Counseling

Parent Guide

GENERAL TIPS

SEVENTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
EIGHTH GRADE TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS FOR PARENTS
EIGHTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
NINTH GRADE TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS FOR PARENTS
NINTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
TENTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH

GENERAL TIPS
Be active in the PTA:
Your involvement in the life of the school is critical to your child’s school success.

Be patient with your child                                                                         Realize that adjustment to change takes time, flexibility, and support.

Allow your child to process each day, as the need arises, by talking about particular events, triumphs, and disappointments.                               
Offering suggestions, as to how situations could be handled differently next time, when appropriate. Be willing jut to listen and not suggest anything at all, depending on your child’s immediate needs. Hugs and words are strong encouragement and praise goes a long way toward your child successful transition to 7th grade.

Maintain open communication.                                                                Keep communication between yourself, your child’s teachers, and counselor. Do not hesitate to ask questions about your child’s progress and about how you can work the educators to help your child complete the year successfully.

Offer your child structure at home, not pressure.
A comfortable unhurried morning and after school routines and reasonable bedtime are important ingredients to pressure-free home environment. Use your knowledge about your child to determine how much academic support requires at home. Be careful not to overwhelm your child with unreasonably high academic level, while encouraging him/her current academic level, while encouraging him/her best to improve and achieve.

Be aware of limit-testing and experimentation.
At this stage of your child’s development, limit-testing can lead to inappropriate responses to peer pressure and attendance at unsupervised parties and gatherings. Networking with other parents in the grade and attending PTA meetings on a regular basis can help heighten you awareness of your child’s in-school and out-of-school experiences, and how related issues are best handled at home.

Finally:

• Remember that every stage of development presents unique challenges to you, as a parent. You are always very important in your child’s life
• Go to a PTA function which encourages parents to know each other and work together. Your programs and concerns are shared by many and it helps you to know you to know you are not alone.
• Make contact with the adult in your childs life—teachers, counselor, coaches and other parents. Children should see that adult care and can work together to make their lives better.
• NEVER let a child go to a party without knowing ahead of time who will be there to supervise. Even if your child tells you are that you are the most “uncool” parent for doing so, call ahead and speak to the parent hosting the party. They will appreciate your support and interest.
• Remember that children learn more by what they see us do than what we tell them to do. Do not be afraid to share with them what you try to do better, to learn a new skill yourself, to embrace the next phase of your life, to model a life of growth, integrity, and commitments.

SEVENTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Seventh grade is a critical year of transition. Not only are the students acclimating themselves to a new building, a new commute, new friends, new teachers and new classes, they are also saying “goodbye” to the old and the familiar.  They are actively searching not only for who they are as individuals, but also who they are within the context of this new school.  There are important changes in their intellectual development at this time.  There is an expansion of conceptual thinking and a reduction in concrete thinking, making them less literal and more reflective thinkers.  There are enormous physical changes at this time as well, leaving them with concerns about their size, their shape, their level of physical attractiveness, their moods and where they stand vis-à-vis their peers concerning all these changes.  Seventh grade, therefore, presents a challenge to counselors and to the school at large; to help these students know themselves, get comfortable with themselves and their surroundings. 

EIGHTH GRADE TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS FOR PARENTS

Time Line of Important Events
Consult your PTA Hunter Highlights Calendar for specific dates and times of events.
October
School Open House
Get to know your child’s teacher and what is expected of students in each course.

NYC DOE High School Applications
Information for applying to other New York City High School is announced in Official Classes.
Application and information will be available in the counseling office. We ask information parents to discuss this decision carefully with their child, as applications should be made for those students intending to transfer.

November
Parents/Teacher Conference.
This is an important way to show your involvement in your child’s academic life and a way to hear about your child’s progress from the teachers.

January-March
“Learn About Your Transcript” Workshop. 
Beginning in 8th grade, school grades are entered on the transcript. In this workshop, students will learn about the purpose and uses of transcript, as well as the special features of our transcript, as well as the special features of our transcript. Students are given a sample copy of a transcript.  Students are also reminded about the uses of the Counseling Folder.

June
Final Exams and Assessments

Summer School sign-up, of your child needs to remediate any coursework.

EIGHTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Be active in the PTA.
Your involvement in the life of the school in critical to your child’s school success.

Provide greater independence, but not all at once.
Eighth grade is often characterized as a turning point in your child’s movement toward more independence and reliance on peers. In fact, this might happen even dramatically with gifted children. Also, our school fosters personal freedom and independence. Parents can assist in this dramatic process by providing grater independence, but not at all at once. It is still a parent’s job to set limits and know what your child is doing. It is your child’s job, however, to negotiate for more independence.

Begin to redefine your relationship with your child and find new things you can do together.
In 8th grade your child also will defining themselves more by which peer group they belong to than by whom their parents are. Rather than considering this process as a rejection of you or your values, treat it as an opportunity to redefine you relationship with your child and find new things you can do together.
Determine how much structure, freedom, supervision, planning your child needs to maximize learning in school and to have relations with others. 
Don’t be afraid to be the adult, to have the last word, and to say “No!” Children take enormous comfort in knowing you care enough to limit them. They need adults to be adults. They do not want us to be their friends.

Help your child determine his/her own academic goals.
Academic pressure increases in 8th grade, when your child learns that his/her coursework and grades appear on transcript. Do not add to stress by adding your own high academic expectations or by encouraging too much external validation of his/her academic abilities. Rather, help your child determine and internalize his/her own academic goals and values. Be aware not only of how your child is doing, but also how you are responding to how he/she is doing. Children vary tremendously in 8th grade in their ability to ask for help from teachers, to follow through on their plans, to manage the details of their lives.  Ask yourself: “How does my child needs me to support him/her academically? How much command can my child take of his/her own academic life?”

Keep reminding them of what you enjoy in them.
Physical hugs may be groaned at, but verbal hugs, especially when genuinely given, go a long way letting your child know you value him/her and in maintaining positive relations.

NINTH GRADE TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS FOR PARENTS

Time Line of Important Events
Consult your PTA Hunter Highlights Calendar for specific dates and times of events.

October
School Open House
Get to know your child’s teacher and what is expected of students in each course.

NYC DOE High School Applications
Information for applying to other New York City High School is announced in Official Classes.
Application and information will be available in the counseling office. We ask information parents to discuss this decision carefully with their child, as applications should be made for those students intending to transfer.

November
Parent/Teacher Conference
This is important way to show your involvement in your child’s academic life and a way to hear about your child’s progress form each teacher.

January-March
Begin building the Counseling Folder. Students can submit ask teachers to complete Praise Sheets.

February- May
Begin looking for summer opportunities. Look for activities that allow your child to explore a new area of interest or to build on developments talents. Make sure their summer includes a large component of fun so they return feeling refreshed and revived.

March
We advise students against taking the SAT II* in Biology this year. Instead, we advise students who are interested in taking the biology SATII to take the Advance Placement (AP*) Biology course in 11th grade and take the SAT II at that time. Students will be better prepared, and colleges like to see SAT II scores from the 11th grade.

June
Regents/Alternative Assessment Exams

Summer school sign-up, if your child needs to remediate any coursework.

NINTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Encourage your child to develop and explore his/her interests.
This is a year for your child to explore their interests. Please encourage your child by being open to the activities to which he/she naturally gravitates, without any preconceptions of how your child should spend time. As your child turns increasingly toward peers, you may feel cut off. You are not “losing” your child. Your child is just changing. Try to find new ways to relate to your child being aware of and sensitive to emerging issues.

Respect your child’s developing independence in work and study
While you may have been closely involved with your child’s work up to now, your child will probably want more freedom in determining the way he/she works, as part of the development process by which he/she tries to obtain greater freedom and responsibility. At the same time, many students experience a marked increase in the level of difficulty in their 9th grade work. Together, these two factors combined to cause stress.

Give your child freedom within particular parameters. We suggest that you respect his/her growing independence by granting more freedom in small doses whose result can be carefully monitored. While you may feel uncomfortable with your child’s idea of studying by lying on her bed with the stereo on, you may want to consider assessing the results, rather than study behavior per se.

Encourage your child to communicate directly with teachers and counselors.
Rather than intervening directly at school, you might talk with your child about how he/she might handle particular issues or get needs met, for example, by talking to teachers and counselors directly. Of course, we encourage you follow-up with your child and, should it become necessary, to become more directly involved.

TENTH GRADE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Time Line of Important Events
Consult your PTA Hunter Highlights Calendar for specific dates and times of events.

October
School Open House.
Get to know your child teachers and what is expected of students in each course.

September- December
Part 1 of the class-by-class workshops to provide students with information about College Board Test and strategies for developing a five-semester plan to complete the testing.

November
10th and 11th Grade College Information Night.

Parent/Teacher Conference.
This is an important way to show your improvement in your child’s academic life and a way to hear about your child’s progress from each teacher.

January/February
10th Grade meetings to discuss selective/elective choices and registration.
Students are encouraged to use the week –long, appointment necessary, period set aside for students to speak with teachers, department chairpersons, and counselors before registering. Encourage your child to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss and concerns or questions about their course selection.

March- May
Part II of the class-by –class workshop to focus students on their Counseling Folders,
February-May
Begin looking for summer opportunities. Look for activities that allow your child to explore a new area of interest or to build developed talents. Make sure their summer includes a large component of fun they return feeling refreshed and revived.  Plan ahead to combine family vacations with college visits. For more information on how to do this, encourage visits. For more information on how to do this encourage your child to set up an appointment with his/her counselor.

April-May
Parent/ Teacher Conferences.
Encourage your child to ask teaches for Praise Sheets for the Counseling Folder.

June
Regents/ alternative Assessment Exams.

Summer school sign-up, if child needs to remediate any coursework.

Summer
Students are encouraged to begin reading about colleges.

• Review with your child his/her academic record, which academic area needs improvement. Use the summer to brush up on skills.
• Remember that children learn more by what they see us do than what we tell them to do. Do not be afraid to share with them what you try to do better, to learn a new skill yourself, to embrace the next phrase of your own life, to model a life of growth, integrity, and commitment.

PARENT TIPS FOR GRADES 11 and 12 CAN BE FOUND WITHIN THE COLLEGE HANDBOOK