How to Help Your Child Catch Up at School

Our partners are Tutorwiz share how you can help your child get back into life at school

With children starting to return to classrooms across the UK, many parents are concerned about their child’s current level of academic understanding, and how they might compare to their peers and classmates. The good news is that parents and students are all in similar positions, and while some families may have been stricter with their home studies than others, teachers and schools will be very conscious of knowledge gaps for all students, as well as being more aware of the children who may have fallen further behind. 

If you are worried about the effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on your child‘s education and think they may need to catch up at school, then our tips below will help guide you on getting them back up to speed as quickly as possible.

How Do You Know if Your Child Needs to Catch Up?

Although the vast majority of students haven’t even entered their classroom since late 2020, some students have been attending school as usual (children of essential and keyworkers), and you would assume that these children have less to catch up on. However, with teachers having had to divide their attention between students in the classroom and those learning remotely, even children who have been attending school are likely to have fallen behind a little. Every student has had to adapt to a new way of learning, and there is no shame in admitting that some catching up is required.

Having played the teacher’s role for the past couple of months, many parents will be aware of the key areas their child needs to work on. Please share this information with your child’s teachers and school to help them in their education.

How Can You Evaluate Your Child’s Current Level of Understanding?

May parents will know exactly what their child’s current level of academic understanding is. However, if you are looking for a more formal evaluation of your child’s current level of understanding, then it gets a little trickier. With all students in the same boat, teachers will be unable to effectively and promptly evaluate each and every one of their students. Therefore, it may be worth looking for external help when assessing your child’s current level of understanding.

A great way of identifying your child’s current level of understanding, as well as any potential knowledge gaps, is to get an external educational assessment for your child.

Tutorwiz’s free educational assessments help parents to understand their child’s current level of understanding and ability, as well as identifying any weaknesses. Tutorwiz then designs a personalised learning plan for each student, helping them to reach their full potential and catch up at school.

How Can You Help Your Child to Catch Up in School?

• Identify Problem Areas

  Firstly, it is worthwhile identifying the specific areas your child has problems with and where catch up will be necessary. If you need help identifying these problem areas, an educational assessment can help you to identify these areas.

• Regular Practice

  When it comes to any type of learning, regular practice is key! By practising little and often, your child is able to digest better the information they have learned and retain knowledge for longer.

• Fitting Back In

  One of the school catch up areas that isn’t being spoken about as much is fitting back in. Not only has your child been absent from a formal education environment for the past few months, they also haven’t socialised with their friends and peers for a long time. This may be more damaging for young learners than we can understand as adults. So, do give your child the space to fit back in socially and don’t put too much pressure on just the academic side of things. Your child’s social and emotional skills are just as critical – another reason to study little and often.

• Routine

  Now that schools are reopening, it is a good idea to get back into a formal routine. No more rolling out of bed and straight into a Zoom lesson! Let’s face it; children thrive off of structure, and keeping a regular and consistent routine will help to benefit your child in their school catch up.

• Make Learning Fun

  Finally, and possibly most importantly, you should help to make learning as fun as possible for your child. Of course, there is not much you can do about your child’s teacher’s approach to learning, but you do have the ability to make any home-based learning as fun as possible. Engage your child with their schoolwork by turning it into a game, or coming up with an incremental reward system together.

Where Can You Go for Extra Support?

If you are looking for additional support to help your child catch up at school, consider external academic support. Whether it be a private tutor, digital workbooks or an online learning programme, additional support from outside the school can help to benefit a child who is catching up in the classroom.

When first enrolling with an online provider, a child should take an assessment to gauge what the students does or doesn’t know, any potential knowledge gaps, as well as your child’s unique strengths and weaknesses. No two students are the same and each and every child requires exceptional support.

Tutorwiz - Make Learning Easy
Assessment-based, online learning with dedicated tutor support. Our courses follow the UK’s national curriculum, help to identify your child’s knowledge gaps and improve their skills in those areas. We provide interactive and intuitive, personalised weekly lesson plans that build children's confidence and deliver results.