The summer holidays always brings fun for children! Loads of activities, days out, seemingly endless amounts of fun – until September rolls around.
The transition from free-flowing, play-based fun to structured, rigid days of learning can often be difficult and stressful for children in their first few weeks back at school. It can have a significant impact on their learning. As parents and teachers, it’s important to know how to handle this transition for children, so we’re going to run through how you can make it as seamless as possible – whilst adding how some of Kidztivity’s offerings can help.
Advice For Children’s Activity Providers and Caregivers
Written Communications
As a teacher, caregiver, or activity provider, it’s important to establish a dialogue with parents/guardians before the school reopens.
It’s good practice to send out a parent-wide email reinforcing the school’s expectations of the students, what you will be offering in this school year regarding the curriculum and extra-curricular activities, and any other updates that are necessary to the parents.
This way, parents can relay any necessary messaging back to their children in plenty of time, so they know what to expect for the upcoming school year – in part helping relieve any preconceptions or stresses they may have been feeling.
Ease Into Learning
It’s fair to say children will not be wanting to undertake any rigorous examinations or tests in the first couple of weeks since coming back from the holidays.
Their minds will need to be slowly switched back into “learning mode”, and this means as teachers, you must ease the child into learning. If they are feeling confident going into their first day back, but then find out they will be preparing for an exam the following week – this will only confuse and stress them once again.
It’s important to ease the children back into an educational environment, as it will help them switch back on without harming their development and academic progress.
Try to integrate some more activity-based learning in the first week or so – the children have likely been used to being active outdoors, not sat down, focused in an educational setting.
Having a hybrid of focused classroom work alongside more practical work will benefit the children in the long run.
Of course, once the children are back at the level in which you believe they are refocused and realigned, the need for play-based, practical activities or learning is not as crucial – but it’s important to start with a mix.
Reflect on Strategies
Once the initial 1/2 week period has passed, and the children are more accustomed to the school setting, it’s beneficial to reflect and review on the strategies you used in the reopening of schools.
A simple reflection method is the following – What Went Well, What Didn’t Go Well, Even Better If. This is always good practice at the end of any particularly big campaign or general communication.
Self evaluation is also good personal development, as you will be able to identify any weaknesses in your thought processes, but also positives based off parent and colleague feedback, and how children reacted to any techniques you implemented.
How Kidztivity Can Help
Here at Kidztivity, we have plenty of options to help assist your team arrive back in shape for the new school year.
In particular, our Child Behaviour Management workshop is designed specifically for children’s activity and wrap-around care providers to manage children’s return to school. We also have a yoga-inspired stretch and relaxation programme that can be of real benefit when looking to calm the nerves of children and help manage emotions as they return. Let’s take a look!
The Kidztivity Child Behaviour Management Workshop
This workshop will provide a greater understanding of how to respond to the different behaviours of children and young people (CYP).
Through a variety of modules, you’ll learn how to identify, manage and respond to behaviour challenges when working with Children and Young People of all ages.
Activities will be on-hand to familiarise yourself with possible scenarios and develop the tools, and confidence, to help de-escalate certain situations. From understanding behaviour influences and recognising behavioural issues, to dealing with low level disruption and extreme behaviour, you’ll leave this workshop with a locker full of tips, tricks and proactive behaviour strategies to help manage child behaviour when delivering children’s activities to various age groups.
Suitable for all professionals working with children and young people in childcare, youth work, leisure, health, sport and physical activity settings; holiday camps, breakfast clubs, in and after school activities, birthday parties, youth work, sports coaching, community groups, children’s franchises, and school activity programmes – with no pre-requisites required!
The transition between summer holidays and term time is more challenging than most teachers and providers realise – often, children have been “let loose” across the summer with very little structure to their activities – once school is back, the rigid format is something which can take some getting used to.
With the Child Behaviour Management workshop, providers and teachers can judge the mood and general feeling, meaning they can adapt their sessions and routines to keep the kids focused, calm and motivated.
CHILLZ
CHILLZ is a yoga-inspired stretch and relaxation programme for children aged 5 to 11 years.
Linking in child development theory and key learning outcomes from the National Curriculum, CHILLZ introduces children to basic yoga poses, while helping develop a greater understanding of emotions, self-regulation and wellness. The aim of a CHILLZ session is to develop children’s mental and physical wellbeing, contributing to their ability to regulate their emotions, thoughts and behaviour to enable them to act in positive ways.
There’s plenty of science behind CHILLZ, too – the programme has been developed in collaboration with children’s yoga experts, the additional benefits alongside physical activity is seen in improved behaviour and enhanced concentration both at home and in a school environment.
Children are likely to enjoy our child-specific yoga programme because it’s fun, non-competitive, builds confidence, reduces stress, and enhances concentration and focus. These benefits can help children develop a positive attitude towards physical activity and mindfulness practices, contributing to their overall health and well-being.
Set plans and content are released with music every quarter, these include warm-up activities, child friendly poses, story-led flows, yoga game ideas and much, much more. There is no requirement to follow the plans, they’re simply there if you want them. All plans and associated support materials are delivered via the Kidztivity Instructors App. Content is provided to target different age groups and ability levels, with adaptations and progressions to cover any audience!
Both of the above solutions from Kidztivity are good examples of tools you can use when planning the return back to schools, helping you manage the common challenges teachers and activity providers may face when working with CYP, especially after the summer holidays.
For further information and support, be sure to contact us via the email address hello@kidztivity.com.
