Schools guide: How to avoid education pitfalls and master the basics

Experts have revealed the most important years in a child’s schooling, while advising parents how they can help their kids avoid major educational pitfalls.

Years 3 and 5 are the first opportunities for parents to see quantitative data on their child’s academic performance and experts say parents must study the data closely because small gaps in learning can create bigger problems in high school.

Rather than switching off and letting a child take control of their own learning, La Trobe University’s School of Education Professor Craig Deed said parents must be more involved than ever.

Experts say years 3 and 5 are the first opportunities for parents to see quantitative data on their child’s academic performance.

“When you head toward grade five and six, it is pretty easy to back off and say that’s the teacher’s job,” Professor Deed said.

“But I think the reverse is true especially after Covid.

“I reckon a lot of parents were helping with a lot of schoolwork for kids and that is all going to be gone.”

As subjects become more difficult and increasingly challenging, the biggest lesson they will learn is actually that learning is a difficult process and working out how to break down and overcome challenges.

“Parents just have to engage with what the student is doing,” he said.

“If a student says they’re not good at it, that is a natural part of the learning process to come up against issues and learn how to get over them.”

Tips for years 3-5

• Ask a teacher to observe friendship groups if your child is being left out
• Help them meet new friends through after school activities
• Teach them strategies for managing ‘big feelings’ like disappointment
• Be strict about what they do online and which apps they download
• Learning difficulties can start to emerge, discuss concerns with their teacher

When it came to mathematics, Flinders University’s Dr Carol Aldous said a parent’s attitude highly influenced how well a child did and it was important they adopted a “growth mindset”.

That means the students believe they can improve at a subject through practice, hard work and persistence — all things parents could model.

“It is more socially acceptable to say you’re not good at maths now than in the past … now it is almost a badge of honour in some instances,” she said.

Cluey Learning’s Dr Selina Samuels. Picture: Supplied

She said that certainly was not a good thing, saying it was vital students committed their times tables to memory before the end of primary school so they could tackle more tricky topics like algebra in high school.

“If you have automated certain facts, it frees up your working memory to focus on the core issue in the problem,” she said.

Cluey Learning’s Dr Selina Samuels said parents will get NAPLAN results in Year 3 and Year 5 and parents should try to identify any weaknesses or where they perform below average and talk to their class teacher and contemplate getting them tutored to fix up learning gaps.

“It may be a short term need but early gaps can become chasms when you get to high school,” she said.

She also said parents should be thinking about if their child was suitable for selective school and to register for the test in Year 5 if they wanted to apply.

“I say to parents it is more than if they’re academically able, it is whether these are kids who really love the academic side of things and thrive in competitive environments,” she said.

HOMESCHOOLING’S SILVER LINING

Bellevue Hill mum Carmelle Moses with her children Emma, Eli and Zac. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Homeschooling had its problems like the internet which was forever dropping out but Bellevue Hill mum Carmelle Moses said it had one silver lining: realising that her 10-year-old daughter Emma was not performing academically.

“We noticed how much she was struggling with maths and times tables in particular,” she said.

“I think she fell through the cracks, she scraped by because she is not a high performer or a low performer, she went overlooked.”

Ms Moses said she was told repeatedly on report cards that her child had passed maths or was performing satisfactorily.

But she did not realise those descriptors was code for struggling to get by until Emma was in Year 4 last year.

“You are trusting that the teachers of that grade are covering what they need to be covering and teaching what they need to be teaching, so when high school comes they’re not massively behind or have areas where they have significant gaps,” she said.

She saw by watching homeschooling and online classes that her daughter could not keep up and did not know her times tables. They contacted their school’s learning support hub.

Her daughter is now doing sessions to catch her up before she enters year 5 and Ms Moses said she hopes to be on an equal footing with other students by the time high school begins. However she said the most thing was her children’s general sense of wellbeing.

“I just want them to come out happy and have good mental health,” she said.

“I think you can achieve anything if you’re kind to yourself, have good wellbeing, everything else falls into line.”