Written by a qualified teacher with classroom and educational leadership experience. Rethinking Mindsets is a Sydney, NSW-based online tutoring provider supporting families nationwide.

Settling after school holidays can involve more than returning to familiar routines. For Defence families, a new term may coincide with a posting-related move, a different school or changes in family arrangements. Some students return confidently, while others need help understanding new expectations or organising their schoolwork.

Parents may notice tiredness, slower starts, repeated requests for reassurance or reluctance to attempt unfamiliar tasks. These observations are useful starting points for a conversation, but they do not explain the difficulty on their own. Looking at the schoolwork and speaking with the child’s teacher can help clarify what needs attention.

Identify What Is Different This Term

Start with the expectations your child is managing now. These may include different homework instructions, unfamiliar classroom language, new assessment formats or greater responsibility for organising materials. A task that appears straightforward to an adult may contain several steps the student has not yet understood.

After a posting-related school change, curriculum sequencing may also differ. A student might encounter content they have not previously studied or be asked to use familiar knowledge in a different way. Our article on tutoring after changing schools explores how educators can respond to these academic needs.

It can help to look at one recent task together and ask which part feels unclear. If the same uncertainty keeps appearing, share an example with the teacher. This provides a more useful starting point than assuming your child needs more motivation or simply more time to settle.

Make Home Routines Clear and Manageable

A practical routine gives the student a clear starting point for schoolwork. Agree where materials will be kept, how they will check what is due and when they can ask for help. Keep the routine proportionate to their age, workload and other commitments.

Where possible, involve your child in identifying what would make starting easier. They may need help reading instructions, choosing the first task or breaking an assignment into stages. The aim is to make expectations understandable while giving them opportunities to take responsibility.

Some students need more guidance initially, while others can manage with a brief check-in. Notice whether your involvement is helping them understand what to do or becoming something they rely on before every step. An educator can help identify strategies the student can practise using independently.

Distinguish Settling In From an Academic Difficulty

Unfamiliar routines may contribute to hesitation, but not every difficulty is part of settling in. A student may need explicit teaching in a concept, further practice with a skill or clarification of what a task requires. Repeated uncertainty should prompt a closer look at understanding.

Useful questions include whether your child can explain the idea, complete a similar example with guidance and apply it to another task. Their teacher can provide context about classroom learning and expectations. This helps families avoid either dismissing a difficulty or assuming that every slower start requires tutoring.

If anxiety about schoolwork persists, discuss what you are noticing with the school. Where concerns extend beyond learning or significantly affect everyday life, seek advice from an appropriate health professional as well. Tutoring may address relevant academic needs within a wider response, but it is not a clinical service.

How Individually Planned Tutoring May Help

At Rethinking Mindsets, experienced, qualified teachers use curriculum knowledge and classroom experience to plan sessions around each student’s academic needs. Educators explain concepts, model strategies and guide practice, adapting teaching to reflect individual school expectations. Familiar session routines provide structure while professional judgement guides adjustments during teaching.

A student might practise interpreting task instructions, organising a written response or applying a mathematics strategy to unfamiliar questions. Planning and self-monitoring can be taught alongside subject content where relevant. The educator checks understanding and adjusts the level of guidance while retaining meaningful academic challenge.

A consistent educator relationship provides time to understand how the student responds to feedback, uncertainty and increasing independence. Our approach to tutoring connects academic growth, confidence, independence and attention to student wellbeing. It does not assume that every student needs the same pace or amount of support.

Review What Is Helping

Look for specific changes rather than expecting the whole school week to become easier at once. Your child may explain an idea more clearly, use a strategy with less prompting or identify what they need help with. These observations can inform the next teaching steps, but they do not guarantee particular grades or a predictable rate of progress.

If difficulties continue, revisit the academic needs and the arrangements around schoolwork with the teacher or tutor. Changes to tutoring frequency or scheduling should be discussed rather than assumed. Suitable arrangements depend on the student’s needs, educator availability and, for funded tutoring, the scope and conditions of the approval.

Our Defence and veteran tutoring overview explains the services available to families with approved ADF EAS or DVA additional tuition funding, as well as families choosing private tutoring. Returning from holidays or finding a new routine difficult does not by itself establish eligibility for funded tutoring.