As we inch closer to 2022, it’s safe to say that online schooling is on its way to becoming one of the—if not “the”—most popular contemporary schooling systems across the globe. Owing to its safety, virtual learning became the primary mode of learning during the pandemic. However, as we get closer to achieving herd immunity, online schooling hasn’t been entirely replaced with in-person schooling. In fact, many parents are continuing to send their children to reputable online schools across the UK, Europe (including Western Russia), Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Compared to in-person schooling, online schooling eliminates the risk of COVID-19 contraction. It also reduces the risk of school bullying, harassment, peer pressure, and abuse—each of which is particularly common in conventional schools that have a high student-teacher ratio. When classes are unregulated because there are simply too many students, teachers are unable to pick up on instances of bullying. Many students fall victim to taunts, jeers, slurs, microaggressions, and other forms of bullying and harassment without their teachers ever finding out.

Making the switch to online schooling is a great way to help children learn in a regulated, wholesome, and healthy online environment. As one of the leading online schools across the globe, we keep our student-teacher ratio particularly low. As few as 8–10 students are taught in well-moderated classrooms. Each student is provided individualised attention. Moreover, each classroom interaction is carefully observed to help students feel safe and comfortable.

The ultimate goal is to help students secure top grades and have a positive learning experience. This is facilitated via online schooling. If you’re considering making the switch to virtual schooling for your child, you may feel slightly apprehensive. Since their classes will be held online, is it possible that your children will eventually lose interest in their lessons? This is a very valid question, and one that’s asked frequently by parents here at Cambridge Home School.

In this blog, we’ll offer more insight into whether it’s possible for children to lose interest in online school over time. We’ll shed light on our specific approach to online schooling so you can develop a better understanding of whether long-term loss of interest is a possibility. Continue reading.

Understanding the Root Causes of Inattentiveness

1. Unengaging Lessons

Inattentiveness is one of the leading causes of poor academic performance in conventional schools. Unfortunately, many parents, teachers, education specialists, and academics are focused on identifying additional causes of inattentiveness instead of understanding its own underlying contributors.

What triggers inattentiveness in students? Their lessons, for starters. If children are taught boring, protracted, unengaging, unstimulating, and minimally interactive lessons, there’s a greater chance that they’ll zone out. According to the British Council, children have a much shorter attention span than adults. While adults may make do with lessons that don’t look much fun but offer a great deal of knowledge, children will immediately start looking for the next most exciting thing they can find.

In a conventional classroom, they may occupy themselves with an activity like doodling. Or they may strike up a conversation with a peer. They may even fixate on how oddly-shaped the classroom clock is. Children will shift their attention to anything and everything if their lessons aren’t fun, exciting, and engaging.

Online classes also carry the same risk. If virtual lessons are boring, children will get preoccupied with the closest item within reach. If their study station is set up in their bedroom, they may even wander off and sneak their iPad or a gaming device into their lap. As a parent, make sure you understand that your child can lose interest in both conventional and online school if their lessons aren’t stimulating.

At Cambridge Home School, we’ve been closely studying student engagement and focus since our inception in 2002. Over the course of 19 years (and counting), we’ve determined that online lessons must always pack knowledge and excitement in abundance. Our MA/PhD qualified subject specialist teachers ensure that each lesson is fun, engaging, exciting, stimulating, and interactive. This approach is followed even more closely for younger children who are at greater risk of losing interest in their lessons.

We use advanced audio-visual learning technology to ensure that our lessons appeal to students. Our cutting-edge online learning software system also keeps engagement levels high through and through. Instead of simply delivering regular lessons, we incorporate fun elements into each class. These elements commonly include quizzes, skill-building activities, puzzles, games, projects, and learning exercises.

We don’t want our students to feel like they have to pay attention because they’re attending school. Instead, our goal is to generate organic attention in the lessons. We work hard to ensure that our students want to pay attention because their classes are that fun! This approach has been helping us eliminate the risk of inattentiveness in students.

Our teachers are also provided extensive training to help them understand how to make online classes more interactive. Instead of delivering protracted, monotonous, and unengaging lessons, our teachers present fun, personalised examples, generate healthy peer-to-peer dialogue, and use a wide range of other strategies to maximise class engagement. Our younger students are taught by cheery and energetic teachers who use on-screen animations and additional elements to keep engagement levels high.

The ultimate goal of all this strategising is clear: excellent academic performance. We want our students to remain engrossed in their lessons so they can retain most of what’s taught. As a result, their performance improves significantly. Since they pay close attention to their classes, they understand core concepts better. They’re also able to effectively utilise these concepts when completing class activities, projects, and homework. Our students perform exceptionally well and secure top grades. As a parent, you can rest assured that your child will not lose attention in their classes.

Recommended Read: 3 Benefits of Receiving an Interdisciplinary Education

2. A Poor School-Life Balance

In the earlier section, we touched upon the primary cause of inattentiveness in students: unengaging lessons. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at another common cause of loss of attention in students: a clear school-life imbalance. If your child attends an online school that creates a culture of overworking students, it’s very likely that your child will gradually lose interest in their classes.

At Cambridge Home School, we prioritise hard work and steer clear of overworking our students. There’s a clear difference between the two. Many parents want schools to slightly overwork their children so they perform better. This may sound perfect on paper. Theoretically, the more a student works, the better they’ll perform, right? Well, not quite. When students are overworked, they feel tired, fatigued, overwhelmed, and worn out. Over time, the risk of burnout increases. As a result, many students (even young children) develop academic stress and anxiety.

Instead of improving, their performance declines. By the time that their classes end, students feel too tired to utilise the rest of their day. They are unable to play sports, explore their interests, socialise with friends, play skill-building games, develop new hobbies, and go on excursions and explorations with their friends and family. Not only is their academic growth stifled, but their personal enrichment and social development are also affected. Over time, students lose interest in online school. This exacerbates their academic and non-academic performance.

At Cambridge Home School, we have a strong focus on helping students maintain a healthy school-life balance. As stated earlier, our classes comprise 8–10 students. As a result, our teachers are able to provide one-on-one attention to each student. By following the “focused learning” model, we ensure that students don’t have to sit through protracted classes that leave them feeling wiped out by the end of the day.

Our classes are well-structured, engaging, attentive, and interactive. As a result, they end on time. Students aren’t forced to attend long lectures and retain minimal knowledge. Since each class is well-timed, students retain the bulk of their lesson. This measure helps students save a ton of time that’s otherwise wasted on unnecessarily long classes. They can utilise this time to enjoy a healthy personal and social life.

We also support student mental health by providing one-on-one success coaching and pastoral support to each student. This plays a big role in helping students have a positive online learning experience. Steering clear of conventional punishments, our teachers practice empathetic teaching to ensure that students learn from their mistakes instead of feeling embarrassed about them.

Academic weaknesses aren’t loudly revealed in front of the entire classroom. Instead, our teachers engage with students in an individualised setting and help them understand how they can perform better. This approach helps students retain a strong interest in online schooling. All the while, they perform consistently well.

Recommended Read: A Deep Dive Into the Long-Term Effects of Online Learning

3. Lack of Individualised Skill Building

Each student is different. Your child, for instance, has a unique set of academic weaknesses, strengths, and learning quirks. While one student may be an excellent class participator, another student could very well struggle with speaking up in class. Similarly, while one student may perform exceptionally well in Math, another student could have trouble understanding core concepts.

Each student’s unique academic and non-academic strengths and weaknesses must be understood (not just well, but exceptionally well). This insight goes a long way in helping teachers use individualised strategies to improve each student’s performance. At Cambridge Home School, we steer clear of one-size-fits-all teaching approaches. An off-the-shelf strategy that’s used for every student can easily backfire. Instead, we take the time to understand each student’s performance.

For instance, if a student performs well on tests but struggles with time management, our teachers assiduously identify this caveat and work on it accordingly. If another student understands concepts well but struggles to retain them, our teachers use knowledge retention strategies to help them retain their lessons.

Individualised academic and non-academic skill-building goes a long, long way in helping students feel excited about attending school. They don’t feel frustrated about underperforming as the very factors that are making them underperform are identified and corrected. Students don’t have to do the legwork of figuring out why they’re struggling while their peers aren’t. This process can be extremely taxing for students, especially young children. Our teachers shoulder this responsibility so students can put in the effort they need to while the rest of it is taken care of by us.

Better learners are happy learners. As students notice that they’re performing better, they feel more eager and excited about their schooling journey. Our MA/PhD qualified subject specialist teachers are provided extensive training to help them understand each student’s unique learning curves. As the deviations are detected and improved, our students perform exceptionally well and feel good about their schooling experience.

Recommended Read: How Can I Help My Child Become a Better Online Learner?

Now that you have a better grasp of the root causes of inattentiveness (and how we help eliminate them), you’ll have a better understanding of how unlikely it is for your child to lose interest in online school. As a parent, make sure you choose the right institution to help your child perform well and remain engrossed in their lessons in the long run.

At Cambridge Home School, we provide a quality online British education to students across four homeschooling programs: Primary Prep/Key Stage 2 (ages 8 to 10), 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). Utilise the following resources for more insight:

• Admissions Process
• Term Dates
• Application Form
• Scholarships & Bursaries
• Grades & Fees
• Online Reviews

As one of the leading online independent schools, we’re committed to helping students excel. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions; we’re always happy to help!

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FAQ

Is online schooling becoming more popular?

Yes, online schooling is gaining widespread acceptance, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as we approach a post-pandemic world, parents continue to enrol their children in reputable online schools, not only in the UK but also in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

What are the benefits of online schooling over in-person education?

Online schooling offers a safer environment by reducing the risk of COVID-19 exposure. Additionally, it minimises the chances of bullying, harassment, and peer pressure, which are more common in conventional schools with high student-teacher ratios.

How does Cambridge Home School maintain student engagement?

Cambridge Home School focuses on keeping the student-teacher ratio low, around 8-10 students per class, to provide personalised attention. Classes are engaging and interactive, utilising advanced audio-visual learning technology and incorporating elements like quizzes, games, and skill-building activities to keep students interested.

Will my child lose interest in online schooling over time?

While it’s a common concern, Cambridge Home School addresses this by making lessons engaging and by maintaining a healthy school-life balance for students. Teachers are trained to keep classes interactive and to employ a variety of strategies to maximise student engagement.

How does Cambridge Home School handle individual learning needs?

The school avoids a one-size-fits-all approach to education. Teachers at Cambridge Home School are trained to understand each student’s unique academic strengths and weaknesses, providing individualised strategies to improve each student’s performance.