It is something we should think about because there are behaviours and skills that will help learners of all ages, such as self-regulation, taking responsibility, being organised, working independently, working together and collaborating, and showing initiative.
We are not born with these skills; we have to learn how to do them and become better at them through each age and stage of development. It is an incremental process. However, they are all crucial for effective learning.
How these skills manifest will differ as children progress through their educational journey, but whatever stage they are at, parents play a pivotal role in this, providing their children with the opportunities to learn and reinforcing their learning through activities at home and within the family. And this needs to start as early as possible.
Organisation and independence skills become very significant as children move from Primary to Secondary School and become responsible for their kit, books, equipment, and resources. Some of the work required to prepare them for this is done in school, but it is also really important to ensure that schools engage with families well before this time to explain the importance of promoting these activities within the home so that children can practice these skills and become proficient in good time.
Many activities can be done at home to develop skills for learning. For example, even very young children can help to get their bag ready for dance, swimming, or football. Allowing them to practice their planning, organisational and responsibility skills with mum, dad, or an older sibling doing it with them, not for them. With this knowledge and understanding, parents support their child’s learning and development to reach their potential in school life.
Another example we hear repeatedly is young children coming to school who are not toilet trained, and the first half term of the child’s time in the nursery is spent tackling this issue. The expectation of the staff is to be getting on with curriculum teaching at that time; they feel that important learning time is lost on something that should have been done at home. But it will only be done at home if parents know that that is the expectation: by the time the child is three or four, they should be toilet trained. Engaging with parents well before the children start school allows communicating these expectations, supporting parents to focus on what is essential and identify any problems or additional needs before school starts at age 3 or 4.
Some of the support systems that parents might have relied on in the past are no longer as prevalent. Therefore, it's crucial to communicate and set clear expectations. Parents need to understand that their role is not just to send their children to school but to actively support their learning at home.
These are the behaviours that educators need to discuss, model, mentor, and coach. Through these actions, parents can truly understand how crucial these behaviours are and how they significantly impact their child’s learning journey.
Mouse Club is a set of resources that schools can use to build relationships for learning at the earliest stages, even before children have started school, and through the Nursery and Reception years. Once bought, Mouse Club is a valuable part of your toolbox that you can tweak and use again and again to meet the different needs of your families each year.