Home schooling advice for Harrogate parents as education expert looks into education crisis

Council leader says day-trippers should 'go somewhere else' if they break new lockdown rules in Harrogate

With schools being closed to the majority of pupils right now, education as we know it has changed and it’s doubtful it will ever go back to ‘normal’.

Even if schools reopen sooner rather than later, it’s very doubtful whether all pupils will return at the same time. Staggered returns for just certain year groups, or all pupils returning on a part-time basis have both been suggested.

So for the foreseeable future, learning at home is going to present challenges for everyone involved.

The Department for Education has made no specific requirements for schools to offer learning resources in either physical or online formats.

The main focus of schools is to provide places for vulnerable children and the children of key workers while schools are closed.

However the majority of schools have made huge efforts to ensure learning continues for all pupils, but with a lack of official guidance on what should be provided for home learning, a great deal of confusion and frustration has been created for everyone involved.

Harrogate headteachers raise concerns over plans to reopen schools

Understandably, schools’ response to lockdown was a scramble. Most parents have one of two complaints, too much work or too little for their children to do at home.

Plus, there is the issue of creating work for pupils to do that is both meaningful and easy to explain.

Home learning has, for many, become another source of pressure in an already very stressful situation.

Ideally, your child’s school has some simple and easily-achievable minimum expectations, relevant to the age of the child.

Then they might offer some good suggestions about where to find other sources of learning, but with no obligation to complete them.

The Government’s website points parents to the BBC and a new online resource called The Oak Academy, but there are lots of choices - you could argue too many.

I believe minimum expectations are really important here. When teachers, parents and pupils all understand the minimum expectations they have for each other, everyone is happier.

Parents might decide they have minimum expectations for the amount of daily reading their child does, or how much online work needs to be completed before playing online games.

Teachers might have minimum expectations on the amount of online/offline learning that needs to be done by pupils.

For the pupils themselves, they’ll hope that their parents and teachers give them the time to get to grips with new technology and ways of learning.

Teachers will want their schools and multi-academy trusts to be reasonable about what they expect of them and hope parents understand that this is a whole new world, and if they haven’t got it right yet, they will soon.

We can work on being perfect over the next few weeks and months. In the short term, the ability to cut each other some slack might be the most valuable lesson we can learn.

'Please stay away' plea as Harrogate officials call for sensible coronavirus attitude from visitors

Greg Perry is the founder of www.futurebehaviour.co.uk, an educational consultancy delivering behaviour management training and support to primary and secondary schools both nationally and internationally.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.