A teacher with over 35 years of experience in tutoring is offering parents help to keep youngsters up to date with their studies.

Dorothy Cooper, a Bolton-based English teacher, who has taught a mixture of GCSE and A-levels, is urging parents to keep youngsters thinking and ahead of their studies over the summer.

She understands the difficult task parents have faced trying to home school during lockdown and is especially concerned about year 10 children going back to year 11 having missed so much of their GCSE learning.

Year 11s considering resits in November pending exam results in August is also a big area of concern for the teacher.

Dorothy said: “These are very difficult times for youngsters – and their parents.

“Traditionally, children drop off in the summer break, they are less engaged on their return, and this year, there are so many uncertainties.

“Positive reinforcement is key, instilling the idea that learning is experimentation and wrong answers are just steps to be built on rather than stumbling blocks to fall down on.”

With this in mind she has offered practical advice to parents on how they can keep their child focused over the prolonged summer break due to coronavirus.

She encourages volunteering, saying: “Look for something in an area that interests them, in a safe, distanced way.

“Activity keeps the brain engaged even if the learning isn’t formal.”

Dorothy also encourages keeping children organised by doing some low level revision.

She said: “As there is no onslaught of teacher-set work, sort out notes and do some low level revision. Just help them keep the brain ticking.”

Dorothy says reading is also crucial to educating children in their vocabulary and critical thinking, but it's also vital to let kids be kids.

She said: “It’s Summer, they have just had the four hardest months in their lives so let them kick back, relax, sleep, play and just be.

“They need space to refresh so they can face whatever uncertain environment awaits them in September.”