How to support you child with learning at home if Scotland goes into another lockdown

Nicola Sturgeon has announced that more nationwide restrictions are imminent - but what will the mean for schools?

Schools have only been open just over a month and statistics show that four out of five schools have already sent pupils home to self-isolate after new COVID outbreaks.

This is a particularly tense time for those students in particular who are in important years academically and who are facing exams at Christmas time and next year.

But how can you support your child - no matter their age and stage - in learning at home if the are forced to self-isolate?

Parents have been embracing homeschooling amid the coronavirus pandemic (Getty Images)

Give them their own study space

As your teen faces the new challenges that come with a fresh academic year, having a dedicated space in a quiet corner of the house is really important. However busy their day is, knowing they have a space where they can sit down and knuckle down will take some of the stress out of studying.

Find out where they are at with each subject

Audible Stories are free to stream and could be just the thing to mix up your homeschool timetable (Getty)

Create a personalised resource toolkit

Once you’ve found what they need to work on, you can put together a series of resources that they can refer to whenever they need. Lots of schools offer online resources, such as MyMaths, to help with core subjects, so dig out that log-in info and ask them to attempt some of the basic tasks that they feel rusty on.

The MyTutor Youtube channel has hundreds of free topic explanations from our tutors. BBC Bitesize is another great free resource with educational games, videos and written explanations. The government has also provided links to online resources for Maths, English, Science, PE and SEN.

Renfrewshire pupils have missed out on the discounts on school meals (Getty Images)

Adapt to their learning style

Everyone learns in a slightly different way, and the great thing about studying at home is that students can do it in a way that suits them. They might remember things best by making mind maps, explaining concepts aloud or listening to resources like podcasts and audiobooks. There are, in fact, around seven learning types; have a look with your teen and see if you can work out some personalised study methods that would work well for them.

Keep a calendar of key dates

It’s handy to have all the important dates written down in a shared calendar somewhere at home. For older children their school will send over dates of any exams when they have them, and you can also keep an eye on the exam boards’ websites (such as AQA, OCR and Edexcel) and on the UCAS website.

You can do this by communicating with their teachers, and you can also get your child to do an at-home online assessment. EdPlace offers free catch-up assessments in English, Maths and Science. They’re all benchmarked to the National Curriculum, and once your child completes the assessment a PDF report is sent straight to your inbox.