If he was in school he’d already be being labelled a problem and think what damage that does to a child’s confidence and

If he was in school he’d already be being labelled a problem, and think what damage that does to a child’s confidence and self-esteem.”Also, he says, his fine motor skills are not yet as well developed as those of friends who are girls. “But to put it like that makes him sound as if there’s something wrong with him There’s not. He’s just developing at his own pace.”
As home-schoolers, Mike and Deidre Wayne, lecturers who live in south London, are directly tackling a question that is beginning to nag at more and more teachers and parents. Her book provides the small print.The writer lectures on education at King’s College London.

Hilary Wilce’s ‘Help Your Child Succeed at School’ is published by Piatkus at £8.99education independent.co.uk. And, by implication, she wants those in school to behave professionally and get on with the job they are paid to do It is a contract. Education, she argues, should be part of the everyday relationship we have with our children, not a pressurised bolt-on.But she does not let schools off either. While she does not think we should be monitoring, with a fine-tooth comb, the homework regime of the school, or storming up to the head with a list of complaints if they are not meeting the needs of our child, she does outline what we might reasonably expect, and how to look for signs of genuine distress or under-performance.In the end, Wilce wants informed engagement from parents as a means of retaining their sanity and, more important, as a way of helping their children succeed.

None of us, she suggests, are perfect, nor will we achieve the perfect system for our children.Such an observation is in itself liberating, for there is too much intensity around children and school. But she does not advocate numerous structured activities at home, programmes of study or worthy pursuits and visits. Some of this undoubtedly comes from adults playing competitive games through their children. Yet the very real pressure of exams coupled with parental guilt – “Have we done enough? What else should we be doing?” – means that anxiety seems inevitable.