News & Events

How to Prepare Your Child for School in the Fall
Students walk down a hallwayMANCHESTER, CT, Aug. 19, 2019 – The first day of school is approaching quickly. Getting children back into the school routine can be a challenge for many families. Principal Ryan Hinton, of East Catholic High School, has been through the start-up of 10 school years at the Manchester, CT high school. “The transition from summer to the start of the school year is a time to re-engage your child in the academic dialog and get them ready to take on the challenges of another school year,” he says. While many schools in Connecticut start the last week in August, East Catholic High School’s first day of school is September 5.

Principal Hinton offers these suggestions to parents who want to help their children get off to the right start of the school year: 
  • Use the back-to-school shopping ritual to set the stage for engagement throughout the school year. The annual school shopping trip can be an important way to start the transition from summer to fall and the rest of the school year. Hinton urges parents not to put this off and to use it to engage with their children before the semester begins. “This ritual is really a way to get involved with your student’s participation in the upcoming academic year in a positive way,” he says. “It can set the stage for parents to regularly check-in with their children during the academic year. While you shop for all the back-to-school needs, ask them what they are looking forward to and what they expect the upcoming year to be like. Continue these check-ins throughout the school year by asking them on Friday afternoons, for example, what the best part of their week was. We tend to do this for younger kids, but we forget about high school students. They need it. There’s a lot of pressures placed on high schoolers. They are measuring themselves against other students They worry about grades. They are thinking about college. They layer on other activities like athletics, performing arts, and clubs. Those pressures tend to build up, so a check-in from parents can help students keep them in perspective.”
Please read the full article for more information.