Back to School - A Parent's Perspective

I am delighted to have received this blog from a Year 4 parent who has reflected on the past couple of weeks of school life and how we are working with parents to support your child's learning. Many thanks to all parents who have attended the recent Meet the Teacher evenings and other information sessions. We hope to roll out other events for our parents to keep building home-school support structures for the children and to enhance your understanding of how your children are learning.

I confess that I find the end of the summer holidays quite hard. Despite the fact that it’s lovely to get back to the happy St. Helen's College environment, it’s sometimes a challenge to settle into the new routine that each school year brings.
 
It was wonderful therefore to be invited to the Year 4 and 5 Meet The Teacher evening in the first week of term, perfect timing to get my head back into the ‘school mind-set’ again. This year the structure of the session was slightly different with both year groups being covered together, and personally I found it so beneficial.
 
After a warm and enthusiastic welcome from Mrs. Drummond, the teaching team gave parents a tremendous insight into what to expect from the coming academic year. I felt the meeting gave a really useful overview of how the curriculum will be covered and the approach taken to learning and development at St. Helen's. The passion and energy of the team shone through and I came away from the meeting feeling so positive and much better equipped to support my son through this year.
 
Week two brought another invitation to parents, this time to attend a workshop hosted by St. Helen's aiming to help parents and carers understand our children’s online world.
 
When I was a child hardly anyone had a personal mobile phone, and smart phones were unheard of!  The world that my son is growing up in however is very different, and today in the UK smartphone ownership has become so commonplace that it’s remarkable if someone doesn’t own or have access to such a device. My boy has an iPad and, like most children I know, he simply loves to watch videos on YouTube, create elaborate worlds in Minecraft and play games via one of the countless apps we have downloaded.
 
Technology plays an increasingly large part in our children’s everyday lives, indeed research carried out by Ofcom* in 2015 indicated that 90% of children aged 5-15 are online. Whilst it can be a wonderful and exciting enabler, it brings with it a whole series of new worries for me as a mother, and I often find myself questioning how I can ensure that my child is safe online?
 
I was therefore encouraged to read in the school news about the collaboration between O2 and the NSPCC, and was very pleased to be able to attend the workshop on Monday run by the NSPCC. It was really excellent – informative, fun and most of all reassuring. Whilst the session really highlighted to me that this is one parenting challenge that I have to face head on, it also confirmed that there is help, guidance and support out there.  The key message that I took away from the session was to talk to my son often about this and get involved in his online world, just as I do in other areas of his life, so that I can support and guide him, and address any issues should they arise.
 
I very much recommend attending the workshop should you get the chance, or getting hold of the leaflet they have produced entitled Your Child’s Online World – A Guide For Parents.
 
There is a lot of information about how O2 and the NSPCC can help in this area on their website www.o2.co.uk/nspcc and there is also an Online Safety Helpline available on 0808 800 5002 which is free of charge and open to anyone.
 
I would like to end with a thank you. Thank you Mrs. Drummond and St. Helen's College, not only for the way that you support our children, but for the way that you support parents too!
 
* Ofcom (2015) Children and Parents : Media Use and Attitudes

​Ms Shaw