Bright and early Friday morning, I set off from Halifax to Ashover in Derby to run a Frog Play drop in session for the parents at Ashover Primary School. We had recently trained the staff on Frog Play, and it was decided that the parents could do with a friendly, informal session to help them support their children in using the software. We weren’t sure how many parents we were going to get and we were pleasantly surprised by the 28 parents, two toddlers and a baby that walked through the door. We even had to dig out extra chairs!
I gave a brief overview of the system from a child’s perspective and pointed out the important bits. That was mainly the homework areas and quizzes (for the parents) and how to play the games and design their avatar (for the children!). After the presentation, the parents had the option of logging onto school laptops while supported by some excellent Year 6 Digital Leaders to have a go at the software themselves. There were lots of questions and it was nice to see such an engaged group of parents, keen and ready to support their children in their learning.
After the training Sharon Hallsworth, Assistant Head said, “The parent training session was a way of engaging parents with homework so that they can support their child at home. Jenny was friendly and approachable and parents took advantage of the opportunity to work with the digital leaders to secure their understanding of Frog Play.”