It’s not ALL about Joe Wicks. Preparing Children for the Return To Their New Secondary School During Lock Down is an Opportunity not a Insurmountable Challenge

The world of social media is awash with activities to home school kids from getting them physical with Joe Wicks, to Maths with Carol Vorderman, to Music with Myleen Klass to Science with Maddie Moate.

But as we enter a new calmer phase of Lock Down, I think it’s helpful to ‘Pause to Ponder’ what this time away from League Tables and data scores is all about.

I think it could be an opportunity to broaden our children’s education and as we have plenty of time to discover what they are genuinely interested and passionate about as they have time to get absorbed in learning for it’s own sake, not just to tick a box or pass an exam.

For me home schooling is very different from just keeping school going at home.

They are very different environments & have different ways of learning and have different philosophies.

Home schooling is a whole different way of learning. Children are able to learn at their own pace, and use whatever technique is easiest for them. When home schooling as parents you don’t have to plan your life around school hours and homework, you can accomplish the work you want to teach your child in a couple of hours and then get on with the other things that you had planned.

Choose Your Own Path & Take the Long Term View.

Headteachers & teachers have chosen their own paths, from insisting kids sign in for lessons online at 9.30 throughout the whole day, to doing a simple video call to check in to see how their class are doing showing them their cat to personalise the lock down.

We are living through a global pandemic not seen for generations and it requires stepping back, reflecting and looking at what’s really important.

Children’s academic success will not be damaged long term by not doing their 7x times tables every day or not doing copious amounts of worksheets online.

But their mental health and wellbeing may well be if we don’t get this right.

The area that worries me is how we are preparing children that abruptly left their Junior School in March and will begin their Secondary school in September.

Teachers will have lost out on the opportunity to use these 6 months to prepare their Year 6 children for the major milestone that moving to a larger, more impersonal environment that starting in Year 7 can bring.

It is with this intention to help children, families and schools  that Jo FitzGerald and I have come together to support, nurture and empower children with the skills they need to feel confident and excited about embracing all the wonderful new opportunities that secondary school can offer them.

Do check out our new and totally innovative way to support, nurture and empower your children with the confidence and skills that they need to hit the ground running when we are all back to normal

Go to primary2secondary and join our community of like minded parents.