When should you be concerned about your child(ren)'s academic performance?

This question has two answers : it depends and horses for courses. In general terms, every child is different; teaching & learning and evaluation must be developmentally-appropriate; and needs and realities vary.

In general terms, children have four broad stages of educational development, conveniently mapping on to most (including Chile's) educational systems : Early Years (ages 3 - 6 or so), Primary (ages 6 - 11 roundabouts), Middle School (more or less ages 12 - 14) and High School (14+ if you will). In Chile, these are Pre-Basica, Primer Ciclo, Segundo Ciclo and Medio.

What your child should be doing and able to do will reflect him/her individually, and across these four general stages. However, traditional views of achievement, especially amongst those from a content-based perspective (aka "kings, dates and battles"). Added to this are the various approaches to teaching & learning and evaluation available, some of which are driven by political beliefs rather than child-centred or educationally-valid practice.

You may recall your driving test. You probably had a theory test which had a pass-fail basis; you had to answer 27 of 30 questions correctly. With 26, you did not pass. With 27 or 30 you pssed. Similarly, with the practical test you had to perform 44 of 50 actions correctly and so on. This, in essence, is standards-based or objective-based evaluation and for you to know if you child's performance is appropriate or not depends on which standards are used and where s/he stands next to this standard.

We can help explain what might be happening with your child(ren), what questions you should be asking and whether you should be concerned about his/her academic performance. We can also guide you in terms of Chilean, US, UK and international (Cambridge, IB) programmes. For more information, or to ask about other academic support, please complete the Contact Us form to the right.

The advisor/consultant has 25+ years' expereince as an international school teacher and director in eight countries, and five years working in the area of school improvement with a leading Chilean university.

We specialise in working with native or bilingual students, and with students who speak English at home, or with one parent only, and not at school.

• Sessions are held in English and a C1 or higher level of English is assumed.

• These are one-hour synchronous online video conferencing sessions; an in-person, face-to-face option is also available.

• For more information, please complete the Contact Us form to the right.

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