Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Parents brace themselves for more home learning
PARENTS across the country are steeling themselves for another episode of home learning.
For three months last year, mums, dads and carers became makeshift teachers when schools closed for the first time.
They helped younger children with learning tasks issued by primary schools and cajoled older children into keeping up their studies online.
Many juggled the tutoring role with their own jobs, as they adjusted to working from home.
And many will have had more experience of remote learning when their children self-isolated.
As the first minister confirmed at least another three weeks of remote learning for most schoolchildren, we asked some parents how they feel about the decision.
Dawn Dundas, of Arbroath, believes the government has made the right call.
She said: “With this new strain of the virus, we have to err on the side of caution.
“It’s to make sure the NHS copes and we have to make sure our children aren’t put at any unnecessary risk.”
Dawn was creative in teaching her children Kaylee, 9, and Calvin, 5, last time round and intends to take the same approach.
She said: “We are lucky, my husband is working from home and will be for the foreseeable future but I can see how for some people it might be a struggle.
There is a lot of fun-based learning you can do with children, you don’t have to become a teacher and I think that’s where some parents become anxious.”
“What is going to be the most important aspect again is wellbeing.”
Adam Davidson, of Dundee, will have a busy house with the second phase of lockdown, with six children at home.
He is a full-time carer with children aged between five and 15 who attend Craigowl Primary, Kingspark School and Baldragon Academy.
But he won’t be putting them under pressure to complete work issued by their schools, stating: “What’s it actually going to achieve?”
But he welcomed the decision to keep schools closed until at least the end of January.