Are you a pushy parent?

Sunday 31 October 2010

A recent article published on the BBC website suggests being a pushy parent is not such a bad thing.

Recent research suggests that parents who push their children to work hard at school have a big impact on their child’s academic success.  The effort a parent puts into ensuring their child buckles down to schoolwork has a greater impact than that put in by the child or the school, according to researchers at Leicester and Leeds universities.  Amongst the aspects the researchers considered were how much time parents read to a child and how often they attended school meetings.

Most parents / carers tell me they’d like to support their child more, but don’t know where to start.

Well, a good starting point is our own website go to the blue section (‘Learn More’) and look at the National Expectations section which outlines standards and in bold, there are practical ideas.

You can also use the BBC website – it has some great activities and advice to support you and your child to learn more.  (I like Digger and the Gang to support maths – Nash, Flick and Sprat will help your child get their numerical skills on track!)

And most importantly, get involved in hearing your child read (ideally on a daily basis, even if just for five minutes), and help them to learn their times tables and spellings – check out our homework information including the Parents and Carers Guide which you can download.