Healthy Habits

Transitioning back to face to face learning at school -Tips for parents

1. Pay extra attention to your child's emotions and needs.

As your child returns to school, they may feel a range of emotions, including excitement, relief, or worry. You may notice changes in your child’s behaviour, sleep, mood, interactions with others, or eating habits – these are all normal expressions of worry and by noticing and responding with care and support, you will help your child to feel better.As parents, it is important to be able to: Recognise signs of increased anxiety, stress or worry, know that it is a normal reaction and help your child to feel safe and supported.

2. Be aware of your own behaviour.

It is important to understand the effect your own behaviour can have on your child. If you react in a way that suggests you are worried about your child going back to school, your child may worry too! Try to remain calm and positive when talking to your child about going back to school.

3. Reassure your child it is safe to go to school.

During the learning at home period, your family, along with our school staff, have helped your child understand that staying away from school was necessary to keep them healthy and safe. Your child may now feel worried about whether it is safe for them to go back to school.

To help your child feel safe and less worried about going back to school, have clear and calm conversations and tell them the facts, including that:

The decision for students to return to school has been made based on health advice.
Everyone at school is going to make sure they are keeping safe, and there is plenty of sanitizer at school so that everyone can wash their hands many times a day.
They will be allowed to sit next to their friends in the classroom and during group activities, as children like them usually do not get sick from COVID-19.
The Government is keeping an eye on COVID-19 – if it starts to spread again, decisions about what we need to do to keep everyone safe will be made quickly.
If anyone at their school feels sick, they will stay away from school until they feel better.

4. Prepare for changes to school processes.

Changes to our school’s normal processes may be necessary to ensure physical distancing requirements for adults can be met. So that you and your child can prepare, our school will communicate with you about changes to our processes, so please check Compass for updates.

5. Getting ready to return to school.

Preparing for school and getting into a routine with your child will help make the transition back to school a positive experience.

Get back into the routine of waking up, having breakfast and going to bed at regular times. Teens aged 12 – 17, need around 9 hours of sleep.
Discuss any issues or fears your child might have about going back to school.
Talk to your child about what they like about school and what they have been missing.
Discuss what may be different with coming back to school (for example, getting to their classroom in the morning).
Discuss how they would like to get to and from school; walking, using public transport, driving in your car etc.

6. Establish a new school routine.

Before the school day, encourage your child to:

Have their uniform washed and prepared so it is ready for the morning.
Organise their bag – Remind them of what they might need to put back into their bag to get ready for school e.g. laptop, charger, books, pencil case etc. Remind them to pack their lunch and snacks ahead of time.
Try to have calm evenings and encourage screen free time, at least 30 – 60 minutes before bed.
Allow extra time to get ready for school in the morning so that they are not rushing.

After the school day:

Talk to your child about their day, including what they enjoyed, what went well, what may have worried them, and what they found difficult.
Encourage some physical activity and relaxing/calming time to help wind down from the day.

7. Extra Support

If you feel your child needs additional support with transitioning back to school, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s mentor teacher, year level coordinator, student manager or school leadership to discuss any additional supports that could support your child with coming back to school to ensure a smooth transition and help your child feel at ease.