Since nationwide school closures were announced in March and with returning to school now looking questionable this side of September, it was with interest that we received the results of this new survey, which reveals all about the lockdown homeschooling experience.
Commissioned by Clarks, the survey found that the most enjoyable subjects for parents to teach are maths (49%), English (43%), history (27%), science (26%), and art (25%). Despite being deemed enjoyable, some of these subjects have also been challenging. Nearly a third of those surveyed said maths has been the most difficult to teach, followed by English (17%), science (15%), foreign languages (12%), history (7%) and I.T. (7%).
Virtual lessons held by celebrities have also been popular – whether it’s P.E. with Joe Wicks or David Attenborough’s geography classes, nearly a quarter (24%) of UK parents cited this as a homeschooling resource. Looking at who is adopting this new format for learning, a quarter of women teaching their kids have claimed to be tuning in, compared to only a fifth of men. It was also found that parents aged 25-34 use them more than any other age group.
Top findings for Leicester include:
People in Leicester are turning to Google for help with maths the most (with an average monthly search volume of 2,210), followed by English (SV 1,870), science (SV 1,810), geography (SV 1,520) and history (SV 510).
In mathematics, the phrase ‘what is a polygon’ has seen an increase of 183% in Google searches since April 2019, with those in Leicester searching for this to help with homeschooling more than any other UK city.
Top findings for Birmingham include:
More than a fifth of parents in Birmingham said they’ll respect and appreciate teachers a lot more since their experience of homeschooling. 28% said their experience has made them realise how much the curriculum has changed since they were at school.
Maths is reported to be the most enjoyable, despite also being the most challenging to teach.
Nearly 10% report experiencing some level of difficulty with finding the information they need to teach their kids at home. UK wide, this increases to 1 in 4 parents whose children are studying GCSEs and A Levels.
45% of Birmingham parents turn to Google for homeschooling help, 43% use BBC Bitesize and similar online education resources, and a third said they contact their children’s teachers directly. Around 18% say they’ve used virtual lessons hosted by celebrities.
Some of the most googled homeschooling questions are What is a verb? and how many bones in the human body. See the full list here: https://www.clarks.co.uk/insight/most-searched-homeschooling-questions