- Give your child confidence through lots of praise and encouragement. You have tremendous power to strengthen your child’s confidence – and confidence is vital to learning.
2. Provide specific praise that focuses on a particular aspect of their work. Comments such as “I like the way you have…”
3. Read to, and with, your child as much as possible.
4. Encourage your child to observe and talk about what they see, feel, think etc. Even young children can be helped to read notices and signs, for example, and understand what they mean.
5. If your child likes watching television, watch it together sometimes and talk about what has been watched. Children enjoy sharing their experiences and will gain a lot from the discussion. Being able describe and explain what they see and do is key skill of learning.
6. Try to provide a reasonably quiet and suitable place where your child can work and show that you and all members of the family value and respect the homework activity.
7. Try to set time aside to support your child’s homework activities whilst also allowing some independence where appropriate.
8. Encourage your child to discuss homework with you, including feedback from teachers.
9. Try to help your child to see the enjoyable aspects of homework. And for our older students raise the important of learning beyond school as a way of increasing levels of attainment.
10. Help your child to see the importance of homework and teach them to become more independent and take more responsibility so they are well placed for the next stage in their education.