Return to school deserves A+ for teachers, students, parents

Schools across Townsville will be bursting with laughter and noise once again, as children return to the classroom full time from today.

(FRONT L-R) Reese Achilles, 7, Harmonee Steel, 13, Peyton Achilles, 9. (BACK) Boston Woods, 8, Grayson Woods, 7, Mason Hodges, 8, Lincoln Carter, 11 and Zanda Hodges, 5. Schoolchildren across Townsville are gearing up to head back to school on Monday. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

Schools across Townsville will be bursting with laughter and noise once again, as children return to the classroom full-time from today.

Year 6 student Peyton Achilles said while she enjoyed not having to wear a school uniform while learning from home, she couldn’t wait to walk through the school gates again.

“I’m most excited to see my friends again,” she said.

“Learning from home has been easy because my mum has been a good teacher but I’m ready to go back.”

(L-R) Boston Woods, 8, Grayson Woods, 7, Lincoln Carter, 11, Reese Achilles, 7, Harmonee Steel, 13, Peyton Achilles, 9, Mason Hodges, 8 and Zanda Hodges, 5. School children across Townsville are gearing up to head back to school on Monday. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

Townsville MP Scott Stewart said an enormous effort had been put in by teachers, parents and students to make the learning from home situation as robust as possible.

“There was a student -free day leading up to school shutdowns and I can just about guarantee every teacher worked through those school holidays to offer the best possible learning arrangements,” Mr Stewart said.

“While it’s been tough for a lot of parents working from home and it has been a huge ask on parents, I think they’ve really stepped up and this has empowered them to have more involvement in their kids’ education.

“Learning in a school environment is very different to learning at school so we saw kids who maybe would have embraced it but we also saw where families came together and played a key role in making this successful.”

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The former high school principal said the once-in-a-lifetime scenario brought a unique opportunity for families to engage with their school community and have more involvement.

“It’s more than just learning what happens through books, it’s how we interact with each other and we need to make sure parents don’t hand it all back and outsource the learning,” he said.

“I think parents really understand a lot more about strategies teachers use to engage students, the structure and what goes into lesson planning. Kids will have a better understanding how they learn too so I think there are lots of lessons to take from this about how we really engage those kids in our class a lot better.”

(L-R) Boston Woods, 8, Grayson Woods, 7,Reese Achilles, 7, Harmonee Steel, 13, Peyton Achilles, 9, Mason Hodges, 8, Lincoln Carter, 11 and Zanda Hodges, 5. School children across Townsville are gearing up to head back to school on Monday. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

With kids excited to see their friends again, Mr Stewart suspected not a huge amount of learning would happen on day one, and he had some tips for families to ease back into the swing of things.

“This is like their first day back at school so it’s going to be a very social day for kids, which it should be,” he said.

“Kids are going to struggle a little bit and getting them back into routine is going to take some time for families so for parents, it will be about getting the kids to bed early and eating healthy food.”

Originally published as Return to school deserves A+ for teachers, students, parents