How can I help my child?

Learning at home

This is a totally different context from your child being at school. Not all children are independent learners and some will require a great deal of help and support from you as their parent. It will not be possible for your child's teacher to personally instruct all students individually, every day with every task, whilst remote learning is happening.

Here are some tips you as a parent/carer can do if and when your child needs learning support:

Read the instructions to your child.
Focus on the verbs as these will indicate what your child needs to actually do.
Have them read the instructions to you.
Ask you child, "What does this mean?"
Have them verbalise to you what they think the task is asking and meaning.

Establishing Routines and Expectations

From the first day you will need to establish routines and expectations. You should set regular hours for school work, appropriate to your child/ren’s age and stage of learning, and your particular home situation.

When setting routines for your child/ren’s learning, you will need to consider:

· Online learning is not reflective of a full school day

· Weekly timetables, as determined by the teacher

· The time required to successfully engage with each activity, task or subject

· What is reasonable to expect of your child, given their age and stage of learning

· The inclusion of regular breaks between activities for eating and drinking.

In the activity breaks, it is important that students get up and move around.

Setting up a Learning Environment

Where possible, attempt to create a quiet, comfortable and safe learning space for your child. Your child may have a regular place for doing homework under normal circumstances, but this space may not be suitable for working in for an extended period of time.

The following checklist may assist in setting up a learning environment:

· Desk or table, with a comfortable chair, set at an appropriate height

· Space for writing in notebooks as well as space to appropriately set-up a device such as a laptop or tablet

· Access to internet services

· Access to power

· Appropriate lighting and acoustics

· Ease of monitoring your child’s learning and internet access and behaviour

· Minimal access to distractions (such as additional screens)

Additional assistance you can provide your child whilst learning from home

Establish a daily routine (wake up at the same time)
Support them to connect to this site, their class online platforms (Seesaw and/or Google Classrooms), and their class meetings
Check communication regularly
Take breaks, encourage fun and play
Have discussions with your child. Ask their opinions on topics.
Read daily to your child.
Listen to your child read daily.
Involve them with cooking - there is a lot of mathematics in these tasks.
Play a board game or do a jigsaw puzzle.
Let your children make up games.
Organise a craft corner.

How can I help my child?

Learning at home

Here are some tips you as a parent/carer can do if and when your child needs learning support:

Read the instructions to your child.

Focus on the verbs as these will indicate what your child needs to actually do.

Have them read the instructions to you.

Ask you child, "What does this mean?"

Have them verbalise to you what they think the task is asking and meaning.

Establishing Routines and Expectations

From the first day you will need to establish routines and expectations. You should set regular hours for school work, appropriate to your child/ren’s age and stage of learning, and your particular home situation.

When setting routines for your child/ren’s learning, you will need to consider:

· Online learning is not reflective of a full school day

· Weekly timetables, as determined by the teacher

· The time required to successfully engage with each activity, task or subject

· What is reasonable to expect of your child, given their age and stage of learning

· The inclusion of regular breaks between activities for eating and drinking.

In the activity breaks, it is important that students get up and move around.

Setting up a Learning Environment

Where possible, attempt to create a quiet, comfortable and safe learning space for your child. Your child may have a regular place for doing homework under normal circumstances, but this space may not be suitable for working in for an extended period of time.

The following checklist may assist in setting up a learning environment:

· Desk or table, with a comfortable chair, set at an appropriate height

· Space for writing in notebooks as well as space to appropriately set-up a device such as a laptop or tablet

· Access to internet services

· Access to power

· Appropriate lighting and acoustics

· Ease of monitoring your child’s learning and internet access and behaviour

· Minimal access to distractions (such as additional screens)

Additional assistance you can provide your child whilst learning from home

Establish a daily routine (wake up at the same time)

Support them to connect to this site, their class online platforms (Seesaw and/or Google Classrooms), and their class meetings

Check communication regularly

Take breaks, encourage fun and play

Have discussions with your child. Ask their opinions on topics.

Read daily to your child.

Listen to your child read daily.

Involve them with cooking - there is a lot of mathematics in these tasks.

Play a board game or do a jigsaw puzzle.

Let your children make up games.

Organise a craft corner.