To ask what makes a dc academic

I'm a 6th form teacher and it's so hard to put your finger on what has made a student academic. We have students who didn't achieve great GCSE results and/or don't seem to have a 'natural' ability, however, they work really hard, they act on feedback on their work and they prepare for exams using quality, active revision. Equally, we have students who arrive with 8s and 9s at GCSE, then try and coast through their A-Levels, and by the time they realise they need to put in more effort it's often too close to the exams to really make much difference.

To me academic is someone who enjoys and is good at learning theoretical stuff over practical stuff. So they might like learning about art rather than doing art. A lot of english and maths at school has an element of both..

I guess whether you enjoy theoretical stuff will depend on things like whether the level of challenge is exactly right for your abilities like processing speed and memory and how interesting /relevant you find the topic. Any work needs to be achievable but stretching so its not boring. you then get absorbed by doing it so its fun.

My eldest is academic to her core.

My youngest has dyslexia, slow processing and is not academic at all.

Same environment, same love of books.

I think "academic" often means good results to lots of people and where I live at least, you have to be school shaped and fit the methods of learning and testing. DD absolutely does. DS, however, struggles immensely due to his challenges and on paper, will never achieve in compulsory education. I have vague hopes for once he's navigated high school.

You simply have to try your best, prioritise learning when appropriate, accept help and find study you love.

I'm not sure that makes someone academic ,as a child I was always reading ,anything and everything from the Sunday Times at 8/9 years old to Enid Blyton ,I'm of average intelligence and have good general knowledge, but i.cartainly wasn't academically very able

Go to school every day
Follow the teachers instructions
Do all your work
Find interesting extea curricular activities that you enjoy and do them regularly

Reading yes, but remember what reading does, ie aside from exposure to new words, sentences, ideas, you can achieve some elements of the reading through other mediums...

Both my dc have vastly different learning styles, one is an incredible reader the other has struggled but I would class turn both as academic.
To support reading expose them to good films with subtitles on, ask them about the story in the film, what will happen next and anything you can do with books.

Obviously not to the degree where it's impossible to watch.

Getting 11 plus word bank flash cards and do a couple every week.

Dicuss concepts and plots etc all in a fun way... As fun as you can make it.

You can achieve more by good study habits, by taking an interest in the world around you. By spending time interacting with people and the world rather than mindless scrolling on you tube tik tok etc.

A lot is innate, processing speed, short term and long term memory etc etc etc.
Then an environment that supports and values learning will help.
Then personality.

You can influence the second on my list, not so much the first and third.

What do you want to know? My eldest is academic - he got a string of As at school and is now a PhD in a very academic subject. He was always naturally bright, had a huge vocabulary at 2 and could read at 3.
We just encouraged him by talking with him a lot, reading to him, taking him to places that interested him, like castles and museums, doing puzzles and playing board games. Nothing he didn't enjoy and nothing that put pressure on him. No special tutoring or extra homework.
You can't stop a naturally academic child from learning, and you can't make a child academic if they are not made that way. Our second DC is not academically able at all. It's just the way they are.

Can improve with hard work. DD is averagely intelligent but she studies really hard, not last minute like I always did but every day when she has an exam coming up she'll spend an hour or so studying, sometimes even gets up early (and she is not a morning person!) to fit in some extra studying.

Year Six teacher here. All my most academically able kids have been read to and read with from an early age. They have also been talked to and included in adult conversations.

Wide variety of family wealth and family stability, but books and talk are a consistent feature.