Working Together

Parents and carers often ask for suggestions about ways that the family can contribute to support the student’s learning. Below are some suggestions for ways that families can support the student’s education in the home and community. However, remember that every family situation is unique. While it is helpful when families reinforce curriculum learning in the home environment, a variety of barriers can prevent families from providing this support. Sensitivity about individual situations is required to ensure that families do not receive unreasonable requests to support school learning.

Where appropriate, it may be that parents, siblings or other family members can support the student by:

A Word of Caution

Occasionally, well-intentioned family-members will provide a student with vast quantities of extra work at home, in order to “catch up”. This can be counter-productive to learning, as the student may receive less-than-optimal teaching, develop an aversion to learning tasks, or simply become tired and stressed. It can be valuable to remind your student’s parents that everyone is entitled to rest and recreation. Where possible, redirect enthusiastic family members towards low-stress, real-life activities which support learning. Activities such as kicking a soccer-ball in the park or cooking dinner together support motor-skills development, problem-solving and provide opportunities for language/concept development.