Is your child ready to learn?

Teachers can tell within the first few days of meeting a new class which children will learn well, achieve all they are capable of achieving, and which children will miss out on learning despite the teacher’s best efforts.

How do teachers know this?

It has nothing to do with how intelligent a child is, or how whether they know how to do their schoolwork. It is all about attitude, the child’s attitude to learning. If a student appears ready to learn, eager to try new things, willing to be taught, chances are that he or she will have a good year in school, a year in which they have fun, learn a lot and make good progress.

When a child first enters the classroom the teacher is noticing how he or she reacts to the new environment.  Is the child curious?  Does he look round the room to see what it contains?   Is she confident enough to talk to other students?  Does he try to get on with the other children in the room or does he ignore them and do what he wants to do?  Does she know how to behave in a group situation, or is she not ready to be part of the class?  Is he tired and grumpy or rested, and happy to be there?

These are the things teachers notice; these are signs that let the teacher know the child is ready to learn.

What do you mean by ‘ready to learn’? Surely all children are ready to learn?

Early in my teaching career I assumed that, if I was a good teacher and the student was reasonably intelligent, he or she would learn.  It would just happen.

I gradually came to understand that this was not the case.  No matter how good I was at teaching, some children, bright children, still struggled to learn.  It took me years to discover why, and when I found the answer it changed my life completely.

What I discovered was this – children need to learn HOW to learn.  Learning isn’t something you can just do, you have to know how to do it.

Think about it for a moment.  You can probably drive a car, and before you went on the road you had to learn how the car worked, how to brake, steer and signal.  It is the same for children, they have to develop a set of basic skills that they can use to help them learn.

I was fortunate, I was able to study with world experts on children’s learning, and I quickly came to realize that the basic learning skills children need are not taught in schools. Teachers assume that children already have these skills when they enter school. As a result, those children who have not yet developed these skills miss out, they never catch up, they struggle to learn.
Who helps children develop these learning skills?

Sorry to be so blunt but it is you, the parent, who is responsible for helping your child develop the skills he needs to be able to learn.  Teachers try, but they are too busy getting through the overloaded curriculum to be able to spend much time developing the skills your child needs.

But don’t panic!  You are probably giving your child these skills without even knowing it.  If you are helping your child -
Use language well
Get on with others
Be responsible for their actions
Go to bed at a reasonable time
Ask questions
Know that it is OK to make mistakes…
as well as a whole load of other physical, emotional and cognitive skills, then you are helping your child learn how to learn.

And your child’s teacher will recognize this and know that your child is going to have a good school year.