A new school year can be exciting and scary at the same time. Despite the excitement, there are often uncertainties and questions concerning what the new school year would look like.
Coupled with the Covid19 pandemic, it is important to make adequate preparations to stay ahead in the new school year in Nigeria. Here are tips to help parents and teachers prepare for the new school year, in 2021.
Tips To Prepare For A New School Year (For Parents)
1. Stay up to date with information concerning your child’s school
Even though things are starting to get back to normal, parents still have to be proactive because the world is yet to achieve herd immunity to the virus.
For this reason, schools still have to ensure their institutions abide by safety guidelines. To stay ahead in 2021, parents have to find out what their child’s school is doing to ensure a safe resumption.
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Request information concerning guidelines, school rules, requirements (for instance, some schools require students to resume with a negative covid-19 test), and health care and education plans.
If your child’s school has a website or a social media handle, it is important to stay connected, so you are up to date with every available information concerning resumption in the new school year.
If your child’s school doesn’t have a website or social media handle, you might have to find a way to contact your child’s teacher or school by telephone. Doing this will help you stay ahead and keep your mind at rest concerning your child’s safety. You can also communicate this information with your child to calm his or her nerves and ensure them that they will be safe at school.
2. Teach Your Child To Remain Open And Flexible
Covid19 has made the world and educational system uncertain. Schools might be made to shut down or be prevented from opening based on the transmission rates and numbers.
It is important as a parent to remain flexible and to teach your children to be flexible. Teach them to understand the situation and teach them how to adapt to these changes and be willing to indulge in remote or distance learning if schools are shut down or prevented from opening.
3. Purchase Safety Kits For Your Wards
One way to stay ahead in the new school year in Nigeria is to purchase Safety kits for your wards before they resume.
This way they are protected whilst they learn. Purchase multiple face masks, face shields, and hand sanitizers early on.
4. Purchase All Necessary School Materials
Apart from purchasing safety kits, parents also need to purchase and provide their children with all school materials needed for the school year. Buy textbooks, notebooks, stationery, and school supplies before schools resume.
One major advantage of providing your wards with textbooks early on is that your child has the advantage of reading ahead and becoming better prepared for the new school year. In an unpredictable world, this is a good idea.
5. Teach Your Child To Stay Safe
Educate your children concerning safety precautions amidst the pandemic. If you have given them this information previously, it’s important to remind them about it.
Teach them how to wear face masks correctly, how to wash their hands, use hand sanitizers, and maintain social distancing. Remind them of the importance of social distancing amidst the pandemic.
One way to stay ahead and ensure they are fully prepared for the new school year is to encourage them to wash their hands often while they are still at home. You can also encourage them to wear masks at home to help them get used to wearing them for longer periods.
6. Communicate With Your Child
Children also have their fears, worries and anxieties concerning the new school year. As a parent, it is important to communicate with your child and try to soothe their nerves.
Talk positively about the new school year and encourage them to look forward to resumption. Educate them early on about the importance of maintaining caution and being careful even at school.
Ask them if they have any concerns or worries concerning resumption. Some children due to the pandemic might have had a hard time catching up in the last school year. You can review previously taught topics with your child and help them feel more prepared.
Other children might be worried about catching the virus, while others might have complaints about school not being the same. Whatever their concerns may be, encourage and assist them in any way you can, and remind them that you will always be there to help them along the way.
Tips To Prepare For A New School Year (For Teachers)
1. Stay up to date with information concerning the resumption
Stay in regular contact with your school’s administration and be fully informed of every detail concerning the school resumption. Be aware of everything being done to ensure safe resumption for you and your students.
Having this information will not only quell your anxieties and assure you of your safety, but it will also help you quell the anxieties of the parents of your learners who might call you to find out this information.
2. Purchase Safety Kits Early On
As a teacher, you must also be concerned about your health. Purchase facemasks, face shields, and hand sanitizers for personal use before school resumption.
You can choose to go the extra mile and buy a couple of extras for your learners in case they do not have or fail to come with theirs.
3. Remain Open and Flexible
As a teacher, it is important to remain open and flexible. Due to the pandemic, the educational sector is relatively unstable and schools might be made to shut down or stall opening if the infection rates increase.
You should be willing to adapt to remote or distance learning if this happens. Brush up your online teaching skills and be open to changes in the school calendar.
4. Develop a Lesson Plan
To be ready for 2021, you should develop your lesson plan ahead of the school opening. This gives you ample time to come up with a good lesson plan.
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Come up with new ideas and activities to engage your students whilst keeping to the social distancing rules and the covid-19 guidelines. You can also draft new ways to assist your students who had challenges or who were behind in the previous school year.
5. Set Up Your Classroom
Teachers must set up their classrooms before the first day of the new school year. This helps you stay more organized and get down to the business of the new school year as soon as school reopens.
Arrange classroom sitting positions to maintain social distancing rules and place your desk at a position that allows you to view the whole class without obstruction.
6. Get All Necessary Materials Needed For The New School Year
Purchase and prepare all necessary school materials and resources you will be needing in the next school year. Such as stationery, reading resources, textbooks, charts, maps, projectors, etc.
You can also ask your school concerning any tools or resources made available for teachers.
Conclusion
As the new school year approaches, it is important to stay ahead and remain prepared. Parents and Teachers have major roles to play in helping children and learners settle down and move ahead academically.
Teachers, on the other hand, have to be up to date with school news and knowledge concerning their field, come up with creative ways to engage students while keeping to social distancing rules, and maintain flexibility as the new school year approaches.
