Helping with your child’s home-based learning

While the prime minister wants all schools to resume by June, many parents are keeping their children at home out of concern for their safety. Luckily for those parents, resources and help for home-based learning are available if needed.

Term 2 has commenced while the debates on school safety amid the COVID-19 intensifies. Source: GettyImagesImgorthand

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Highlights

• Queensland and New South Wales are phasing return to schools from May 11 prioritising Year 12 students
• Victorian students are to stay at home if parents can supervise them
• Students of migrant and ethnic backgrounds face additional challenging to learn from home

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Brisbane mother of two Mona Perez followed the concerning escalation of COVID-19 since its outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The health risks prompted her to withdraw her 10-year-old daughter and six-year-old son from school three weeks before term one ended, when most students still attended schools in Queensland.

It was a chaotic start without resources as most students were still attending school.

• "I didn’t know what to do but I wanted to do something. I jumped online trying to find video, resources, activity sheets and all that."

  
  GettyImagesmartinedoucet
  
   
  
  Education consultant Tamara Kidd from TutorYourOwnChild.com has educated her two children at home for 14 years. She says parents need to realise that home-based learning due to COVID-19 is supported by schools and teachers and it is different from the actual “homeschooling” which removes your child from the school system completely.
  
  Kidd says with the support of schools and teachers from a distance, parents function more like tutors providing support to their children.
  
  A former primary school teacher, Kidd says home-based learning does not need to follow a 9-to-3 school programme as schools often experience many interruptions during the day from various breaks and activities. She says students usually get only about two to three hours of work done in a normal school day.
  
  Kidd suggests getting younger students to do most of their school work in the morning and allowing teenagers to stay up and wake up later as their bodies adjust to the biological changes of growing up.
  
  
  
  GettyImagesKlaus Vedfelt
  
   
  
  Cool Australia is a not-for-profit organisation founded by adventurer, photographer and author Jason Kimberley. 
  
  It provides educational resources used by teachers in 90% of Australian schools and for parents like Perez.
  
  The pandemic has kept the organisation busy adapting their online resources into simplified materials for parents to access from home amid increased demands from Australia and abroad.
  
  Kimberley says Cool Australia promotes personal and social skills in its free learning activities in addition to materials for key subjects like maths and English in the Australian curriculum.

  How to build their self-confidence, their self-discipline, their decision-making skills.

  Kimberley encourages parents to stay positive and make the most out of this experience now that families are forced to stay closer than ever.
  
  He suggests setting up a learning environment at home and even asking children to wear their school uniform. 

  It just gives them that mindset that I’m going to study, I’m going to learn.

  Ramesh Kumar who heads Victoria-based Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre says many students his organisation supports face a different reality.
  
  Even though many of Kumar’s clients came to Australia with a clear drive to excel in this country, the obstacles of job cuts, social isolation, and home-schooling presented by COVID-19 have placed extra burden on families.

  There is no proper home-learning environment if there are four children that go to school and then there is not enough space and there is not enough equipment.

  Kumar is concerned about high school students who often need to assist their younger siblings because their parents cannot help due to a lack of English proficiency or understanding of the Australian education system.  
  
  The organisation has partnered with South East Community Links and local schools to provide equipment aid for children to learn from home.
  
  Kumar says unfortunately some students of migrant or refugee backgrounds are not on equal footing to their Australian-born counterparts and do not always have the luxury to fully devote to their studies.

  For the girls from certain backgrounds it is more challenging because the mum get them to do all kinds of work so they didn’t get time to even do their homework.

  In addition to studying without the support of teachers, children may also need to help their parents engage with Centrelink and do online banking and shopping.
  
  
  
  GettyImagessvetkid
  
   
  
  Southern and Migrant Refugee Centre is helping students improve their learning outcomes through its homework support program which is being offered online due to COVID-19.
  
  The bilingual tutors often have experience similar to their students.
  
  Walter Valles has been adjusting to tutoring online using Zoom since the homework support program moved online at the end of term one.
  
  It is a constant learning process for the retired maths teacher but the eagerness of his students from asylum seeker and refugee families inspires him to do his best.

  I was in awe of the students I was working with now. Their thirst for knowledge. Their desire for improvement.

  Reviews by education experts on New Zealand’s 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes found that students actually performed better after weeks of home-based learning. And that is what Mona Perez has also discovered in her children’s learning.

  My daughter’s maths has improved a lot which it was always a struggle at school.

  
  GettyImagesNazar Abbas Photography
  
   
  
  Students in New South Wales will start attending schools one day a week from Monday May 11. Year 12 students will return to full-time schooling when public schools resume face-to-face teaching at the same time.
  
  In Western Australia, schools are open for all parents and carers who choose to send their children.
  
  All Victorian government schools are providing remote and flexible learning arrangements during Term 2. Students who can learn from home are asked to stay at home.
  
  Tasmania has asked students to continue learning at home where possible. Schools in northern, north-west and southern regions are open for students who cannot be supervised at home.
  
  South Australian students are encouraged to attend school since infection rates are low.
  
  All Northern Territory students are expected to physically attend school.
  
  For Queensland’s prep, Year 1, Year 11 and 12 students, schools will resume from Monday May 11. Students in Years 2 to 10 who are able to be supervised at home and learn from home should stay at home.  
  
  Australian Capital Territory Schools are teaching remotely during term 2. Nine schools are providing onsite supervision to children of essential workers.
  
  For more information on home-learning resources, visit the following websites.
  
  ACT
  
  https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/remote-learning-in-term-2-2020
  
  https://www.education.act.gov.au/schooling/learning-resource-library
  
  NSW
  
  https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/learning-from-home/wellbeing-at-home/parents-and-carers
  
  Northern Territory
  
  https://education.nt.gov.au/publications/information-for-term-2-2020?SQ_VARIATION_814972=0
  
  Queensland 
  
  https://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/learning-at-home
  
  South Australia 

  
  https://www.education.sa.gov.au/teaching
  
  Tasmania
  
  https://www.education.tas.gov.au/learning-at-home/
  
  Victoria:
  
  https://education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/home-learning.aspx
  
  Western Australia:
  
  https://www.education.wa.edu.au/learning-at-home