Homeschooling – it’s a team effort

How are we all doing during Lockdown 3, surely the worst sequel ever?! With a national stay-at-home order still ongoing and no current intimation as to when it will end, most of us with school-age children are hopefully settling into the sadly familiar routine of home-schooling.

The first lockdown came as a shock, the practicalities of home-schooling having never been on the radar of most of us. In the main, however, it was heartening to see how adaptable we humans are, as most acclimatised to setting up study space at the kitchen table, dining room, or home-office – wherever we could find room for our makeshift ‘classroom’. 

Communication is key

The experience of our #Schoopers, as we call our Schoop community of schools, teachers and parents, has taught us that communication is critical – even bad news is better than no news. Schools have always used Schoop in an inclusive way to update everyone in a child’s family group – not just parents but all carers can access our app, be they guardians, grandparents or diverse members of blended families. Parental engagement has been demonstrated to be vital to educational attainment, with family engagement a valuable factor to be taken into account. As lockdown has, in most cases, reduced these family support networks, Schoop has provided a vital lifeline for schools, offering an essential channel of communication between teachers, parents and carers. 

Engage even hard-to-reach parents

Now more than ever, schools need to reach out in a transparent manner. Most schools employ some combination of Facebook, Twitter, their own website, email and texts to keep parents informed of the latest developments, including local and national government advice. Although it may not seem like it to avid social media users, however, there is a large proportion of the population who either don’t want or don’t know how to use the various apps out there for updates on the latest advice and information. 

It bears noting that 16,4% of the adults are described as having very poor literacy skills, so concise, easy-to-digest messages are key. Because Schoop delivers notifications directly to our users, parents don’t have to go searching for the information they need on a plethora of disparate sites, it finds them. This especially benefits hard-to-reach parents who don’t engage with their child’s school for whatever reason. Schoop was designed to be easy to onboard and simple to use – we create a level playing field where everyone benefits from the same level of information and opportunity to engage with their child’s education and well-being.

Support home learning with Schoop

Teachers have been placed under unprecedented pressure to formulate remote lesson plans and ensure the educational impact of the pandemic is as small as possible. Their efforts speak for themselves – almost overnight lessons were moved online and, while the conditions are unusual, with good humour and lots of teamwork, most parents and teachers have adapted well to the new circumstances. We have been delighted to hear the part Schoop is playing in helping to facilitate communication, with instant push notifications sent directly to parents as and when advice is issued, as well being able to support lessons by delivering resources and materials in the form of links, docs and videos. Parental engagement has never been more important. 

Keep you parents in the loop. 

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