The Education Hotel – Schools & Studying with Covid-19

We hope you all enjoyed the Bank Holiday. You all enjoyed the last one so let’s hear from The Education Hotel again but this time on SCHOOLS!

The start of a new week (technically with the Bank Holiday) so we thought now would be a good time to share another guest blog on schools closing and home schooling from the team at The Education Hotel!

The global pandemic of coronavirus is/was forcing schools to shut, causing many parents to become impromptu home educators with no experience or training. Here are their top tips for helping your child study – so you can get some work done too.

For All Ages

1. Have shorter days: your children’s typical school day might be six or more hours long, plus homework, but one-to-one homeschooling is much more intensive than studying in a classroom.
2. Structure the day: even adults have difficulty with working from home without appropriate structure, and it’s harder for kids. Have strict start, finish, break and lunchtimes.
3. Be flexible: this might seem contradictory, but some flexibility is important too. A good teacher will call a halt to an activity that isn’t working; you should be prepared to do the same.

For Secondary School Children

1. Encourage them not to worry: children who have been under pressure about upcoming exams might now be anxious about what happens next. Reassure them that everyone will understand why their education was disrupted, and they won’t be penalised.
2. Create fun tasks: liven up academic subjects by letting your child be sillier than usual. Instead of the same old boring essay titles, you could get your child to consider which character in Hamlet would cope best under coronavirus quarantine.
3. Involve them in your own work: do you have tasks you could delegate to a brand-new intern? Your child could learn a great deal from managing your inbox or proofreading for you, and it’ll save you time as well.