If you have young children between the ages of 8 and 10, you may feel hesitant about switching to online schooling. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents have been making the switch from conventional (in-person) schooling to online schooling for their children. The latter a) offers greater security and safety, b) reduces the risk of school bullying, harassment, and abuse, c) increases student focus and knowledge retention owing to a low student-teacher ratio, and d) improves student mental health.
However, many parents have been shying away from this transition because they’re unsure whether their young children will acclimatise to the switch. As a parent, you may associate online schooling with older students who are preparing for their IGCSE and A Level examinations. In actuality, online schooling is extremely popular among young students as well.
At Cambridge Home School, we have a team of MA/PhD qualified subject specialist teachers on board. They deliver well-structured, focused, engaging, interactive, and stimulating lessons in groups of 8–10 pupils to keep them engrossed in the classes through and through. As a parent, you don’t have to worry about your child zoning out, getting distracted, or retaining minimal amounts of knowledge.
Our teachers understand that younger students between the ages of 8 and 10 can easily lose concentration and fixate on something else. When they’re studying from home, these distractions may be something on their desk, a pet in the room, or even the exciting fantasyland they’ve built in their own brain. Young students are creative, curious, and always up for a new adventure. As they break focus, they can easily lose the gist of the lesson.
This is precisely why we don’t have more than 10 students in each classroom. By keeping the student-teacher ratio extremely low, we help our teachers keep each student on track. Even if a child zones out, our teachers promptly and empathetically help them get back on track in a way that they don’t feel embarrassed for being singled out. If you’re on the fence about switching to online school, make sure you develop a nuanced understanding of what online schooling entails for younger students.
While we’ve covered one aspect of the virtual learning model, we’ll cover more ground in this blog. Continue reading, take notes, and keep your child’s unique learning habits and behavioural tendencies in mind as you navigate the upcoming sections. A strong focus on the latter will help you understand whether your child will acclimatise to online schooling as intended.
At the same time, keep your schedule and lifestyle in mind. As parents, you and your spouse should choose a mode of schooling for your child that also allows you to focus on work, household chores, parenting responsibilities, your personal lives as individuals, and your collective life as a couple. Keep yourselves, your children, and your family in mind as you make this decision. It’ll help you streamline the process and ensure a favourable outcome for everyone involved, especially your children.
Academic Growth
Compared to conventional schooling, online schooling is gradually being recognised for its ability to facilitate greater academic growth. The conventional schooling system can often leave young children feeling drained, overwhelmed, and overworked. While children between the ages of 8 and 10 are more energetic and enthused than older students, their dynamism and vigour shouldn’t be depleted early on in the day.
Children perform best when they consistently utilise their energy throughout the day. This helps them learn better, stay focused, and grow academically. Unfortunately, conventional schools exhaust young children. As they shuffle in and out of classes with heavy bags and sit through protracted classes, students struggle to concentrate well.
By the time that they return home, they’re too drained to develop new skills, go on adventures with their friends and family, explore new hobbies and activities, play their favourite sports, socialise with their friends, and become well-rounded individuals through personal enrichment. Their energy levels significantly go down, which prompts them to inertly navigate the rest of the day.
Unfortunately, this takes a toll on young children’s academic growth. They fail to pay attention during their classes like they should, which affects their performance. Once they return home, children may not take an interest in completing their homework or revising. As they tackle homework and revision, they treat these two essential components of academic growth as “tasks”.
Students are too worn out to feel excited about schoolwork, which is extremely important. Many conventional schools completely overlook this aspect and fail to help students recognise the fun and excitement of their lessons.
At Cambridge Home School, we take this seriously. Young children are reluctant to take an interest in anything that doesn’t sound, look, or feel exciting and stimulating. To keep them engaged and interested, our MA/PhD qualified subject specialist teachers leverage cutting-edge audio-visual teaching technology and utilise advanced teaching software solutions. Our goal is to help young students develop a genuine interest in their lessons. Once this interest is developed, our teachers sustain it by keeping the classes exciting through and through.
It’s important to note that choosing the right institution is imperative. You can provide your child an excellent education if you choose a reputable conventional or online institution. Similarly, you can negatively impact their schooling experience by choosing the wrong conventional or online school.
With over 19 years of experience, we have a strong focus on providing an exceptional education to students between the ages of 8 and 10. Our Primary Prep School (Key Stage 2) has been carefully structured to ensure that each student has a wholesome and enriching schooling experience. We teach young students with the intention of preparing them for higher studies. By utilising a well-rounded, independent, and interdisciplinary curriculum, we help them develop varied skills in subjects like Math, Science, English, Topic, Art, and Languages and Culture.
We create a strong academic foundation for children to ensure that they don’t feel clueless as they navigate school. Once the foundation is structured, our teachers work assiduously to build new concepts, themes, and ideas atop. We focus on both theory and practice. Each lesson includes core concepts and fun activities that encourage students to feel excited about school.
Our students a) perform exceptionally well, b) secure excellent grades on their tests and exams, c) participate eagerly in class, and d) progress to the upcoming educational stages (Lower School/Key Stage 3 [ages 11 to 13], Upper School/IGCSEs [ages 14 to 16], and Sixth Form/AS & A-Levels [ages 17 to 19] with stronger skills, greater confidence, and an academic edge over their peers.
Focus, Knowledge Absorption, and Knowledge Retention
As a parent, you may feel hesitant about switching to online schooling if your child has trouble staying focused. While we covered this in the introductory section of this blog, we’ll provide more insight in this section. Young students require attentive, empathetic, and individualised schooling. If your child doesn’t receive their teacher’s undivided attention, they can quickly go off track.
In some conventional schools, teachers never attempt to reel distracted students back in. Since classrooms comprise 20+ students, it’s almost impossible for teachers to keep track of every student’s concentration levels, learning pace, and performance. Unfortunately, some conventional schools comprise 25+ students, even up to 30. The more students in a classroom, the more neglected your child will feel.
By keeping the student-teacher ratio low and using an individualised approach, we help each student get the one-on-one attention they need to stay focused in class. Our teachers are also provide specialised training to help them get a good grasp on the unique penchants of children between the ages of 8 and 10. This age group requires a personalised teaching approach that’s more fun than academic.
At Cambridge Home School, we’ve developed effective strategies to shroud our lessons in a layer of fun and adventure. For instance, if students are learning grammar for the day, our teachers use an animated approach to maximise engagement during the beginning of the class. We may start off with an activity, game, or a fun example that adds some punch to the day!
While students learn essential grammar rules, they don’t feel put off by the “academic” feel of the class. By the end of the class, they have a good grasp on the rules. They’ve also practiced numerous examples that help them understand how to utilise these rules when forming sentences. We cover all the bases, albeit in a way that young children still have fun and remain engrossed in the lessons!
Non-Academic Development
While online schooling is academically effective for students between the ages of 8 and 10, there are several other aspects of the learning experience that should be taken into consideration. Students have a lot of explorations, activities, adventures, and skills to venture out into outside of academics. If non-academic development isn’t prioritised just as much as academic growth, they may become reclusive and withdrawn.
Students who aren’t encouraged to enjoy their childhood years feel restrained and are unable to come into their own. They’re inhibited, which prevents their unique personality from shining through.
At Cambridge Home School, our online schooling experience is carefully customised to help young students perform exceptionally well in school and enjoy their favourite activities and interests. Young children between the ages of 8 and 10 are in an active learning stage. This stage shouldn’t be reserved for academic learning. In fact, it should also extend to non-academic growth and enrichment.
Our MA/PhD qualified subject specialist teachers build a wide range of skills in students, including confidence, empathy, respect, problem-solving, self-love, assertiveness, communication, humility, self-discipline, self-awareness, persistence, and determination, among others. We set up activities that combine both academic and non-academic elements to promote holistic learning and growth.
Additionally, our students play sports, draw, paint, play musical instruments, write stories and poems, play games like Chess and Scrabble, and do so much more. They also go on family trips to learn about new cultures and people. Since our lessons are focused and each student gets one-on-one attention from their teacher, our classes aren’t protracted.
In conventional schools, the class duration is significantly longer. Teachers require extra time to complete their lessons in a classroom that comprises distracted, unfocused, and worn-out students. At Cambridge Home School, our classes are more focused. As a result, our teachers aren’t required to deliver protracted lessons. Since additional class hours and commuting hours are deducted, students have significantly more time and energy to discover their passions and interests.
Following Emma Raducanu’s recent win at the US Open, many parents are starting to realise the importance of a healthy school-life balance. While putting your child’s academic growth first is important, following it up with strong non-academic development is just as imperative. Emma began playing tennis at the age of five. Today, she’s become a Grand Slam winner at the age of 18.
By focusing on studies and non-academic pursuits like sports, students can excel in multiple areas of their life. Their learning trajectory is much, much higher and stable. They achieve a lot, enjoy good mental health, and secure top grades in their exams. Emma is the perfect embodiment of consistency and good balance; she secured an A* in Maths and an A in Economics in her A Level examinations.
As a parent, provide your child with the tools they need to succeed in every aspect of their life. By freeing up more time and energy for young children, online schooling helps them become well-rounded individuals who can chase their dreams without feeling held back.
Unfortunately, many conventional schools solely double down on academic growth, and that too, very poorly. As inexperienced and unqualified teachers provide lessons to young students, their academic foundation is affected. As a parent, make sure you do your research. Understand whether online schooling is right for your child and family.
At Cambridge Home School, we presently provide online lessons to many students who have working parents. It’s important to note that parents aren’t required to intervene during the classes at any point; our teachers take care of everything.
You will be required to set up a distraction-free study room/station for your child. Once you equip them with the required essentials for their classes, you will not be required to check in mid-class.
Following school hours, you can spend valuable family time with your child and help them with homework and revision. During their classes, however, working parents can easily resume their professional responsibilities without fear of being interrupted repeatedly. This helps parents enjoy a healthy balance while their children benefit from the same.
If you’re ready to make the switch to online schooling for your child, utilise the following resources:
- Admissions Process
- Term Dates
- Application Form
- Scholarships & Bursaries
- Grades & Fees
- Online Reviews
As one of the best international online schools across the globe, we provide a quality online education to students living in the UK, Europe (including Western Russia), Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Take a closer look at our homeschooling programs to get started.
—
FAQ
What are the benefits of switching my 8-10-year-old to online schooling?
Online schooling offers a variety of advantages including heightened safety measures, reduced risk of bullying, better focus and knowledge retention due to smaller class sizes, and a positive impact on your child’s mental well-being.
How does Cambridge Home School ensure my child stays focused during lessons?
Cambridge Home School employs a team of MA/PhD qualified teachers who offer well-structured and interactive lessons in small groups. These groups usually comprise 8-10 students to maintain a low student-teacher ratio, enabling the teacher to keep each student engaged and focused.
What steps do Cambridge Home School take for the academic growth of students?
Cambridge Home School utilises a comprehensive, interdisciplinary curriculum focusing on subjects like Math, Science, English, and more. The institution aims for a balanced academic foundation and a fun learning experience to help your child excel in their studies.
Does Cambridge Home School only focus on academic growth?
No, Cambridge Home School also places significant emphasis on non-academic development. This includes encouraging a wide range of skills like empathy, self-discipline, and problem-solving through activities that combine academic and non-academic elements.
Is online schooling with Cambridge Home School suitable for working parents?
Yes, Cambridge Home School provides an environment where working parents don’t have to intervene during lessons. All that’s required is to set up a distraction-free study room for your child. This allows parents to focus on their professional responsibilities without interruptions.