The Parent's Back to School Guide 2020

With schools restarting after months of distance learning due to school closures, this September is unlike any other! And I'm here to help 😇

I've been speaking to a lot of students, parents & experienced teachers over the past weeks to get their thoughts on nailing the transition back to school! Here are the key takeaways 👇

Be encouraging and take things slow

Don't expect miracles! It's been a long time since schooling was normal and diving back in headfirst may not be the best approach. This could well cause stress and dent your child's confidence.

Starting with 30-40 mins of work after school each day and gradually building this up will make things easier. And don't be afraid to take a backseat for a week or two if your child isn't responding well to these routine changes. A bit of space is often a great cure for any tension at home.

Monitor your child's progress

This is a great way to look after your own peace of mind. There are a few ways you can do this:

• Regular discussion with teachers at school. This can be challenging because of the number of teachers and the demands on their time from other parents.
• Asking your child every day or every week how their schoolwork is going.
• Using online platforms to remotely see what your child has been studying and what they are struggling on. Seneca's free monitoring platform for parents lets you do exactly this!

Knowing what your child's getting up to at school without having to ask every day or every week will help keep a great atmosphere at home, without compromising your insight into how things are going.

Remove the barriers to catching up

Whilst kids will be back at school, being able to study effectively at home will be a key factor in helping them get back up to full speed ahead! Here are some tips for creating the ultimate home study environment:

• Create a physical space where your child can work without distraction. Focused work will mean that they have more time to relax once they are finished with the day's homework.
• Help them to find the best & most engaging online learning resources. We have 100s of free & exam board-specific courses for KS2 to A Level that they can spend unlimited time on. You could also check out this government-curated list of resources.
• Consider getting a tutor. There's a lot of evidence out there about just how effective tutors can be and whilst they can be expensive, there are some affordable options out there too. At Seneca, we have a £30 per month tutoring option with unlimited Q&A with Oxbridge tutors across all subjects. You can learn more about Seneca Tutoring here.

Learn about your child's learning!

Knowing about the resources & tools your child is learning about at school will help you connect over education. Having an open dialogue with teachers and schools is an ideal way of achieving this. Some online education providers will have resources specifically for parents about their platforms and how they're trying to help students. We know how important it is to be on the same page as your child so we've started hosting regular parent webinars to give you all the info you need to understand what Seneca offers, why it's effective, and how you can get the most out of our platform. Click here to get your free tickets!

Talk to your child about how they feel

Discussing how we all feel during this time is essential. We've been paying a lot of attention to this recently as we make sure we're helping our 4 million users as much as we can. For example, here is an article on mental health and wellbeing that we put together, which has been viewed over 5,000 times since we published it a couple of months ago.