Tips for Learning at Home
Parents and carers will need to think about how best to support their child’s learning whilst at home. As a parent/carer of a teenager it is imperative that during this time of home learning parents engage deeply with their child’s learning. Some students will thrive in home learning whilst other students will need further support. Below are suggestions to assist parents in providing the best possible learning environment for their child.
Establish routines and expectations
From the very first day it is vital that parents set up routines and expectations for their child, just like in a regular classroom. Sit down with your child and agree together what the expectations and routines will be for home learning. This should include:
- A check in at the start and end of the day to get students to reflect on the previous day’s learning and the current day’s learning. In the morning ask, what are you learning today? What resources do you require? What support do you need? This allows your child to process the instructions they have received, organise themselves and prioritise their day. It also gives parents an understanding of what the student has learned, provides another opportunity for the day’s learning to be embedded, and demonstrates to your child how seriously you as a parent/carer are taking home learning.
- Start the day at 9:00 am with a consistent finish time.
- Have regular and consistent breaks that are the same every day. This includes movement breaks and also dedicated time for moderate to vigorous activity (just like with PE)
Define a physical learning space for your child to study
- Establish a space in the home where your child’s learning will occur most of the time. This may be different to their normal homework space as it may not be suitable for an extended period.
- Ensure the learning space is in a family area, not in the child’s bedroom.
- The space should be quiet and have internet access.
- Most importantly the space needs to be where parents/carers are able to consistently monitor their child’s learning if possible.
Monitor communications with your child’s teacher
- Communication between your child’s teacher and the child will occur through Google Classroom. All parents should make sure that their child is accessing a Google Classroom for every class.
- Parents can email teachers as well. All staff emails are firstname.lastname@ed.act.edu.au If you know the teacher’s first and last name (contact the front office if you do not) you can email them directly.
- Please ensure communications with teachers are essential and succinct as teachers will have many different families that need to contact them.
- Starting from week 9, a teacher will check in with your child individually once a week.
Take an active role in helping your child in helping your child process and own their learning
- In the course of a regular school day your child interacts with multiple adults and other students by participating in small and large group discussions, asking questions for clarification, collaborating and many other ways. Whilst Google Classroom will help recreate some of these opportunities, parents/carers will need to help provide more opportunities for students to process their learning. They can do this by regularly circling back and engaging with their child about what they are learning.
- Encourage and support your child in their learning but make sure that your child does the work and the parent doesn’t do it for them, even when they are struggling. If you are unsure of how to support your child with work, please contact their teacher via email.
Encourage physical activity and exercise
- Remind your child to move regularly and exercise. We will provide physical and theoretical work for your child to complete each and every day to promote health, wellbeing and learning. As parents it is important to model and encourage physical activity.
Screen time and social media
- Whilst home learning will inevitably mean more learning in front of a computer. This will mean that parents should significantly limit the amount of screen time their child has outside of the designated learning times.
- Please monitor your child’s use of mobile phones and social media during learning times as they will be a distraction to their learning. Just like in classrooms, it might be prudent to look after your child’s mobile phone during learning times.