Category: School Days

1. The benefits of Positive Behaviour Support

   Posted on 10:23am Wednesday 23rd Mar 2016

   We have talked a lot recently about the positives of the right school selection for children and the benefits of tutoring but we havent touched on behaviour and how this can have an impact on school life. Positive Behaviour Support is commonly seen as a way of supporting children and adults who have challenging behaviour tendencies. It has been proven to be very effective, and many care and social workers are using this technique and scientific approach that aims to protect a person’s rights, as well as promoting their quality of life for both them and their families.

   Before we can understand the benefits of Positive Behaviour Support, it is important to know just what it is. Ultimately, it is a behavioural management system, used to understand an individual’s challenging behaviour. There can be many different reasons as to why this behaviour is apparent; however, it is about learning why they maintain that behaviour that it is important. It can be difficult initially to change their inappropriate behaviours, as they will be doing it or a reason – it serves a purpose for them. Unwittingly, these behaviours are being reinforced by the environment, as the child will often receive attention when they express this certain behaviour. The Positive Behaviour Support management system does just that. Instead of the child receiving attention for inappropriate behaviour, they will praise the positive behaviour, identifies goals that the child can reach, and monitoring their process. The goals that the support worker sets should be manageable, desirable and have an effective force on their positive behaviour.

   

   Positive Behaviour Support is becoming more recognised as an effective coping strategy in schools, and has had a visible impact on the child’s ability to participate in certain activities. However, it is important that everyone involved in the child’s life, from parents, to teachers, to social workers fully understand the strategy, in order for it to be fully effective. For some, it is a complete lifestyle change, and it is important that the child in question is assessed by a professional first to identify why the child expresses the inappropriate behaviours, and the positive goals that they are working towards.

   Once you understand exactly what Positive Behaviour Support is, it is so easy to realise the benefits that this will have on the child. In the short term, it can make the child happier, reducing problem behaviours. Their adapted behaviour means that they have a new coping strategy which is more effective, and it also allows the child to identify their strengths. It can help schools, and parents, as they will be displaying less negative and inappropriate behaviours, which will lead to fewer aggressive incidents at home and in school, and ultimately, it can help them in the long run in terms of employment when they are older, as they will completely understand how to deal with certain behaviours in a much more effective way.

   Information supplied by Home from Home Care

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2. Tutoring : Does my child need it?

   Posted on 5:45pm Saturday 19th Mar 2016

   After school selections a few weeks ago, we are now looking ahead to the SATS and I was chatting with some of my oldest friends last night about tutors and how they felt about tutoring their children.

   There is no doubt that tutoring can be a brilliant way to pick up the pace of your child’s learning and it is becoming an increasingly popular choice with busy parents like me. Home tutoring is a booming industry worth an estimated £6.5 billion last year. 520,000 tutors during 2015 have educated more than 2.8 million children, across the age ranges demonstrating just how keen parents are to give their child a helping hand.

   When my daughter sat her 11+ exam, I was adamant that she was wasn't going to have a tutor in order to get a pass on an exam into a school as I didn't want her to struggle throughout her school life, just because she had been coached for one particular exam but that said, I wonder on reflection whether a longer term tutoring plan may have been the way to encourage her abilities more. 

   There are a lot of benefits to following the tutoring route for your own child, and as a parent, the ability to choose the tutor is a major plus. Handing over my hard earned pennies gave me the ability to select a tutor that has an approach or personality that I know would suit my child best. Trying to find a tutor is just the starting point, so using a site like Tutor Hunt makes the whole process of locating tutors quick and easy. You can quickly identify a number of suitable tutors operating within your postcode. You can then message these tutors, and ask them any questions you may have. Unlike a child’s teacher at school, who you unfortunately can not pick and change, if it is not working for your child you can simply (but with kindness and compassion) find another tutor. I think that this more personal relationship enables you to be honest and clear with your own child’s tutor to enable them focus on what needs working on more intensively.

   Following a recent parents evening, it is clear that at school, busy teachers may only be able to offer a token amount of private attention to your child if they need that all important reassurance to ‘get the idea’. Tutors are free from classroom constraints and so often have a real passion for learning that they can pass onto your child.

   My daughter is a maths wizard, she just "gets it", whereas comprehension is something that she doesn't always "comprehend". So I have taken time to find a literary tutor for her that has wide experience and a real passion for the subject. Without doubt this has been infectious for my daughter and hopefully will capture her own interest and enthralment for the subject.

   

   I think some of the main benefits for tutoring are:

   • Fresh perspective on any topic your child is needs to cover.
   • Diverse methods in teaching & dedicated time
   • A tutor will be able to cover a great deal of detail in a small amount of time.
   • Tutors can work at your child's specific pace and become familiar with your child's capability for learning and the technique that works best for your child 

   Let's be honest, each child is very different as all parents will testify too and the right tutor ought to be able to identify the individual needs of your child. 

   I know that sometimes we have looked at my daughters homework and questioned our own ability and children have the ability to ask dread fuelled questions of parents that you just don’t feel you can answer as your child gets older. At the end of a long day at work, I am also not a big fan of coming home to hours of homework help either, no matter how much I want her to suceed. A tutor can supply all the answers that my daughter needs and gives her the tools to find the answers for herself.

   My daughter isn't always the strongest of characters but in one to one sessions, shy children can be empowered to ask questions. Many children can be too shy to ask questions in class and may then miss out on their learning. Another of the benefits of a tutor is that they can recognise when a child's attention span in a one-to-one setting is wavering more obviously. Tutors have the luxury of being able to spend a minute or two considering something else or having a break to reset the clock to a degree that your child will be able to get back on track rapidly.

   So my conversation with my friends concluded in my admissions that I have had a change of heart about tutoring, after weighing up the costs to us as a family against the benefits she will get as an individual, tutoring most defiantly has numerous benefits for children’s learning in the long term. I just wish that I had looked at it this way sooner.

   Has your child had any tutoring? Did you see the benefit?

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3. Secondary School Preference Results are Out - Did You Get Yours?

   Posted on 9:26am Tuesday 8th Mar 2016

   I received news last week that my oldest has been allocated a place in her preferred secondary school. Once the excitement died down the panic set in and it all seems so real. How am I old enough to have a child going into secondary school already? My emotions fluctuated all week and I don’t expect they will settle down any time before September. September 2023 that is, because I also have another child starting infant school at the same time, and will have to go through all of this again in six years.

   Thousands of children in England missed out on a place at their first choice of secondary school. More than 30% of pupils in Birmingham and London had to settle for a lower preference, while in Bristol 7.5% of pupils were not offered a place at any one of their preferences, so I know we are lucky.

   

   You would think that having seen one child successfully through primary school I would feel prepared, but I don’t at all. Secondary school is a different world, one  which I have barely set foot in since I graduated myself. Stepping over the threshold on open evening was like both stepping back in time to when I was 17 (bad hair and unflattering trousers), and landing on a foreign planet.

   White boards were the height of technology when I left primary school but now it’s all tablets, laptops, and independent learning. There’s no lunch money, I just top up an account online and she pays with a fingerprint, and chips are only served once a week. It’s a world of “can I have a mobile phone?”, “how do I do simultaneous equations?” (um… ask your father), and “what’s it like to kiss someone?” (DON’T ask your father!)

   While my oldest has moved beyond the realms of dressing up for World Book Day, birthday parties at soft play centres, and Christmas plays at school, my youngest is just about to start, catapulting me right back to the beginning. I am honestly not sure how I feel about this. High school may be more expensive in terms of uniform and school trips, but infant school is much harder work with all the getting ready in the morning, special assemblies and concerts, and parent helping on school trips. 

   Parenting is such a bittersweet experience. We raise our children to be independent but each step they take on their own is a step further away from us. Part of me is proud that they are so capable and confident, but another part of me yearns for the time when I was their entire world (or I was when they wanted something)

   These next few months will fly by and, before I know it, I will be walking one child into school to hand safely over to the teacher, while being told not to walk anywhere near the other in case I embarrass her in front of her new friends. I have promised myself that I will try to savour the last term of life as we know it, to look forward to the opportunities that having two children in full-time education will bring, and to stop worrying about changes which will happen whether I want them to or not.

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4. Playing the School Places Waiting Game

   Posted on 4:02pm Wednesday 3rd Feb 2016

   It could be argued that there are many “most” nerve-wracking times in a parent’s family life, from your child being born, to their first steps, leaving them with someone else and now, waiting to hear about school places for both infant and senior school (I didn't plan that very well did I?)

   

   Aside from having two new lots of uniforms to buy, the stress of actually getting the school place we want hasn’t exactly made us go grey overnight, but it has certainly added to my husband's silver stripes, as my youngest calls them (thanks, princess!) So. Much. Pressure. Will we get our first choice, or even our second or third? Are the horror stories from parents of previous years about massive oversubscription true? Is that red rated school really as bad as Ofsted say and, if so, can we afford private school, because I am quite certain my sanity can’t afford home schooling.

   

   Fed up with the stomach-churning sensation that surely means an ulcer forming, I have come up with a variety of distractions.

   1. Play School Brag Bingo. Score points for every time you hear a nursery parent confidently name drop a governor they know. Score double points if they know a head teacher.
   2. Look into the cost of private education. Sit down. Debate whether avoiding a poor school is worth paying off a re-mortgaged house for the rest of your life.
   3. Investigate the process of home schooling.
   4. Investigate the cost of hiring a tutor to home school.
   5. Give evil looks to every old person you see living in catchment area.
   6. Consider moving.
   7. Write a list of reasons that “bad” school may actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise. At least you won’t have to fork out hundreds of pounds for school trips each year.
   8. Eat cake. Not a new distraction, but a good one all the same.
   9. Start running. The endorphins exercise release feel almost as good as the smug satisfaction you get from arriving at the school gates in running shoes that have actually seen some action. And it will help negate the effects of that cake
   10. Try to avoid turning too much to wine for solace. Actually, do what you like - I’m not going to judge (though I bet you a bottle of Prosecco that there will be a parent at the school gates who will. It’s ok, you don’t want your child to play with theirs anyway).

   Keep things in perspective. Your child’s life won’t be over if they don’t get into your first choice of school. Life is all about rolling with the punches. Who knows, your child could turn out to be the next Muhammed Ali.

   Speaking of keeping things in perspective, I love this letter Harmony Hill Primary School sent pupils recently, reminding them that they are worth more than a grade. Whether or not your child is accepted does not come down to how good a parent you are, but factors largely outside your control.

   And in the end, while education IS a serious matter, don't take this blog post too seriously .... well except the bit about cake, I am very serious about that!

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