When you provide too much support, this can happen...

I worked as a teacher full time in a variety of different schools for 15 years.

This one thing irritated me most of all.

Children receiving far too much support to the point where the learning produced was no longer theirs.

I would observe teachers literally writing out what they wanted their students to write on whiteboards and the students copying what they had written word for word.

Then their books would be looked at by senior leaders and it would be assumed that the learning in the books was theirs.

Well it wasn’t.

And when left to write their own sentences, these children were not writing to the quality that they had been when they had received this level of support.

I see this done with tuition too.

Too much support can be detrimental.

I believe in the importance of giving children the opportunity to find the answers themselves. Of children writing things incorrectly and then taking the time to figure out how to improve it themselves.

When you provide too much support, your child might find it hard to be able to support themselves.

So do help your child with their learning of course but do it in a way that gives your child the opportunity to find the answers themselves and to not be afraid to get things wrong.

Will you be in their Assessments with them? No

Will you be there to help them to find the answers in their Assessments? No

Your child needs to learn the skills to be able to find the answers independently. As in without your support.

I would far rather incorrect answers done by my student than perfect answers done by their parents or by other teachers working with them.

Can you see the difference?