How to help your child be more confident and capable in the classroom

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As part of our series of stories on education, the ABC's spoken to several teachers who say they're struggling to teach children who are turning up to school tired and unable to focus on learning. That comes amid poor NAPLAN results and falling rates of school attendance. So how can parents help what happens in the classroom?

Transcript

00:00While parents can't control what their kids get up to during school hours, experts say

00:08there are plenty of things that can be done at home to ensure kids are more confident

00:12and capable in the classroom. Among the most important are sleep and nutrition.

00:19Child psychologist and parent Cassie Zintavoulonis sees how essential adequate sleep is both

00:24at home and in her practice. She advocates a regular bedtime routine.

00:32Sleep can kind of be the first thing that we can change and we can change quite easily

00:38without medical intervention. This year's NAPLAN results show one in three

00:42Australian school students is not meeting literacy and numeracy benchmarks and school

00:47attendance rates are dropping. Research shows insufficient sleep impacts

00:52attention span, memory, creativity and learning ability and it's linked to anxiety and depression.

00:58Australian guidelines recommend 5-13 year olds sleep for 9-11 hours and 14-17 year olds

01:05sleep 8-10 hours. A nutritious diet can improve mental health

01:09and enhance cognitive skills and academic performance.

01:13If kids can be eating regularly, good healthy foods including fruits and vegetables and

01:20good proteins, it sustains energy, promotes focus and learning.

01:27Experts say it's also important to provide a safe space for kids to talk about any problems

01:32that they might be having at school and to establish that while they're young.

01:36Many teachers are concerned about students being exposed to inappropriate content online

01:41at home, then bringing explicit language and violent or sexual topics of conversation into

01:46the classroom. Jen Hoey started advocating to keep kids

01:49safe on the internet after her daughter encountered a predator through an online game.

01:54And I became very quickly aware that as parents we are not sufficiently understanding the

02:02risks that our children face when they go online unsupervised, in particular in their

02:08bedrooms. Keeping devices out of bedrooms is strongly

02:11encouraged in her online parenting group and using a lockbox overnight.

02:19Setting up for success.

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