Throughout the lockdown our teachers at King’s have been working hard to keep students engaged in online learning. Keeping up motivation can at times be challenging. Here are some tips:

Tips for parents/caregivers:

If you’re worried about your son’s online learning you could try two simple strategies:

· Validate his emotions

· Leave him with a strategy that leaves him pro-active

Covid-19 and the restrictions of Alert Level 3 can bring on extra stress that makes learning and staying focused difficult.

To support your son during this time it can be helpful to first validate how he is feeling. For example, when you son expresses frustration and tells you that online learning tasks are too hard, your response can be as simple as acknowledging the emotion and saying for instance:

“Yes it can feel frustrating to start learning from home and it’s certainly difficult to start something new such as online learning. New things can be a bit scary at first.”

Once you have acknowledged his emotions the second step is to give him an action he can take.

You might say something like:

“I’m so pleased your teacher has given you clear instructions such as starting with reading the question. Why don’t you try following the link that was posted for anyone with questions. I’m pretty confident you can do this”.

An important thing to remember is that your son’s reaction is often going to be based on your reaction. Your teenage son might still frequently look to you to see whether or not he can complete the task at hand.

Tips for students:

Here are some tips for motivation during lockdown compiled by my counselling colleague Sue Lewis:

· Be kind: to yourself and those around you. This means not pushing yourself when you feel tired or worried.

· Be mindful: notice what is happening around you and what is happening within you – are you upbeat and positive, or angry and frustrated ? Give yourself permission to be human and allow yourself to feel difficult emotions.

· Set up a great space: make your study space as nice as you can. Have your favourite pens, posters and photos where you can see them and use them easily.

· Be patient: start with 20-30 minutes and expand your time studying by 5 minutes at a time.

· Move often: Take 15 minute study breaks to do something completely different before sitting down again. Move to a different room, chat to someone in your bubble, make some tea.

· Set small goals: if you want to read more, set yourself the goal of reading an extra paragraph or perhaps a page a day.

· Sleep: try not to stay up all night and avoid sleep during the day.

· Connect: talk to friends and let an adult/teacher/counsellor you trust know if you are struggling

Further information on helping young people while they are learning at home can be found at: https://education.govt.nz/school/health-safety-and-wellbeing/pastoral-care-and-wellbeing/talking-to-children-about-covid-19-coronavirus/

If you have any concerns you would like to discuss with a counsellor please contact kh@kingshigh.school.nz or call 0277 1234 49.

Noho ora mai

Holger Korth
Counsellor/Kaiārahi
King’s High School