In this episode
Brendan Everett and Sarah Papaelias.
School psychologist consultants, Sarah Papaelias and Brendan Everett returned to the podcast to provide tips for families with students who are moving into secondary school. They share information on how parents can help their child manage the big change, how to get prepared for ATAR and where to access support.
About Sarah Papaelias and Brendan Everett
Sarah Papaelias and Brendan Everett are school psychologist consultants at the Department of Education.
Sarah's career has spanned across both primary and secondary schools in the Perth metropolitan and Kimberley regions of WA. She received the Early Career School Psychologist of the Year award in 2017 in recognition of her work with students, families and schools. She is the state coordinator for the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) and supports schools across the state to offer Triple P programs to parents and carers.
Brendan has been a Principal and Psychologist-in-Charge of Behaviour Centres in the Pilbara and South Metropolitan Education Regions and was the team leader for the Behaviour and Attendance in the North Metropolitan Education Region. For 17 years, Brendan has been a Triple P facilitator and used the tools and strategies within Triple P to engage and support families in his roles. With a strong professional interest in the application of parent-focussed interventions to support children with ADHD and anxiety. He is currently the metropolitan coordinator for the Triple P program and supports schools to offer the program to parents and carers.
Transcript
Fiona Bartholomaeus
You're listening to Ed Talks WA, a series to inspire and inform from the Department of Education, Western Australia.
My name is Fiona Bartholomeus and I'm your host for this episode.
This episode was recorded on Wadjuk Noongar land. We acknowledge the traditional custodians and pay respects to the elders past, present and emerging.
In a previous episode, we spoke to Sarah and Brendan, school psychologist consultants who work with the Department of Education to offer the Triple P Positive Parenting Program to families.
We spoke about how to support kids as they start their schooling journey, whether in kindergarten or pre-primary.
They provided some valuable information about how students can be supported during this massive period, one of early life's biggest milestones.
They also informed us on how to access support if your child is having difficulties with this transition. But it's not just little kids who need support at this time of year or who might be feeling a little bit nervous about starting or returning to school.
For this episode, we brought back Sarah Papaelias and Brendan Everett to discuss support that students transitioning to secondary school might need or welcome.
Sarah and Brendan, thank you so much for joining us once again on the podcast.
Brendan Everett
It's good to be back.
Sarah Papaelias
Thank you for having us back.
Brendan and I have both worked quite recently as school psychologists in secondary schools, so we're very familiar with some of those challenges experienced by our students and families during this time as well.
Before we begin, we also just wanted to mention, like last time, the strategies we'll be talking about in this episode are general, so it is best to think of your child's individual needs. And if your child has additional needs, we would suggest speaking with appropriate professionals for more specific advice and really getting on board with your school's support team and working together.
And we also wanted to acknowledge the importance of cultural values and beliefs and practices in child rearing and family life.
Brendan Everett
Triple P doesn't tell you how to parent, it gives you a range of strategies and tools that you can use and meld with your cultural and family background and really importantly giving you the opportunity to reflect on what's important for you as a family and what are the areas that I want to support my child with and maybe some areas that my child might need additional support with and how can we build those skills to help them be successful in school.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
Now last time we spoke we discussed how nerves around transitioning into a new school year and into primary school are so incredibly common. I can imagine it's the same with secondary going from oldest in the school to becoming the youngest in the school. There's a lot of changes happening in that area.
Sarah Papaelias
Yeah, absolutely.
It's really common for our young people to experience a whole mix of excitement and nerves during this transition where they're going from primary school to secondary school. And not just the students, I think parents too, but it's also a really exciting time and it offers lots of opportunities for your young person to build their skills and independence.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
Now, what are some of the reasons why students become particularly nervous or anxious around this time?
Sarah Papaelias
Well, starting secondary school is a really big change for our young people, and there can be a lot of anticipation in the lead up to day one. I guess for many of our students, this transition means moving into a new school or campus and potentially one that's much larger than their current school. So that also means meeting unfamiliar people.
They'll also have contact with a larger range of teachers. So I think coming from primary school they tend to be used to having one particular teacher but coming into high school that they're likely to have a range of teachers and potentially they might lose some of their friends to other schools as well so that can be quite hard for young people. But the good news is that most young people have a really smooth transition with the right supports.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
I hadn't even thought about that really you're going from one teacher to suddenly 5 or 6 different teachers or different subjects it is quite a big of a change.
Sarah Papaelias
And we know our teachers are really really good at building relationships with students but it can be a challenge when you're only seeing them a few times a week versus in primary school being able to spend a really good amount of time with the students.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So Brendan what are some of the ways parents can approach this transition positively to help students prepare and to look forward to the change?
Brendan Everett
So your own view around perhaps your own high school experience can help shape your child's view. So that's just about being mindful about what was my high school experience like and what might I be inadvertently communicating to my child around school being a positive, maybe not so positive experience.
So that's just important to be mindful of our own, what we bring to that conversation. But probably more so important for your helping your child, how you can help your child with that transition is around establishing open communication with your child. So there's a really natural developmental movement from our children to be talking with us as their parents to be movement toward their peer group so sometimes that can look like our children having fewer conversations with us and around things that are particularly important to them. So we want to be able to establish find a way so just think as a parent ‘how is it that I communicate with my child’, ‘where do we find that we communicate more easily’ you know for some parents that's when you're driving your children places and they're sitting alongside you.
So being able to find ways that we can maintain that open communication and also establish those key expectations. So what are the key expectations as a parent that you might have of your child?
For example, what are some key information that you want for them to share with you about school? So rather than ‘how is school? Oh, yeah, good’. What are some bits that you think, well, I'd like for you to tell me one thing that happened today that was new or interesting for you?
So it just helps to structure the conversation and mean that we can view this transition in a positive way.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So what are some of the skills parents can encourage to make this transition smoother for their child?
Brendan Everett
So one is really looking at what are some of the exciting opportunities that are available in high school.
So for example, some of them might be coming from a very small primary school to quite a larger high school. With that comes a whole lot of opportunities that your child may not have had exposure to. So being able to talk with your child around some of those opportunities and new learning experience that they've been able to access in the high school can be quite helpful.
In terms of skills that we can teach or encourage in our children, one of the ones that we found particularly helpful as school psychologists is being able to help your child seek help. So what we call help-seeking behaviour, being able to have ways that your child can indicate that they might need support or indicate to you maybe that things are going well for them or that things are not going as well as they would like.
So we come back to that open communication, but just being able to encourage your children to seek help and along with that comes independence we want to be able to promote as with kindy we want to be able to promote independence and that becomes really important in high school where the expectations of our we call them children sort of to being young people to being teenagers, the expectations on them in terms of being able to do things for themselves becomes even more important. So really fostering and building and encouraging in their skills of independence and help seeking becomes critically important as your kids move through high school.
Sarah Papaelias
And I guess on the other side of that as well, it's a really important skill to know where and how to seek help. But we also want our young people to become good problem solvers. And we know that making good decisions requires good problem solving skills. So it is really important for our teenagers to start working on this skill.
So when we talk about problem solving, what we're talking about is things like clarifying the problem, selecting from possible alternatives and really thinking and reflecting about the results of their actions. And these sorts of skills help our teens to learn when they encounter a new situation and it can be really helpful with helping them deal with things like potential conflicts that they might have in the future.
So as parents you can model these skills by using things like everyday problems, so it might be finding information for a homework assignment and then eventually building up to some of those more complex problems.
And when they're learning this skill for the first time, they might need you to prompt them by asking some of those guiding questions and just helping them think about how they can independently solve that problem rather than us jumping in as parents and helping them to solve it every time. Otherwise, they might struggle to build those skills themselves.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
It sounds like there's lots of little things that can just be included in day-to-day life that can help set up kids for success at school.
Brendan Everett
Yeah, and from a Triple P perspective, we would call that incidental teaching.
There are things that we can teach and work with our kids on in day-to-day life. So there's a lot of opportunities for incidental teaching.
Sarah Papaelias
I think another big one that we might not have touched on yet is developing self-discipline too.
So self-discipline is when a young person can manage their emotions about working on a task, drawing on skills to see things through and really holding themselves to account for the results, whether they're good or bad. And we know that that skill really helps our teenagers to become independent, but it's a really attractive skill for employers as well if they're going on to further study or work and I guess parents can promote self-discipline by allowing young people the opportunity to make some of their own decisions but gradually handing over that responsibility as well.
So starting with some smaller decisions like what to have for dinner and then building that all the way up to bigger or more important decisions.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
Communication between the families and the school is an important factor in supporting students. What can parents and schools do to encourage a positive relationship and support?
Sarah Papaelias
So we spoke about this a bit on the last episode, but it's really helpful to get to know school staff and other students and parents and build those relationships from really early on.
So I guess what that could look like is attending orientation days and parent evenings. It might be keeping up to date with some of those school communications coming through and speaking regularly with your young person's teachers as well.
A lot of parents find it's helpful to get involved in school activities and events, but also encouraging your child to try different activities and make commitments to trying that new activity for a period of time as well and showing just a general interest in their school activities.
More generally though I guess parents can find out ahead of time what those school expectations and processes are just so you know what's expected of your child and that can really help you to avoid some arguments down the track as well when it comes to what behaviour is allowed or not allowed at school and it makes it's much easier for you as a parent as well to hold those decisions.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So what can parents do if they're struggling to get their child to school?
Brendan Everett
So I first wanted to acknowledge that for a number of families, I appreciate how very difficult it can be when your child's attendance starts to drop. It's really, really important to reach out and connect early with your school and this is an issue that we'll work with you on to support regular attendance.
Sarah Papaelias
Yeah and as Brendan's saying, I think we don't want it to reach that point. If you're having some problems and challenges getting your young person to school, reach out early, speak with your school team so that you can work together to problem solve what some of those different challenges might be. But we know the importance of attending school regularly.
So if it is just maybe starting to become an issue or they've missed a couple of days here or there, it's really helpful to help them to catch up on that missed work and speak with their teachers early so it doesn't become a big issue.
But we do know that it can be really challenging for our families. So please do reach out early and there's support available through your school.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
For some students, this will be the first year they start their ATAR subjects. What can students do now, which will help with their exam crunch time at the end of the year?
Brendan Everett
So one of the key bits is to develop good study habits early, so not just in senior school. So if you're heading into senior school, it's not too late, but we want to look at what's worked well in junior school for you in terms of when are you more productive, what are the strategies and things that you put in place to be able to help you complete assignments, you know there might be a place for people that you work more effectively with, and setting those study habits and routines.
So we come back to routines which we spoke about last episode, routines to help with your study and also being able to put other aspects of your life in check. So for some of our students moving into upper school senior school they might also be working part-time they might have other family commitments they might be looking after younger siblings.
So being able to balance all of that through establishing some of those routines can be really helpful to manage that increased workload that we would anticipate in senior school.
Sarah Papaelias
I think as parents as well, it can be really helpful to check in with the learning system or platform that your school is using and sort of keeping up to date with what assessment schedules or assignments your child might have upcoming and helping them develop some of those skills around homework completion, planning ahead, catching up on missed work.
A lot of parents find it helpful to sit down with their child and look at something like a study planner or a study schedule and you can ask your school as well for some templates that they might already be using so there's that consistency but I guess you know overall it's about encouraging those healthy habits so that's including things like sleep and diet, exercise, having hobbies and things that they enjoy and also healthy use of technology which I know can be a really big challenge for many of our parents.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
Every school has access to a school psychologist and Brendan and yourself have both worked in primary and secondary schools as psychologists. Could you explain the role of a school psychologist and what support they provide to students?
Sarah Papaelias
Yeah so as we discussed in our last episode school psychologists support schools essentially to optimise student learning.
So we have expertise in different areas like mental health, learning, child development, behaviour and school systems generally, and we work across a range of education settings.
So in high school, we can work directly with students but a lot of the work that we do and a lot of the valuable work that we do is actually indirectly with the adults around our young people. So working closely with parents and school staff and agencies in the community.
We also work with school leaders on preventative programs for all students and when it comes to the high school context, some of those programs might involve preventative strategies around mental health, bullying and resilience. So some of those really important topics.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
That leads on to my next question. What support do school psychologists provide to students and families in a secondary school context?
Brendan Everett
So it's probably important to acknowledge the structure changes between a primary school and a high school. So in primary schools, in our last episode, we spoke about the importance of working with your teacher. In a high school, that becomes a little bit more tricky when your child has a number of teachers.
So one of the features of high schools would be that they would have a student services or a pastoral care or a wellbeing team or a student services team. And they provide that, you know, that's the place where students and family support is brokered through.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So where can parents access support if they're worried about their child?
Brendan Everett
Thinking back to what we were talking about already, which is around encouraging that problem-solving behaviour with your child. So your child should be able to identify, for example, their year coordinator or a pastoral care person that is a contact for them in their year level.
So the first step might be encouraging your child to have a conversation with that person.
Again, really promoting that independence and problem-solving skills for your own child.
Sarah Papaelias
Yeah, and that pastoral care team can work closely with you as a parent as well to identify some goals and strategies to support your young person. And obviously at this age, we'd want the young person to have input as well into that. And if your child has additional needs, that's especially important so that everyone's working together as a team.
But if your child does require some more considered planning, the school may have some suggestions for other services that might be helpful as well, such as a school psychologist.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So when anxiety becomes a bigger problem for the student, how can the Department support that child and, of course, their family?
Sarah Papaelias
Well, there's a range of supports available to students and families who do have concerns about anxiety.
We would suggest reaching out to your school as soon as possible so everyone can work as a team to support your child. Schools can work directly with young people on some strategies to manage worries, but also indirectly with families and some of those community services to promote your child's resilience, and I think we've been talking about that a lot today.
Another support that's freely available to parents is the Fear-Less Triple P program.
So Triple P is the positive parenting program, and Brendan and I both work as school psychologist consultants to offer Triple P programs to our families. And the Fear-Less Triple P program provides support to parents whose children are impacted by anxiety.
The research tells us that parent-focused supports can actually be just as effective as some of those therapeutic supports targeted to young people, and I guess the benefit of this particular program is that there's no cost and there's no wait list, so it's really helpful to know that that's available.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So Brendan, can you tell us a little bit more about the Triple P Positive Parenting Program and what's involved?
Brendan Everett
Yeah, so just continuing on from what Sarah was saying, the Fear-Less Triple P is one of our most requested Triple P programs from parents and it's also one of our most requested Triple P programs from our school psychologists to deliver.
So more and more school psychologists are wanting to be trained to deliver Fear-Less and more and more parents are asking for it and that's indicative of our community in terms of anxiety levels in the community and it's an issue that our parents are wanting and our young people are needing support with.
With, really important to acknowledge the power of parent-focused interventions. So for parents listening, sometimes there's a sense of maybe powerlessness or hopelessness that, ‘oh, well, I'm not the psychologist. What can I do to support my child?’ And certainly what we talk about in Fear-Less Triple P is that you as the parent are a really powerful agent of change for your child. You can make a massive difference for your child. And as Sarah was talking about, some of those interventions that you can then deliver as a parent, some of those strategies and tools that you learn through, for example, Fear-Less as Triple P can be as effective as clinical interventions.
Sarah Papaelias
I think Triple P programs as well, that there's a range of different programs to suit whatever challenges you might be facing at the time.
So we know that parenting teenagers is really rewarding, but it can also be very, very challenging. And there is a teen Triple P program. So there's three seminars that some of our secondary schools can offer to families to help you in the role of raising a teenager and a confident and happy teenager.
There's also other programs out there that are suitable for this age group, so we'd really encourage you to reach out to your school, ask what programs are on offer.
Triple P is also an evidence-based program, so parents can be really confident that the strategies have worked for many families across the world and research across different cultures and abilities and translate it into several languages as well.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
So for more information on Triple P or any other support services, where can parents go if they want to access them?
Sarah Papaelias
So if you're interested in attending a Triple P session that we've spoken about today, you can search for upcoming sessions by location on the Triple P and WA website. So if you go online and search Triple P and WA, it'll be the first link that comes up, and you can search by location and register to attend a face-to-face session in one of our schools or child and parent centres.
We do understand that some families can be time poor though and find it quite challenging to attend a face-to-face session. So as we mentioned earlier, there are some online options available as well.
Brendan Everett
There's also the Triple P online program, which is for Fear-Less, for example, Fear-Less Triple P, which we spoke about earlier. It's considered a clinical intervention. It's a six-session program that parents can complete free of charge.
There's also Teen Triple P online, which covers some of those unique challenges that parenting a teenager can bring. And we fund a number of codes for parents to access that which can be accessed through your school psychologist.
Sarah Papaelias
So the federal government has committed $40.6 million to making most of the Triple P online programs for free. The teen program at the moment is associated with a cost, but as Brendan mentioned, you can access a funded code through your school.
So if that's something that you're interested in, reach out to your school and they can speak with our team so that we can get that allocated to you.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
Sarah and Brendan, thank you so much for coming back for another episode of the podcast and continuing this very important conversation.
Sarah Papaelias
Thank you so much for having us.
Fiona Bartholomaeus
This was part two of a conversation about how to help your child start school successfully.
To enjoy future episodes, follow us wherever you listen to your podcasts and on our social media channels.
Notes
Read more about the Fear-Less Triple P program.
Find out more about the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P).
Access upcoming face-to-face programs and a range of free Triple P online programs on the Triple P website.