’t just pigeonhole him into music (which I think is a great activity, but not all children take to it). And please, do not ignore extracurriculars entirely lol.
Re: Planning your child’s schooling
CB - i don’t know how much help i will be, as firstly.. i don’t come from a well-educated background. and second, a lot of it was self-determination. i liked to read a lot i guess, and nosy siblings meant them reading all my books lol. being a bossy older sister also meant teaching whatever i’d learn in school to them. apart from that, set times to study, posters/diagrams helped, engaging in various discussions.. not just the maths/english side of things. i still randomly like to discuss political/social issues with my siblings, get their opinions or challenge them and play the devils advocate etc.
i know your thread is mostly focussing on the academic aspect of schooling but ghost brings up good points too. i think a lot of kids, with the right help and guidance at home and school can get the grades no biggie, but then what sets them apart is what they’ve done in terms of extracurricular activities. universities love well-rounded individuals who have the brains but also can dabble in various activities, hold conversations and talk about other things that aren’t subject specific.
the effort/planning needed for schooling probably stems from the fact that britain is still pretty class conscious. students from state schools who manage to get places at oxbridge (or sometimes russell group) are considered extremely lucky. i read a statistic a while ago that something like 4 pvt schools and 1 grammar school send more children to oxbridge than 2,000 state schools.
Re: Planning your child’s schooling
I agree with both of you Ghost and Sweefie and that is exactly how I grew up too, Academics were always the key focus but never Academics alone , other activities around me always captivated me and I achieved alot more than my peers all thanks to the passionate focus on creating a well rounded individual in me and I have reaped the benefits of it first hand . I fully intend to raise my son in the same manner In SHaa Allah .. I want to ensure I give him a well planned structure to achieve what I think is best, but , he will always have the choice to tell me what he wants to do and if its equally good and competitive , he will win hands down 