Supporting your child at home

With the summer holidays starting to feel like a distant memory, we take a look at some ways that you can support your child’s learning at home.

1. Meet the teacher.Try to find a way to meet your child’s teacher, or key subject teachers as soon as possible. Let them know that you are keen to help your child and discuss any key concerns that you have about their learning. Make it clear that you want the teacher to contact you if any problems develop with your child and discuss the best way for them to reach you.
2. Get to know who’s who at school.Schools have a huge number of staff that interact with your child on a day to day basis. The school website can be a great place to see school structure and information about the staff members of each department. Talking to your child about the different members of staff that work with them is another important way of understanding what is happening at school.
3. Keep a positive attitude towards school.What parents say and do in their daily lives can help students develop positive attitudes toward school and learning and to build confidence in learning. Try not to pass on any insecurities regarding particular subjects to your child, for example if you struggled with maths at school it is important to remain positive and enthusiastic about the subject to avoid passing on any negative associations.
4. Attend parents’ evening.Parents’ evenings are a great way to ensure that you are regularly meeting with teachers to discuss progress and any issues. However, it is important to remember that you can also ask to meet with your child’s teacher any time during the school year. If you have a concern and can’t meet face-to-face, send the teacher a short note or set up a time to talk on the phone.
5. Support with homework.It’s important to let your child know that you think education is important and that homework needs to be done. To help your child with homework you can set aside a special area to study, establishing a regular time for homework, and removing distractions such as the television during homework time. If you feel unable to help with homework because you feel that you don’t know the subject well enough or because you don’t speak or read English, you can help by showing that you are interested and helping them get organized. Again, speaking to the subject teacher and asking them where you can find extra resource could help you feel more comfortable. Remember that doing your child’s homework for them won’t help in the long run.
6. Talk with your child. Discuss what is happening in the classroom with your child, find out what they’re enjoying and talk about what they may not be enjoying or if they find anything particularly difficult. Talking, reassuring and encouraging them and taking an interest in what they are doing will help them navigate what can stressful situations likes transitioning into a new class, big projects or exams.
7. Encourage active learning.Encourage different types of learning alongside traditional reading and homework activities. Active learning involves asking and answering questions, problem solving and exploring. Encourage extracurricular activities and get involved with healthy dialogues and discussions at home, this should transfer into the classroom too.

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