The Bonsai Student: Why modern parenting limits children's potential at school and practical strategies to turn it around

Parents, teachers and schools invest more care and effort than ever before to ensure children succeed at school. Yet many young people do not feel confident, capable and ready to take on life beyond the school gate.

Clinical psychologist, researcher and former teacher Dr Judith Locke shows you how to turn this situation around with practical strategies that have helped thousands of families she has worked with clinically and in her sessions for parents and teachers in schools across Australia and New Zealand.

The Bonsai Student will show you the best way to be a good parent for your child in their school years by helping them become responsible, resilient and ready for the years that follow. This book is an invaluable resource for parents, teachers and everyone working with children in an educational environment.

'Dr Locke's research is contemporary, and her advice is highly relevant in the modern context of raising children. She helps us to understand what the needs of young people are and how we can best support them to become confident, capable and resilient.'

DR MARIE PERRY

About the Author

Dr Judith Locke is a registered clinical psychologist, former teacher, school counsellor and workplace trainer. She is the director of Confident and Capable^(R), a company specialising in psychological training solutions for parents, children, teachers, and others in schools, childcare centres, government and community organisations, and private companies. Judith also provides clinical assistance to families and individuals in her private practice in Toowong, Queensland.

Judith's research at the Queensland University of Technology investigated modern parenting, family wellbeing, and how children and parents interact with academic environments. Her psychological commentary, including a weekly parenting column for The Sunday Mail, features regularly in the media. Judith is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and the APS College of Clinical Psychologists. She became an ambassador for Life Education Queensland in 2020.

Judith's first bestselling book, The Bonsai Child, discusses problems with current well-meant parenting practices and shows parents practical ways to turn their situation around. This book, The Bonsai Student, focuses on children's school experience and gives parents useful and realistic strategies to ensure their children develop confidence, capability and independence in their studies to give them the best chance of future success and satisfaction in their work and personal lives.