Teaching mathematics is more than the sum of its parts

Benadette Aineamani, Director of Products and Services for Pearson Africa was interviewed on Channel Africa by Zikhona Miso. Aineamani discussed some reasons for the decline in mathematics performance in South Africa, and why mathematics is important. Through her research, and in writing her PhD thesis on the subject, Aineamani investigated the role of the teacher in developing learners’ mathematics discourse and understanding. She offers a few solutions around teacher and learner competency and tips for improving mathematics teaching and learning.

Coding. Robotics. Artificial Intelligence. Data analytics. These are just some of the words that might flash in the mind of a young high school learner as they dream of their future career. In this fourth industrial revolution, the digital age has flung wide the doors of possibility. For many young South Africans, these doors remain shut tight as their inability to pass mathematics holds them back.

According to Benadette Aineamani, Director of Products and Services for Africa at Pearson, the state of mathematics education in South Africa is declining. In 2019, only 54% of matriculants who wrote a mathematics exam passed it. This is down from a pass rate of 58% in 2018. Adding to this, only 2% of the 2019 mathematics passes were distinctions.

Aineamani explains, “The way that mathematics as a subject is scaffolded means that learners need to progress from one concept to another. If they don’t grasp a concept, they are then left behind with little hope of catching up on their own. So they fail.”

Aineamani believes too many of our learners are already one or two grades behind. “With the time lost to the COVID-19 lockdown, the South African education system is in dire need of helping its learners to catch up if they ever hope to qualify for admission into higher education. Mathematics is so important, and every year it becomes more so,” she says.

Through her research, and in writing her PhD thesis on the subject, Aineamani investigated the role of the teacher in developing learners’ mathematics discourse and understanding – the topic of her thesis.

“There is an issue around teacher and learner competency in mathematics and most of it comes down to teaching mathematics with and for understanding. If a learner doesn’t understand mathematics, then the teacher will need to draw on various strategies in order to help the learner to grasp concepts in a way that leads to conceptual understanding.”

Through Pearson, Aineamani uses her knowledge of mathematics teaching and learning to provide much-needed training for teachers and schools across the country. In her extensive research, she has discovered three critical problem areas that may be taken for granted, but are a reality in many mathematics classrooms.

Begin with the intended object of learning

In all the hundreds of lessons that she observed in doing her research and training teachers, the biggest issue seems to be one that takes place right at the beginning of every lesson.

“I have seen so many teachers walk into a classroom, open the textbook and just start teaching. And they do this without actually introducing the lesson objectives. With no context, the learners struggle to focus and generally don’t understand what is being conveyed to them. It is not easy to believe this but it is the reality on the ground.”

Aineamani believes that lesson preparation is crucial, and lessons should be taught in relation to the learners’ prior knowledge.

She says that all lessons should begin with an announcement of the intended object of learning to avoid confusion on what learners need to focus on and what they need to ignore. She says there is a need to make mathematics teachers aware of the impact of starting a lesson without announcing their intention(s). In a discovery lesson, the teacher should find an appropriate way of ensuring that the intended object of learning is embedded in the discovery activity and hence kept in focus during the lesson,” says Aineamani.

The power of examples is found in translation

Aineamani says that teachers should embrace the power of examples and what they bring into the classroom. She says, “Teachers should not just open a text book and start going through the examples written in the text book, without considering the learners and their realities in relation to the prior knowledge that is needed to engage with the examples in the textbook.”

According to her, some of the examples provided in some text books often do not engage the learners exhaustively. “Teachers should use all available resources to customise examples for their learners and translate that knowledge in a way that their learners will understand.”

Many voices in the mathematics classroom

“If you are a teacher in a mathematics classroom, are you the only voice in the room?” questions Aineamani. “If you are the only voice that is heard in the classroom and provide absolute authority, are you really allowing learners to engage in a subject in a way that they understand?”

Part of the problem Aineamani has discovered in our mathematics classrooms is the use of the teaching method which she calls ‘presentation mode’. “Mathematics teachers need to engage with their learners and allow learners to communicate their mathematics reasoning. Let the learners get the answer wrong and then guide them by drawing on their prior knowledge and experiences, to assist them to ‘see’ why their answer is wrong.”

An educator on a mission

With a passionate history for education, Aineamani has dedicated her life to improving education at a school level. Through Pearson, she has been working with educators in different provinces in South Africa to find ways of identifying and helping schools improve their mathematics competencies.

“With so much school time already lost to COVID-19, we now have an even more desperate need to develop targeted interventions that will help our teachers and our learners to catch up. This is our mission at Pearson and one that we hope schools across the country will take us up on” says Aineamani.

Listen to radio interview

How to increase student engagement with eTextbooks

Have you ever wondered… Why don’t students do their assigned readings? How can I increase learners’ engagement with eTextbooks?

A 2015 study looked at how an instructor’s use of eText affects student reading and learning. It found that 70% of students preferred eTexts over paper textbooks because of instructor highlights and annotations.

Technology alone doesn’t improve learning. Teachers like you, play the most important role in encouraging students to read.

When instructors actively use the eText with highlights and annotations students actually read more, highlighted more, and made more notes. In other words, when instructors engage with the eText so do their students.

With eText, you have new opportunities to connect with students, and guide their learning. When you use it to its full potential, you can inspire students to engage meaningfully with the text.

We would like to share with you a short video on how you can use eTextbooks to encourage students to engage with their reading.

Browse and Purchase eBooks

Your mental health and wellbeing

Feeling a certain amount of concern or worry is natural when we encounter difficult or unsettling times. Now, more than ever is a really important time to look after yourself and others. We’ve pulled together the below mindfulness practice and wellbeing resources suitable for teachers, parents and young people.

At Pearson, we are passionate about creating a culture of positive wellbeing and mental health and are committed to working together with teachers and senior leaders to help build healthy, calm and happy schools.

Our mindfulness support

Practising mindfulness at times like these can help to rewire the brain to work in calmer and more positive ways. To get you started, we’ve pulled together the below resources, which will introduce mindfulness techniques that you can practice at school or at home and are suitable for teachers, parents and young people.

First steps to mindfulness – Our First steps to Mindfulness document explains what mindfulness is and how you can start to begin to practice it in your everyday life.

Mindfulness for Unsettling Times guide (PDF) – Here you will find a helpful introductory practice for teachers and parents that can be used with children and learners.

Mindfulness webinar – A free one-hour introduction to mindfulness that explains the neuroscience and psychology underpinning it and allows you to participate in a basic practice/meditation so you can experience directly how mindfulness works.

Guided introductory practice (Breath and Body) audio file will give you an excellent introduction to mindfulness through a practice called Breath and Body.

Support for children and young people

We are aware of the impact such difficult times can have on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Day-to-day lives have changed for most people and many children may be struggling with significant changes. We are focused on supporting children’s wellbeing during this time.

Wellbeing journal for kids (PDF) – Outside the Box has produced a free activity journal to help children to enhance their mental wellbeing through a range of activities.

Childline Calm Zone – For breathing exercises, activities, games and videos to help let go of stress.

Apps for stress and wellbeing

The are many rescources and apps that aim to reduce stress and help with wellbeing and anxiety. Here are a few we recommend:

Pearson has a wide range of resources, from advice on coping with anxiety to fun activities to support wellbeing, therefore please do click on the button below to learn more and visit the Wellbeing Zone.

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X-kit Achieve presents a webinar on Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Derosha Moodley, a passionate lecturer in literature at the Pearson Institute of Higher Education, presents a webinar to help support Grade 12 English Home Language learners and teachers. It unpacks important matric exam preparation queries and themes for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

X-kit Achieve Shakespeare Hamlet webinar

In our continued effort to help support learners and teachers, Pearson and X-kit Achieve are proud to host a webinar unpacking important matric exam preparation queries and themes for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Derosha Moodley adores the works of Shakespeare and zealously believes in his relevance to the field of Drama within English language inquiry. In the webinar, she shares her knowledge of Shakespeare’s most filmed play Hamlet. She will provide you with guidelines to help you navigate the Hamlet section in the Literature exam.

The webinar covers the following topics:

Revenge and Retrospect – opening remarks on the play
That Prince of Denmark and his family! Character analysis
Tips on answering the exam contextual question
Tips on answering the exam essay question
Popular themes explained
Addressing your submitted questions
How to use the X-kit Achieve Hamlet for your exam preparation
About a Father and a Son – closing remarks on the play

X-kit Achieve Literature Study Guides

X-kit Achieve Literature Study Guides provide insight into the author and context of the writing, as well as analysis of critical themes, plots and characters. Practice exercises and answers stimulate critical thinking, and specific guidelines for writing the exam are provided, helping learners prepare for their exams.

You can find your X-kit Achieve Hamlet study guide at all leading bookstores and online retailers or purchase an eBook version on the Pearson eStore here.

Click here to watch the webinar recording

Take your assessments online

Katherine McEldoon and Emily Schneider

If your preference is to use a traditional summative exam, these research-based tips can make the online experience better for you and your students.

Here are some research-based tips on how to make the online assessment experience better for you and your learners

Create clear and specific rules and instructions so students know exactly what to do.

Online assessment is new for your students. Reduce anxiety by clearly communicating the rules and instructions before the exam so there are no surprises. For example, if you would like them to write their essays in paragraphs or to show their work for problem sets, be sure to explicitly state this.
The rules may include how many opportunities students have to complete the exam, if they can or cannot save and come back later to finish, if they need to put away all mobile devices, and whether it is an open or closed book exam.
Provide other details such as the list of learning objectives the exam will address, how many questions to expect, the amount of time they will have to complete the exam, how many points each question is worth, and so on. A study guide or a practice test can also help your students prepare.

Reduce the opportunities for cheating

Password protect your exam and limit students to one login attempt.
Require students to complete a statement of honesty before beginning the exam (this can be done through a digital form or added as the first item of the exam).
Open and close access to your exam session within a predetermined time period.
Shuffle items or create multiple versions of the exam to randomly assign to students.
Create a pool or item bank to pull random questions from (many platforms allow for this and most learning management systems.
Ask students to justify or explain their answers by adding an open response field after each selected-response question.
If you don’t have the capabilities listed here, use more open-ended question types instead of true/false or multiple-choice questions.

Make sure students can reasonably complete the exam within the time allotted

Unless you are assessing how quickly your students can complete the exam, allow them ample time to complete it. It is important to keep in mind that your students don’t know the knowledge and skills as well as you do, so be sure to cushion each item with more time than you would expect to take to complete it yourself.
If possible, have an assistant or colleague proofread your exam before it is time to administer it.

Align your exam questions to learning outcomes

Regardless of whether the exam is online or on paper, if you are creating it from scratch, make sure you use the objectives as your guide as you develop the questions.
Determine which types of questions or items best reflect the learning objectives. For example, if the objective requires a student to critique a poem, then an essay question would be a more logical and efficient choice than a multiple choice question.

Base scoring and point values on the complexity and difficulty of the questions

For instance, if you have a multipart question, consider assigning partial credit for each part of the question if the system allows. For math or science problem sets, allow students to show their work such as by sending in a photo of their workings or describing the steps they took to solve a problem or complete a process.

Download Complete Guide

About the authors

Katherine McEldoon, PhD
Katherine is a Senior Research Scientist at Pearson. Trained in cognitive science research labs across the country, she has worked to connect insights from the science of learning to educational practice throughout her career. Katherine earned her PhD in Cognitive Development and was an Institute of Education Sciences’ Experimental Education Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education. Her postdoctoral work at Arizona State University centered on a research partnership between The Learning Sciences Institute and ASU Preparatory Academies, incorporating a theory of active learning into middle & high school teacher pedagogy. Since then, she has continued to bridge research and practice outside of academia, working with educational technology start-up companies, state governments, and more. Katherine firmly believes in the power of enabling educators with insights from research and incorporates this mindset into her work at Pearson.

Emily Schneider, PhD
Emily has spent more than a decade researching and designing learning experiences for higher education. As a Senior Learning Designer at Pearson, she helps product teams create effective and engaging digital learning experiences at scale. Emily believes that we should take advantage of technology for what it offers but never forget the power of the embodied human experience. She holds a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford University.

Tips on creating hybrid classrooms

Katherine McEldoon and Emily Schneider

The hybrid model of teaching and learning combines online and in-person learning into one cohesive experience. Although the model has been around for many years, interest has been on the rise because it gives instructors the flexibility to design their courses in a way to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 and give students ownership over their learning.

Another advantage of the hybrid classroom model is that it can be the “best of both worlds” by giving students and teachers the in-person and social interactions they crave while also taking advantage of the benefits of technology.

This article serves as a primer for those who are ready to try hybrid teaching and learning. Drawing on the research literature, it covers where to start, a model for integrating technology, how to plan hybrid interactions with students, what a learner-centered approach is and how to support it, advice for online assessments, as well as an example of a hybrid implementation.

Where to start

Successful hybrid courses fully integrate online and face-to-face instruction, planning interactions in a pedagogically valuable manner. Build around what you want students to learn:

Don’t: think of your hybrid class as a direct translation of your face-to-face course. Common pitfalls are to directly translate the online or to add online components onto a face-to-face class.
Do: build your course by starting with the learning objectives in your syllabus. Then, as you’re building your course, select and align the delivery method, technology, and assignments that will best help students learn the objectives and content.

Consider three things during this process:

What needs to be done in-person versus online
What needs to be in real-time versus giving students flexibility
What needs to be instructor-facilitated versus facilitated by the learning resources

Integrate the experiences
Melding in-person and online classes doesn’t need to be disjointed. You can incorporate them in such a way that they support each other. For example, assign challenging and engaging online learning activities and then discuss them in-person, inviting questions. If you’re encouraging online discussion, reference these discussions in class to confirm their value.

Choose the right technology for you

Technology also has benefits that can improve learning, such as immediate feedback and monitoring progress. Rather than starting by shopping for educational technology, start by understanding the problems you experience. Then evaluate whether educational technology can help solve those problems. We have provided examples in the complete guide, available for download.

Plan effective interactions

After you’ve identified the learning objectives, think about the interactions you’ll use to facilitate learning and which mode you’ll use. Hybrid learning enables a lot of flexibility in how the students interact with each other, with you, and with the learning materials. Interactions can be categorised into three types.

Instructor-Learner: Instructor interaction is a major driver of successful learning. Examples include emails and discussions.
Learner-Learner: These interactions can either happen online, with learners interacting but not necessarily in real-time, or in person. Examples include discussions, collaborative group work, and peer-review activities
Learner-Content: The SAMR Model is one way of thinking to make the most of student interactions using technology. Examples include lecturing via Zoom instead
of in the front of a classroom or instead of studying a static diagram of a physics concept, students watch a video and predict what happens next.

Craft a learner-centered approach to learning

In a hybrid model, encourage students to take control of their learning. Start by enabling students to choose how they engage with the materials. Hybrid models allow students to chose in when, how, and what they engage with. Although there are real-time aspects of a hybrid course (either face-to-face or online), much of the learning occurs on the students’ own time.

Their own independence should be encouraged and they’ll need support to take ownership of their work. Importantly, prompt them to monitor and reflect on their learning, and then act on their new understanding.

Take your assessment online

If your preference is to use a traditional summative exam, these research-based tips can make the online experience better for you and your students. Here are guidelines for taking your assessments online.

Create clear and specific rules and instructions so students know exactly what to do.
Reduce the opportunities for cheating.
Make sure students can reasonably complete the exam within the time allotted.
Align your exam questions to learning outcomes.
Base scoring and point values on the complexity and difficulty of the questions.

Methods and tips on each of these points can be found in the complete guide available for download.

Continuously improve

Keep your approach simple at first and aim for continuous improvement, not perfection. We encourage you to try something, get feedback from your students, and keep improving your course. And, you’re not alone. Your colleagues may also have advice too. You can build an informal or formal learning network. This is a learning experience for everyone.

Download Complete Guide

About the authors

How to motivate your students

Dan Belenky

We know that motivation is an important tool in helping students to achieve more. When combined with other self-management abilities (like planning and organising work), motivation is a bigger predictor of grades than IQ. So how can we encourage this in our students?

Frequently, people think of motivation as something either present or absent. “Jo is a motivated student, but Ali isn’t.” However, academic research on motivation has revealed that a more productive question to focus on is, “What factors are motivating this person’s behaviors right now?” With this lens, we don’t focus as much on whether or not a person is motivated, we focus on whether the motivation a person is experiencing is appropriate for goals they are pursuing, and the environment.

As learning is increasingly happening in online environments, independently driven, and over the course of the lifetime, this kind of lens becomes even more critical. As we move from thinking of motivation as “the fuel” of behavior to considering it as a tool to effectively “steer and accelerate” towards your goals, this guide will give you ideas on how to better support different aspects of motivation to lead to improved learning outcomes.

A growth mindset will help students if they hit a bump in the road.

We all hit bumps in the road—it’s inevitable. But what happens next? Some people may feel demotivated, taking the difficulties as a sign that they don’t have what it takes to succeed. Others may see these difficulties as important parts of the journey—they feel driven to overcome these challenges, as a way to improve and develop one’s abilities and skills.

Academic research has explored these two different perspectives people may hold, labeling the idea that you have a set amount of ability which can’t be increased a fixed mindset and the belief that your abilities can develop as a growth mindset. For example, a student with a fixed mindset will say, “I give up, I can’t do this!” But a student with a growth mindset will say, “I can improve if I keep trying.”

How can you help students develop a growth mindset?

“Direct” Approaches: How to talk to your students about growth mindset

Help students develop a growth mindset by talking about what it is and how to adopt it.
After introducing growth mindset, ask your students to write a brief letter to a student in another school, or a student who will take the same course in the future. The goal of the letter is to explain what growth mindset is, why they should adopt one, and some strategies to do so. Having students do this exercise can help them internalise those ideas.

“Indirect” Approaches: How to create a “growth-oriented” context in your class

Pay attention to how you structure your class and the signals it sends to your learners. Are you structuring assignments in ways that reward incremental progress (e.g. letting students rework problems for more credit)?
Consider the language you use with students, and make sure to highlight both the effort as well as approaches that are likely to lead to success. Pair messages like, “Keep trying, I know you can get it!” with actionable steps they can take (e.g., “Before your next attempt, why don’t you talk this problem over with one of your classmates and see if you can figure out what part is giving you the most trouble.”)

How do they determine their progress?

A student’s motivation is more likely to increase if they gauge their progress by looking at their own improvements, rather than by comparing themselves to others.

Some goals are self-focused—they use self-referenced improvement as their barometer (e.g. “How have I developed from when I started?”)—which some researchers refer to as “mastery goals.”

Others may use their peers as a way to gauge their own achievement (e.g. “How am I doing compared to everyone else?”), often labeled as “performance goals.”

You should encourage mastery goals as a general approach and think strategically about places where performance goals can be used effectively. It is important to have a classroom-oriented more around progress than markers of performance (like scores). Here are three ways you can achieve that:

Structure lessons and assignments so they continuously build off one another.
Demonstrate individual students’ progress compared to their own benchmarks.
Allow and encourage revision of work (where possible, such as submitting multiple drafts of writing or reworking of incorrect homework problems).

Help students see that it’s worth the effort.

We all do this—either subconsciously or explicitly. We ask ourselves, “How hard is it going to be?” and, “What do I get out of it?” before deciding to do a task. If students believe they have the knowledge and skills to succeed and understand the value of what they’re doing, they are more likely to be motivated.

Balance external rewards with activities that increase internal motivation.

Another way of increasing motivation relies on extrinsic (external) factors—rewards of various kinds, or the avoidance of punishment—rather than internal factors. While it would not be a good idea to have people rely solely on extrinsic motivation, it can have a place in the suite of tools available. You will find a table in the full report that will help you decide when it is appropriate to use it.

The different aspects of motivation discussed in this guide provide potentially useful ways of increasing students’ engagement and perseverance in their learning journey. In the full report, you can read how two educators improved their students’ motivation.

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About the author

Dan Belenky is Director of Learning Science Research at Pearson. Prior to joining Pearson in 2014, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Dan earned his PhD in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied how student motivation interacts with (and is impacted by) innovative instructional methods. His current research projects explore how insights from cognitive psychology and behavioral science can be used to improve learner outcomes, at scale.

Revised Annual Teaching Plan Survival Guides

To ensure that despite the shortened teaching year, teachers and learners can meet all the necessary learning outcomes for the year, we have created Revised Annual Teaching Plan (ATP) Survival Guides as a resource to support teachers and learners during this difficult time.

The National State of Disaster due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the disruption of Education in South Africa and the loss of valuable teaching time and disruption of the school calendar.

As a result of this the DBE has created a Recovery Framework including revised Annual Teaching Plans (ATPs) to assist schools and teachers in ensuring the 2020 school year is completed. This plan addresses curriculum trimming and reorganisation to ensure core skills and knowledge are taught so that learners may progress to the next grade.

The DBE website has the following useful documents available for you to use:

At Pearson South Africa, we believe that education is the key to every individuals’ success. To ensure that despite the shortened teaching year, teachers and learners can meet all the necessary learning outcomes for the year, we have created a Survival Guide to support teachers and learners during this difficult time.

This Survival Guide aims to identify areas where teacher-facing time is reduced and various strategies such as trimming the curriculum, grouping or reorganising content and creating opportunities for learner-centered work and blended learning can take place.

Access your FREE copy of the Revised ATP Survival Guide for the grade and subject you teach.

Download Survival Guides

How to balance home schooling with working from home

In recent weeks parents across the globe have had a new type of co-worker: their children. The coronavirus crisis has led to the world’s largest ever home-schooling experiment. UNESCO estimates that 91% of the world’s students, or nearly 1.6bn people, have been hit by nationwide school closures…

By Seb Murray April 21, 2020

First published here.

How to balance home schooling with working from home

In recent weeks parents across the globe have had a new type of co-worker: their children. The coronavirus crisis has led to the world’s largest ever home-schooling experiment.

UNESCO estimates that 91% of the world’s students, or nearly 1.6bn people, have been hit by nationwide school closures in 188 countries.

This has forced parents to assume childcare and schooling responsibilities. Many will have the difficult task of balancing this with their job. Parents face uncertainty over their finances and the economic crisis, not to mention the health of family members and food security.

“My work-life balance has gone out the window,” says Dana Watts, a single mother of three teens. “I don’t remember the last time I was so overwhelmed with responsibility.”

Alongside doing her job from home (she is director of research and development at International Schools Services), she feels pressure to make three decent meals a day, do housework and oversee her children’s education.

1. Keep them occupied

Downtime is important, but so is keeping occupied — boredom can be stressful.

Parents feel that schools should be the first point of call: many have built online learning environments or can signpost parents to free online resources. But many teachers are stretched and may take a while to respond to queries.

Families often try to limit screen time and there is stigma around it, but children can find educational value in smartphone apps, e-books, videos, podcasts and documentaries. It’s just about finding appropriate things for them to do.

Carol Vorderman, for example, is offering free online maths classes to children while schools are shut. Fitness coach Joe Wicks has been keeping the UK fit with live online PE sessions for school children in lockdown.

The National Literacy Trust has launched an online zone where parents can find ideas for and guidance on activities. It includes reading and writing tasks, videos and competitions.

The internet is especially helpful for when parents have to teach something they can’t remember or never knew in the first place. “I was never taught phonics and trying to understand that and how it’s taught is a challenge,” says Claire Goodwin-Fee, a psychotherapist with two children.

She got tips for this on YouTube (Crash Course, National Geographic and SoulPancake are brilliant educational channels), but teenagers can help too. Children (and parents) can set up social media groups to support each other.

2. Avoid comparisons

Seeing what friends and colleagues are doing may leave parents feeling inadequate. “Don’t compare yourselves to anyone else. We’re all different. Do what’s best for your child,” says Tom Rose, a primary school teacher from London who runs a podcast with Jack Pannett on improving children’s wellbeing.

It’s a good idea to agree on a home schedule together as a family to provide structure in an otherwise uncertain world — some parents take shifts minding the kids.

A routine doesn’t necessarily mean following your school’s timetable. “People try to make home into a mini school, but you can’t,” says Goodwin-Fee.

She gets up ahead of her kids to blitz through emails. When they’re up, she makes them breakfast and sets out the day’s plan. That’s followed by an exercise session to burn off energy before settling the kids into an educational task while she gets on with work in the afternoon.

Most people find a lack of control difficult and this can impact negatively on their mental health, says Zubeida Dasgupta, a British educational psychologist.

3. Make time for yourself

Parents need to carve out time for themselves — Dasgupta recommends identifying the source of any anxiety, speaking about it, focusing on the things you can control and doing activities that you enjoy, where possible.

“You need to be looking after yourself before you can look after your children,” she says. “The number one priority should be mental and physical health.”

Her husband is a frontline National Health Service worker. So the bulk of home-schooling their three children (aged eight, 12 and 13) has fallen to her. Dasgupta’s freelance work has been reduced amid the economic crisis.

But she still works in the evenings and at weekends. “I’ve given up trying to get any work done when the children are not settled — just before lunch and dinner when they’re hangry. It just makes me frustrated.”

4. Favour curiosity

Some parents have ditched the standard curriculum altogether to work. They still have to pay the bills, even as the global economy crashes.

“I have totally neglected my children and their education,” says Jeremy Weinstein, an education consultant in Australia whose children’s school closed abruptly because a teacher tested positive for Covid-19. “At this stage, if your kids are learning anything, you’re way ahead of the game.”

He sees the crisis as a chance for children to explore their curiosity. Some prefer to learn through creative play – messy craft, physical activity, music or drama. Even chores like cooking and washing are good life lessons involving literacy, numeracy and science — and will take a load off your shoulders.

“Take learning out of the classroom and into the real world,” says Weinstein. Children are curious about the crisis, he says, so tap into that by setting tasks based on current events, like writing a short story about the pandemic.

Some parents try to involve older children in their work: Goodwin-Fee had to file a tax return recently and took the opportunity to give her son a financial education.

Children can also educate parents: Dasgupta’s taught her how to do comic strip art.

They can also teach each other: Dasgupta’s daughter does digital colouring in with her friends. “It’s lovely hearing the giggling,” she says.

5. Prioritise health and wellbeing

Technology can foster virtual connections amid concerns that social isolation could hit the development of young children’s social skills. For children who find school a source of anxiety, being at home may provide temporary relief. If well supported, they could develop resilience and cope better with adversity in the future.

Not all children love school, but free from peer pressure and exams, “all children have the chance to love learning”, says Rose.

However, prolonged social isolation could have a negative impact. “A social connection is an innate human need,” says Dasgupta. “Playing with other children is part of their social, emotional and cognitive development.”

“I’ve never heard my daughter say she couldn’t wait to go to school until this week,” says Watts at ISS, which manages international schools.

Goodwin-Fee is more concerned about anxiety hitting children’s mental health. “The media use words like ‘battle’ and ‘war’ — defensive, gung-ho language that may prompt an emotional response in people who are already struggling with stress.”

Exercise is important for maintain health and wellbeing. NHS guidance is for two types of physical activity each week in order for children to stay healthy – develop movement skills, muscles and bones.

But Rose advises 45-minute bursts of learning followed by 15-minute movement breaks to “re-energise the brain” in the morning and stay focused. Parents should get stuck in too, he adds: “Take it from teachers who have learnt the hard way: burnout is something to avoid. You cannot pour from an empty cup.”

6. Be kind to yourself

Parents need to let themselves off the hook. “My biggest recommendation is be kind to yourself,” says Natalie Costa, a coach for children and parents. “There’s no such thing as perfection. I’ve seen people ripping themselves to shreds over this, but we all need a period of adjustment.”

The National Literacy Trust’s director of school programmes, Fiona Evans, agrees. “You should consider the day a real success if everyone gets to read, write, chat, play, create, move, laugh and get a bit of fresh air,” she says.

Above all, Goodwin-Fee urges parents to see this as an opportunity for bonding. “We are normally away from our kids all day at work. Hopefully we can look back at this time and say it was just amazing to connect with our children again.”