Supporting your Son’s Learning while at Home
When you start to think about helping your son with his online learning, remember that no one expects you to be a subject matter expert or teacher. The most important thing you can do is to continue to provide comfort, support, and encouragement to your son.
You can help your son with his online learning by working with us and supporting your son as they undertake the activities provided.
You can support your son by:
Making a plan that establishes routines and expectations
Setting aside a space for your son to work in
Monitoring communications from your son’s teachers, asking them how you can support your son
Beginning and ending each day by asking about your son’s learning
Take an active role in encouraging your son if he is struggling
Limiting distractions to keep your sons focus on their schoolwork
Maintaining breaks such as snack times and relax times, encourage physical activity and/or exercise
Monitoring how much time your son is spending online over the whole day
Keeping your son social but set rules around his social media interactions
Remember that your son might be stressed or worried during this time. Contact his Dean or Mr Rogers/ Mr Howlett if you have concerns
Student responsibilities during remote learning
These responsibilities should be adjusted according to the age of your son:
Establishing and/or following a daily routine for learning
Working in a safe, comfortable, quiet space at home that has been set aside for them
Regularly monitoring digital platforms and communication to check for announcements and feedback from teachers
Do their best work by completing tasks with integrity and academic honesty
Doing their best to meet timelines, commitments, and due dates
Communicate openly with their teachers and tell them if they have any concerns or issues or they cannot meet deadlines or require additional support
Collaborating and supporting classmates with their learning
Continue to abide by the College’s behaviour guidelines
Setting up a learning environment at home
Every home is different but it’s important to provide a quiet and comfortable space in which to learn.
Where possible, online learning should take place in a space your family shares. For example, a lounge room or dining room. These spaces are preferable over a bedroom, where your child can feel isolated and supervision can be more challenging.
It should be a place:
That can be quiet at times
That has a strong internet signal, if possible
Where you or another adult is present as you would normally when your child is online, dependent on age.
Establishing routines and expectations
A number of teachers are continuing to run with a normal daily timetable meeting with their calss at their allotted time with the only difference being that lesson five in the afternoon will be from 2-3pm each day of the week. Other staff have arranged to maintain contact with their students via email and schoology.
We strongly suggested that the boys are up, dressed and have had breakfast before they start any lesson. This should happen even if they do not have to be online to videoconference with their teacher. They could be using this time to complete set work.
Start and end each day with a check-in to help your son (see communicating with your son):
Clarify and understand the instructions they get from their teachers
Help them organise themselves and set priorities for their learning at home.
A healthy daily routine is great for mental and physical health, as well as concentration and learning. Encourage regular exercise breaks. This might mean going for a walk, using exercise videos and apps, dancing, floor exercises or using home exercise equipment.
Encourage healthy eating habits and make sure they drink enough water.
Communicating with your son
We encourage you to start and finish each day with a simple check-in. These check-ins can be a regular part of each day.
In the morning, ask:
What are you learning today?
What are your learning targets or goals?
How will you be spending your time?
What resources do you need?
What support do you need?
In the afternoon, ask:
What did you learn today?
What was challenging? You could come up with a way to deal with the same problem if it comes up again.
Consider three things that went well today. Why were they good?
Are you ok? Do you need to ask your teacher for something? Do you need help with something to make tomorrow more successful?
These questions allow your son to:
Process the instructions they get from their teachers
Help them organise themselves and set priorities.
You could also check-in with your son throughout the day. This depends on your son’s needs.
Supporting your son’s Wellbeing
Being confined to home for an extended period of time can cause stress and conflict. Just as you set aside time for physical exercise, it is important to make time each day to check in on your son’s mental health and wellbeing.
As your son adjusts to their new routine and not being able to see their friends in person, it is important to be understanding of his feelings of frustration, anxiousness and even anger – every boy will react differently.
To support your son, use these mental health and wellbeing check-ins to:
Provide an opportunity to talk about how they feel and listen to what they say
Identify one or two things they could do to address what they are concerned or angry about
Ask how they are going, whether they are finding it easy or hard to learn online, and if there is anything, they’d like your help with.
There is a risk that your son may be bullied online. If you think this is happening to them, support is available and you should contact your son’s Dean (staff email addresses can be found on the college website https://www.lindisfarne.school.nz/asset/downloadasset?id=d2debeba-8114-4ea7-b2a6-a7f40d985b62 )
If you have any other concerns about the health and wellbeing of your son, contact either Mr Rogers or Mr Howlett.
Communicating
Communicating with your son
We encourage you to start and finish each day with a few simple questions about your son’s learning to help them structure their day. Not all students thrive in an online learning environment; some struggle with too much independence or lack of structure and your questions will help keep them on track.
Communicating with the school
You will receive regular emails from the Rector Mr Ken MacLeod with update on what the College is doing. You will also receive the online E-Newsletter ‘Life@Lindisfarne’ and the Rectors Newsletter.
This situation is new for us all. We will be trying to engage in a cycle of continuous improvement and refinement based on feedback so we will be asking you and your son for feedback on how the system is working.
Communicating with teachers
Teachers may have set times where students can chat with them online, deliver video lessons or they maybe maintaining contact with your son via email or schoology.
It is important for you and your son to remember that teachers will be communicating with many other families, so your communications should be important and short. You may also need to remind your son to be patient when waiting for support or feedback.
Using technology
It is strongly advised that parents do not purchase software from third-party providers in response to this situation unless specifically advised by the college or college staff member.
The Ministry of Education have provide a free internet safety filter for parents. While your son is learning from home he is away from the online safety and security services that the college provides through the Governments Network for Learning – (N4L). They have launched with the support of N4L and Netsafe www.switchonsafety.co.nz which provides a free way to block the worst of the internet for students. You will be able to follow the instructions to set up your son’s device for safer connectivity while they learn from home.
Netsafe also provides comprehensive support and information to help everyone stay safe as they work and learn online. Netsafe has new and updated resources for parents, whanau and students at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/parenttoolkit/
Managing screen time
It’s important you keep a balanced approach to home learning. Time spent using digital devices for learning should be broken up with physical exercise and offline learning tasks often.
It’s also important that during this time of online learning we maintain safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies. This includes:
the appropriate use of digital platforms, privacy and information protection
Respectful online communication.
There are limits as to the amount of time anyone should spend online, but the amounts and the rules for screen time vary by age. Videoconferencing and social interactions using video do not count towards screen time.
The following recommended screen times (excluding video conferencing) are based on the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
Ages 2-5: 1 hour, broken into sessions of a maximum of 30 minutes.
Age 6 and above: no specific screen time limits, but screen time should not affect physical activity and face-to-face interactions at home and school (where possible). It’s very important to be consistent with your screen time limits.
Make sure that non-school activities online are limited in length.
Managing behaviour
Even though your son is at home they still need to comply with the College’s behaviour management policy.
Collaboration, group work and peer feedback during online learning will require students to communicate online and work together in digital spaces. The expectations of your son and required behaviour will be the same as a face to face lesson.
If you have concerns, contact your sons Dean for assistance.
Stay safe and take care of each other.
Article added: Thursday 16 April 2020
