How can parents support students in preparing for assessments?
I understand that as parents you will be keen to support your child in their studies to enable them to reach their full potential. Below are some ideas of how best parents can support their child with independent learning.
- Space: Where possible, try and provide your child with a quiet study space within your home to increase focus on their work and to avoid distractions.
- Technology ban: To support your son/daughter to maintain focus, remove distractions from the area. This includes phones, smart watches and tablets. These could be used for rest breaks or given back as a reward for a successful study period.
- Organisation: When revising it is important to be organised. You can support your son/daughter by ensuing they have the necessary materials around them and by coming up with a clear plan of what they are going to do during any set study period. Your son/daughter may find it useful to create a revision/study timetable to allocate specific study time into their week. It Is important that students set aside time to prepare for all subjects and do not just focus on the subjects they like or are most confident with.
- Discuss Learning: Ask your son/daughter to discuss their revision with you – what they have been learning and why. Talking about learning to another person can support your child in understanding and remembering key concepts.
- Learning by doing: You are far more likely to remember key information by doing something with the information opposed to just re-reading text. Encourage your son/daughter to transform information into different forms. For example, creating visual diagrams to break down difficult concepts or processes or changing text into mind-maps or images.
- Quizzing: Support your son/daughter to remember key knowledge through regular quizzes. This might focus on key words, dates, tenses, spellings, or definitions.
