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When young people are coping with issues at school, whether it be an obvious challenge such as increased workload or a more personal one such as family illness, the playing field becomes less even for them and they can easily lose out with long-term consequences. Furthermore, every individual is different and requires personalised support. Using case studies to share practical advice based on years of first-hand experience managing these issues in real schools, Joyce Nisbet and Jennie Guise explore why it is crucial for everyone involved to pull in the same direction - and how parents, carers, teachers and schools can help.
The issues that young people can experience as they try to make their way through secondary education while simultaneously undergoing the challenges of adolescence are many and varied. More obvious ones relate to the transition to a bigger school with more subjects and teachers, more peers, greater burden of homework and so on. Others may be much more personal – for example mental health issues or family divorce.
While some of these problems may resolve themselves over time, all are likely to have at least a short-term impact on the wellbeing and educational performance of the individual and all are likely to be beyond the young person’s emotional experience to resolve by themselves. It is therefore critical that parents, carers, teachers and schools identify warning signs and provide tailored support where appropriate.
Part of the How to Help series of books exploring issues commonly faced by children and young people at home and at school, Teenage School Difficulties offers a complete introduction to the pitfalls of navigating secondary education while at the same time facing the ordeals of adolescence.
"This book, written by an experienced secondary classroom and pastoral care teacher, and a practitioner psychologist, describes ways of addressing a multitude of difficulties experienced by some teenagers both in and out of High Schools. The difficulties discussed include the following:
Transitions from Primary to Secondary School, disengagement, truancy and absenteeism, school refusal, personal and health issues, illness and disability, mental health, self-esteem, sexual health, eating disorders, self-harm, dependency, friendship, bullying, cyber bullying, peer pressure, the quiet victim, separation and divorce, financial problems (in the family), bereavement and loss, and young carers.
Most chapters contain two case studies which illustrate the particular difficulty experienced by teenagers, and how the school/teachers and associated professionals work together with the teenager, and their family, to address the difficulty."
- Frank Pearson, Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (Formerly the Aston Brain and MRI Centre), Development and Learning Assessment Unit (DLAU), Aston University
