Last week I was away in Canberra at the National Christian Schools Policy Forum. This is an annual gathering of the sector to consider issues of public policy and the current challenges facing independent Christian schools. It is always a time of re-uniting with colleagues, networking and being encouraged to think about our work as a school in the context of broader society.

Unfortunately, I also contracted a viral flu, had to come home a day early and miss the rest of the week at school. We continue to have high absences of staff and students due to on-going COVID cases, but now also the usual winter colds and flu. We have some staff off with broken legs, emergency operations and other health issues and are struggling to get enough casual staff to cover these absences. In talking with my colleagues, every school is facing the same challenges and we must simply weather the storm and trust that it soon passes.

Filling in for absent colleagues gives me an opportunity to see how our students are doing in the class setting. I have written before about the need for greater student engagement with their learning and we are looking to launch a project to investigate strategies to encourage a higher level of focus and engagement with learning amongst all our students. Learning anything utilises a range of skills that we all need to learn to become competent learners.

We often assume that schools naturally teach these things but that is not always the case. Making the skills of learning explicit to students is one way of helping them understand that what the teacher is asking of them is essential for them to progress in their learning. You can help in this by engaging with your son/daughter on what they did at school and how they see themselves taking more responsibility for their own learning. A discussion about how they learn different subjects would be interesting, as different approaches are required for different learning areas.

Talking with our children about their learning is a good way to help them to know we are interested not just in the outcome – the results of an assessment for example, but the process they go through to get a result. Encouraging them to talk with their teacher about the learning process is another good strategy to help them become more capable learners.

In my conversations with our teachers, they often tell me they inform students they are available to give extra help but very few seem to take advantage of that. Teachers are very willing to give additional help, so encourage your child to take up these offers. Our senior students are also running a tutoring program for other students at lunchtimes each week and that is another good way for a student to strengthen their learning.

Learning is ultimately a co-operative activity between teacher and student. Both parties must be willing to co-operate in the process for success to be achieved. Our role as parents is to help our children know this and take advantage of the partnership offered to improve their capacity as learners.

Phillip Nash