The need for rest in the holiday period (Yes! Rest!)
Peter Corkill
The need for rest in the holiday period
Peter Corkill
I would like to devote this week’s newsletter article to the importance of students maintaining a sensible outlook on WORK, REST and RECREATION over the holiday break. Whist acknowledging that the commitment of our students to their studies and ongoing improvement is nothing short of outstanding, I feel there is a need to realign some of the thinking among some students and parents that ‘more work produces better outcomes’. While there are cases of this being true, for example when students are doing little work and expecting great results, eventually we get to a stage where too much work, without sufficient rest, becomes counter-productive. And the holiday break is such a time.
There is clear research in many quarters that the students who are most successful in the latter years of their schooling have a balanced approach to organising their commitments. They devote an appropriate time to study and homework, but they also have plenty of breaks, engage their interests by playing sport or a favourite musical instrument, have time for friends and family and some even have a small part-time job. Being able to participate in various forms of activity help young people grow, develop positive relationships with peers and adults, keep them physically and therefore mentally fit, and give them opportunities to develop collaborative skills and teamwork. All of these skills supplement those they directly need to achieve highly at school, and help them grow personally.
If students are to perform at their academic peak at important times, for example in an exam, they need to be fresh, mentally fit and alert. This means they need a good diet and plenty of sleep. All of our students have been working very hard for an extended period of time, and this term has certainly been a long one. This has required great perseverance, dedication and sacrifice. That so many of them have been prepared to commit themselves so fully is a great credit to them. But now it is time to take a break, and rest up both physically and mentally. It is the mind which needs a change of routine.
At JMSS we take the well-being of our students very seriously, as healthy and happy students will perform much better academically than tired and unmotivated students. Therefore I am appealing to parents to assist with helping their sons and daughters to achieve some balance in the holiday break, get at least 8 hours of sleep per night, exercise regularly and eat properly, have some fun, do some revision by all means, but please do not pressure them into a two-week grind of schoolwork.
In order to allow students to plan their time over the next two weeks, there will be no extra homework given to students over the holiday break.
The only work Years 10 and 11 students might have to do is to complete any set tasks from the start of their semester two courses in the last one (Year 10) or two (Year 11) weeks of the term. Hopefully they will complete this before the term finishes.
As for Year 12s, I would strongly suggest they take some time for a breather, as it is the last significant break they will get before the November exams. They need to make sensible decisions about how to spend the two weeks in terms of what school work they might want to do, and how much of a real break they need. This could include any or even all of these depending on the particular student:
- completing any work still not done from semester one, including the reading of set novels;
- getting notes and topic revision summaries in order prior to the end of the year;
- completing any work set related to the last two weeks of the semester, in other words the first two weeks of semester two.
If our students are to develop the skills of independent learners, then they need to have room to decide what they need to do in this break, and plan accordingly. They should allow for at least one complete week away from study.
Peter Corkill
Principal
John Monash Science School