SCHOOL’S IN Tips from the experts on how to create a classroom at home

We’ve all seen the school-at-home schedules as the Covid-19 lockdown came into shape. There is no right or wrong way, so what are the options for parents of school-aged children? Josephine Franks and Warwick Rasmussen report.

Auckland mother Natalie Donaldson has spent the past 17 years homeschooling her five children. Her children – now aged 13 to 21 – are part of the fewer than 1 per cent of Kiwi kids who are home educated on a normal school day. But when Term 2 officially starts on April 14, the school gates will stay bolted and all of New Zealand’s schoolchildren will be learning from home.

For parents juggling video meetings and new home office setups, it’s a daunting prospect. Making your kids your first priority could actually play out in favour if you want to get work done, Donaldson said, especially if they are primary aged.

‘‘The younger they are, the more they just want you to spend time with them.’’

She said parents were better off acknowledging this need and setting aside time in the morning for reading aloud and talking about how the child is feeling and what’s planned for the day.

‘‘If you try to do your things first, the children will get more upset. You’re their safe person in this time and once they’re content you’ll be more able to do work.’’

Teenagers needed a different tack to manage their desire for independence with the reality of lockdown. It’s helpful to discuss early on how much time they’ll have to themselves, how much talking to friends on social media, how much time helping out around the house, Donaldson said.

Making sure they buy in early on means they’re more likely to stick to their responsibilities, she said.

Principal of Auckland’s Hobsonville Point Secondary School, Maurie Abraham, said what the next few weeks needed was a ‘‘paring back’’ of expectations all round. His students will have a timetable to follow, but 80-minute blocks of learning will become 40 minutes, projects will be postponed, NCEA assessment put on hold.

Students will have four scheduled sessions each day, where they will log in to Google Classroom to see the work that’s been set and go at their own pace. While the internet provided the jumping off point for each session, home learning wasn’t just about sitting in front of a screen, Abraham said.

A PE lesson might mean completing fitness challenges around the house, or jogging to the highest nearby point, taking a photo and finding out its altitude.

Or students might be given an idea for a meal they can plan and cook with whatever is in the pantry, and then be expected to interview family members over dinner. Students will also be journaling, reflecting on news they’ve consumed – how they can tell it’s trustworthy and how they feel – expressing themselves using art, poetry or whatever medium they feel most comfortable with.

Abraham said he was aware of some schools running full face-to-face programmes online, but he was keen to avoid that.

‘‘It’s not schooling as normal, just online. We’ve got to stop thinking about how’s their maths going, how’s their English going, how’s their science going?’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve got to concentrate on wellbeing.’’

The reality was that some families would find it easier than others to keep learning going at home. For some, the next few weeks might bring job losses, financial trouble or illness, and schoolwork would not be the priority, Abraham said.

But if the lockdown lasts only four weeks, he said the impact on students’ learning wouldn’t be that great, especially as two weeks of that time was already scheduled holidays.

For parents wanting extra resources for learning at home, the Ministry of Education has launched two websites: Learning from Home and Ki te Ao Ma¯ rama. Parents can find activities to do with their children, sorted by age group and year level, including maths games, science experiments and a graphic novel on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Nalize Tozios Browne homeschools her 11-year-old son Jesse, but when they made the transition from mainstream school three years ago, they spent three months ‘‘unschooling’’.

That meant 12 weeks of academically. Instead, they chatted and played, and Browne watched her son and got to know how he learns.

It’s helpful for parents to see the next few weeks through that lens, she says.

She spent those months doing nothing

‘The thing they need to focus on is play. The children are really stressed out and the last thing they need is more stress from parents who might teach their children with a 1920s model rather than a 2020 model.’ NATHAN WALLIS

School’s in! School’s out? I’m not sure, but just call me Principal Watson. I check on the day-to-day running of our fine establishment. I assist with afternoon PE. I run the finances and also run morning daycare for a tiny 2-year-old. As principal I make a lot of fart jokes.

Our staff include myself and Mrs Watson, my wife, but also the head teacher who oversees the kids’ writing, reading and maths and, for some reason, keeps giving the principal jobs around the schoolyard.

Our school enrolment is two children. Staff: two. Toddlers: one. This isn’t your ordinary school. And it doesn’t have to be.

I was so relieved to read articles from teachers and academics explaining that we don’t need to run a tight ship of 9am to 3pm non-stop teaching.

When they announced schools were closing as the country moved to alert level four it prompted one of my first stress-out moments. But to hear the suggestion that a bit of reading or teaching them life skills will keep their minds sharp was a welcome relief.

It also meant I can still be a goofball and just hang out with them and not have to be too much of an enforcer with this school stuff.

My wife didn’t get the memo. Before I could tag her in the teacher’s Facebook message