One of the most important factors in how successful a child is in their learning and enjoyment of learning depends both on the support of their teachers and the engagement of their parents/carers at home.
There are many ways in which a child can be supported at home in their learning. We are committed to developing our students to be agents of their own learning but your help at home is powerful. Here are some ways in which you can be involved in your child’s academic success.
- Get your child to ‘teach’ you something as research shows that, while we learn only 10% of what we read, we learn 95% of what we teach to someone else
- Support and encourage them to achieve while making sure that they do not feel under too much pressure. Help them to see how important achievement in exams is to their future
- Help them to draw up a revision timetable to develop strong habits in ongoing study. Make sure that their social life/ job is not interfering with their studying. They need rest and sleep to make sure that their brains are active and open to learning
- Talk to your child about what the subjects and exams are about, what they have to do in them and whether they feel confident in doing well. A child talking about their learning will help them to think about their learning needs. If they have any worries, encourage them to see their teacher or you can contact the teacher concerned.
- Encourage your child to use revision websites as per the CALC
- Encourage your child to attend revision classes and I.L. club
- Encourage your child to use a variety of appropriate revision methods and equipment e.g. highlighter pens, tape recordings, post-it notes. Discuss with them how these methods work and help them choose the best one for them
- Encourage the use any revision guides from school and discuss them with your child
- When your child is revising, encourage them to drink water and to take regular breaks
- Support them with their work by talking through with them what they have to do. Please note, support does not mean doing it for them or correcting their work!
- Ask your child to walk you through their Google Classroom account so that you have an overview of their learning including regularly checking their ‘to do’ list on their classroom accounts
Discussing learning with your child
The trick is to ask about things that are specific, but still open-ended. Move beyond “fine” and “nothing” by asking your child to describe their world. It’s also great to start the conversation with an anecdote from your own day. Try one of these conversation-starters:
- Tell me about the best part of your day.
- What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
- Did any of your classmates do anything funny?
- Tell me about what you read in class.
- Did you do any collaborative learning today? Who were you grouped with? How did you get on?
- Do you think math [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?
- What’s the biggest difference between this year and last year?
- What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they’re fair?
- Who did you sit with at lunch?
- Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?