Helping Your Child at Home
Daily Organisation
Starting the school day can be hectic for everyone and it helps if you can support your child in developing routines that allow them to take responsibility for being organised and ready for secondary school.
You may want to have a clear visual calendar of events and their time table on display so that you can help plan the week and check things off the night before. This may help you and your child remember when the days with PE are and ensure kit is washed and packed or highlight when other things need to be completed and taken to school.
Initially supervise your child as the pack their bag the night before with reference to the calendar and timetable. Once the habit is developed you should be able to become less involved with this.
Check that uniform is laid out before going to bed to ensure that nothing is missing and needs to be searched for in the morning.
When your child returns home in the afternoon check them for letters, permission slips or useful resources they may have been given. This way you feel fully informed and feel able to support your child and talk to them about school.
Helping with Homework and Schoolwork
It helps if you take an active interest in what your child is doing. This helps them feel supported and develops confidence. If you have difficulty understanding something, then your child may feel better about themselves if they have the same problem. Working with you to overcome problems helps develop resilience and confidence. The most important thing is to engage in a conversation with them and ask them questions about school, lessons and what they have been learning about and homework. They may enjoy sharing their learning with you.
Check what homework they have each night and when it is due. You may need to help plan when work is done to spread the workload and this is where the calendar can be useful. You may be able to support your child by breaking homework into smaller sections to avoid them feeling overwhelmed. This will be particularly useful if they are particularly fatigued by their time in school or other activities out of school.
Look at the homework on the night it is set. It is best to attempt it on that first night, so it is fresh in their memory. However, your child may want to manage their workload by completing it on another night. Looking at it on the first night allows them to check that they understand the task. It also allows them to attempt to solve any problem by seeing the teacher for help the next day. Leaving it for several days and turning up at the lesson saying they didn’t do it because they did not understand may create abit of anxiety for them.
When you find topics that interest your child try to encourage them and explore these topics at weekends, such as visits, television programmes, going to the library on looking on you tube.
Ensure that your child has a space to complete work at home. Try to develop the habit of working at home by having set times when they should do homework free from phones or the TV.
If you feel your child is having great difficulty with homework, please do contact the school. The Form Tutor is the best person for the first contact, particularly of the difficulties relate to more than one subject area. If difficulties are repeatedly related to a particular subject, the subject teacher may be the best person to contact.
If you are concerned then please use your college email address, for example:
If your child is in Year 7 then please use: Year7info@pks.coventry.sch.uk
You just need to replace the number for the right college.
Please do contact us at any time.