Working together with your child’s early learning services or school, you can support your children to learn from home. It’s key to remember that your home does not have to be a school. Learning happens anywhere and everywhere and your home is already a learning environment. It is not necessary to turn your home into a class room.

First and foremost, communicate with your child’s teacher. They will have a plan for learning at home – you aren’t expected to replace the teacher.

You will need to consider the different ages of your children learning at home. Those at secondary level may need a separate quiet space, whereas you may be able to find learning opportunities for younger children through every day activities.

Learning happens in every language. If your home language is a language other than English, use that language when communicating with your child. You can use your home language to talk about activities the teacher has provided and the activity can be completed in English.

The next section ‘Planning for learning at home’ provides some guidance on the things you may want to start thinking about with your whānau.

Planning for learning at home

Your home is already a learning environment. It is not necessary to turn it into a classroom or service. Learning opportunities happen anywhere every day. Remember that learning should be fun, and that it should be in the language you are most comfortable with using.

Plan what your day will look like. Sit down with your child or children and work out what you will be doing together and what they will be doing alone.

Discuss what work best for you and your family when planning learning. Remember, learning doesn’t only happen between 9am – 3pm.

It’s important to take regular breaks, get outside for some fresh air and do some physical activity.

Some things you might want to support your child with each day:

Read (or hear) a story.

Write something.

Challenge you child’s thinking on a subject or topic.

Solve a problem.

Do something active.

Hold a conversation about a topic that is interesting to them.

Include your child in everyday home activities, like cooking, washing and cleaning.

Have time to rest and play.

Connect with your early learning services or school to see if they have prepared anything to help you support learning at home – these might include tips, ideas, activities or how to access resources.

Confirm with your child’s teacher how best to communicate with them while your child is learning from home.

Create a space to discuss the day or week's learning. This could simply be the sofa or somewhere outside

Free internet safety filter for parents

While children are learning from home, they are away from the online safety and security services provided by Network for Learning (N4L) at school. So together with N4L and Netsafe, the Ministry of Education have launched www.switchonsafety.co.nz – a free way to block the worst of the web for students.

Please remember, no technical solution is a silver bullet. This tool is designed to be used alongside the digital citizenship toolkits provided by Netsafe. Netsafe provides comprehensive support and information to support everyone to stay safe as they work, learn and play online.

Netsafe has new and updated resources for parents, whānau and students at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/staying-safe/

7 TIPS FOR PARENTS AND WHĀNAU

HOW TO CREATE AN ONLINE SAFETY PLAN

Harold - Life Education

For home internet connections

It is important to eliminate performance/speed issues with the home wifi setup first, rather than assuming there is an issue with the connection from the house to the internet. To check this:

Run a speed test at www.speedtest.net to establish a baseline, and repeat after making any change below to check for improvement

Power off home router every morning, leave off for 30 secs before powering back on (don’t press the reset button this will reset the device settings!)

Turn off, or disable Wi-Fi on, unused devices where possible, especially older devices that run at slower Wi-Fi speeds

Decrease the physical distance between your device and the Wi-Fi router, line of sight is best

Use an Ethernet cable on devices where possible, to reduce Wi-Fi load (especially smart TVs, gaming consoles) – plug these into a spare LAN port on your router

Data Allowance/Cap issues

Check you are not already on an uncapped data plan (applies to Spark, Vodafone, Vocus/Slingshot, and 2Degrees, Trustpower). If unsure contact your provider

Some providers have made uncapped offers to rural and remote customers for off peak (night time hours only). Consider shifting non time critical downloads such as computer patching to these time periods

Check what options are available for the address at https://broadbandmap.nz/ and if not on the cheapest/best option suggest changing provider as an option (this is covered as an essential service)

The data plan on mobile phones is NOT covered by the removal of data cap