Book Review

What You Need to Know Before Your Child Starts School

Authors: Debbie Knowles and Julie Mulcahy

This Penguin paperback edition is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide on everything to do with secondary schooling, including choosing a school, NCEA and other assessment systems, special education, discipline and how it works, pastoral care, English as a second language, sport, culture and leadership. There is an excellent chapter intriguingly entitled: ‘These Things Happen in the Nicest Families – Everyone Needs Help Sometimes’.

This book is intended to be an information resource, rather than a cover-to-cover read. The use of sub-headings makes the book easy to navigate and bullet points give useful summaries. It is succinctly written but not dry, with anecdotes in shaded boxes breaking up the pure information. The authors maintain that there is no need for parents to be overwhelmed by the complexity of New Zealand secondary schools, but that the more knowledge they have the more confident they will be in using the many systems in place to support students and in working as a team with the school. Their book should be of real help to parents and is therefore highly recommended.