Sample Communication to Parents

<School Name> has the following plans in place to deliver learning to your child/ren during these challenging times and ensure continued access to quality education.

The safety and wellbeing of our communities are our key priorities and our solutions will evolve around them.

Routine communication methods such as email, phone and on-line learning platforms will also keep students and families informed.

For parents and carers, supporting your child to learn at home will be a new experience. We have developed some resources to support you to plan and monitor your child's learning throughout the day.

As parents, you can provide support for your children by:

• establishing routines and expectations

• defining a space for your child to learn and where you or another adult is present and monitoring your child’s learning

• monitoring communications from school and teachers

• taking an active role in helping your child process his/her learning

• encouraging physical activity and/or exercise

• checking in with your child regularly to help him/her manage stress

• monitoring how much time your child is spending online

• setting rules around your child’s social media interactions

• communicating with the school if your child is unable to participate in the learning at home

These could include:

• establishing and/or following a daily routine for learning

• identifying a safe, comfortable, quiet space in their home where they can focus effectively and successfully

• regularly monitoring the school’s communication to check for announcements and feedback from teachers

• completing tasks with integrity and academic honesty, doing their best work

• doing their best to meet timelines, commitments, and due dates

• communicating proactively with their teachers if they cannot meet deadlines or require additional support

• collaborating and supporting their classmates in their learning

• seeking out and communicating with school staff as different needs arise

Your school should provide your child with a schedule or timetable for their learning. This will include regular breaks for activity, eating and drinking. In the activity breaks, it is important that students get up and move around.

From the first day you will need to establish routines and expectations. You should use the timetable or schedule provided by your school to set regular hours for school work.

Keep normal bedtime routines for younger children and expect the same from your older primary and high school-aged children too.

It is important that you set these expectations as soon as remote learning is implemented, not several days later after it becomes apparent a child is struggling with the absence of routine.

It is not uncommon for us all to experience anxiety at times of uncertainty and in response to distressing information presented in the media. Many of our children have been hearing about COVID-19 for weeks at school, from friends, on the news, and at home, and while they might not know how to appropriately express their feelings about the situation, they might be holding on to some worries. Here are some tips to support your child or young person.

1. Be available to talk and reassure: Children can have big questions, and it’s okay to answer them. Take cues from your child and offer clear but concise answers in developmentally appropriate language. Keep the focus on what you are doing to prepare and prevention strategies that are within your control like proper handwashing and avoiding large crowds. Reassure when needed but avoid offering too frequently as this can prevent children from developing their own positive self talk.

2. Limit news exposure: Even when it seems like they’re not listening, children pick up on what they hear on TV and radio. Hearing unfamiliar words like pandemic and outbreak can be fear-inducing. Opt for watching or listening to news reports when your child is in bed or choose to read news articles if possible. This may also include limiting our conversations about what we are hearing on the news.

3. Stick to routines and boundaries: Children thrive with routines and boundaries, and predictability can be very comforting in anxious times. When some things feel out of control, routines can give them a sense of security. Write your daily routine on a whiteboard or make a paper schedule together and make sure that you include fun activities in your daily routine!

4. Acknowledge the worries: It’s completely okay to acknowledge our childrens’ worries rather than ignoring them. Acknowledging worries won’t solidify them but it will help your child understand that worry is a protective feeling that alerts us to potential danger. The smoke alarm analogy can be helpful when explaining anxiety. Smoke alarms are really helpful for alerting us to danger when there’s a fire and we need to get out of the building. But sometimes smoke alarms go off even when there isn’t a big danger, like when we burn toast. Anxiety does the same thing, telling us that there is a big danger, even if the situation is not that big.

5. Be mindful of your own worries: It is reasonable for everyone to have some level of worry but children do pick up on our feelings and notice our anxieties, and they will take cues from us. We need to manage our own anxiety, including how we might express this in conversations with our child or others.

6. Consider opportunities for exercise: Make time to enjoy being active together, for example, throwing a ball in the backyard, dance to your favourite song or simply enjoy a stroll in the park.

We encourage you to start and finish each day with a simple check-in. These check-ins need to be a regular part of each day and start straight away. Not all students thrive in a home learning environment; some struggle with too much independence or lack of structure and the check-ins help keep them on track.

In the morning, ask:

• What are you learning today?

• What are your learning targets or goals?

• How will you be spending your time?

• What resources do you require?

• What support do you need?

In the afternoon, ask:

• What did you learn today?

• Acknowledge one thing that was difficult. Either let it go or come up with a strategy to deal with the same problem if it comes up again.

• Consider three things that went well today. Why were they good?

• Are you ok? Do you need to ask your teacher for something? Do you need help with something to make tomorrow more successful?

Make sure that you know how the school and your child's teachers will be communicating with you and check that channel regularly. Teachers may have set times where students can chat with them online and they can deliver video lessons.

Teachers may be communicating with your child during this period using video chat applications such as Zoom or Google Hangouts Meet. They may also be emailing or communicating within a learning management system such as Google Classroom, Seesaw or Canvas.

We recommend that you take the time to explore and discuss these with your child.

It is important that during this period of home learning that we maintain safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies. Normal school protocols, privacy and information protection and respectful communication must be observed when students are communicating with peers and teachers via video conferencing eg Zoom.

Resources for Parents:

https://raisingchildren.net.au