BISHOP VAUGHAN

According to the Welsh Government, these are some of the most effective ways in which families can support children to learn:

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Foundation Phase:

• Conversations that encourage children’s natural inquisitiveness and love of learning while also developing language and communication skills.

• Role play, to encourage purposeful talk.

• Reading stories, talking about the pictures.

• Teaching songs and nursery rhymes.

• Pointing out and playing with letters and numbers.

• Painting and drawing.

• Developing one-to-one correspondence, e.g. matching socks.

• Visiting the library, museums and galleries.

• Outdoor trips to parks, woods, and beaches.

• Supporting social and emotional learning.

• Helping their child to be ‘school ready’.

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Primary School, ages 7-11:

• Showing interest in their school and school activities.

• Communicating the value of education and helping them to feel that they belong in the school.

• Ensuring that they go to bed at a regular time, have breakfast and attend school.

• Spending 10 minutes a day reading with the child, any text, anywhere.

• Using opportunities in daily life to use numbers and talk about ‘how big/much/many’.

• Outings to museums, the library and art galleries and extra-curricular activities.

• Working with the school to support the child with any particular issues.

• Supporting social and emotional learning.

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Secondary School:

• Communicating the value of education, modelling respectful relationships with teachers and helping their child to feel that they belong in the school.

• Taking an interest in the topics they are following at school.

• Keeping them focused on learning and homework, while also supporting their autonomy.

• Ensuring that they go to bed at a regular time, have breakfast and attend school.

• Communicating aspirations and celebrating achievements, both of which can be very powerful motivators for children at this age.

• Providing an environment at home in which they can study (with no distractions).

• Encouraging children to read, and to talk about the book they are reading, what they have read in the newspaper or the film they have seen.

• Involving children in household tasks, such as how to understand bills and plan trips or plan spending/saving.

• Outings to museums, arts and cultural venues.

• Extra-curricular activities, such as sports or, creative and cultural activities that help them to apply their knowledge and develop social and emotional skills.

• Working with the school to support the child to work through any particular issues.

• Supporting course selection and guiding children in plans for post-16 learning.