As part of our series of stories on education, the ABC's spoken to several teachers who say they're struggling to teach children who are turning up to school tired and unable to focus on learning. That comes amid poor NAPLAN results and falling rates of school attendance. So how can parents help what happens in the classroom?
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00:00While parents can't control what their kids get up to during school hours, experts say
00:08there are plenty of things that can be done at home to ensure kids are more confident
00:12and capable in the classroom. Among the most important are sleep and nutrition.
00:19Child psychologist and parent Cassie Zintavoulonis sees how essential adequate sleep is both
00:24at home and in her practice. She advocates a regular bedtime routine.
00:32Sleep can kind of be the first thing that we can change and we can change quite easily
00:38without medical intervention. This year's NAPLAN results show one in three
00:42Australian school students is not meeting literacy and numeracy benchmarks and school
00:47attendance rates are dropping. Research shows insufficient sleep impacts
00:52attention span, memory, creativity and learning ability and it's linked to anxiety and depression.
00:58Australian guidelines recommend 5-13 year olds sleep for 9-11 hours and 14-17 year olds
01:05sleep 8-10 hours. A nutritious diet can improve mental health
01:09and enhance cognitive skills and academic performance.
01:13If kids can be eating regularly, good healthy foods including fruits and vegetables and
01:20good proteins, it sustains energy, promotes focus and learning.
01:27Experts say it's also important to provide a safe space for kids to talk about any problems
01:32that they might be having at school and to establish that while they're young.
01:36Many teachers are concerned about students being exposed to inappropriate content online
01:41at home, then bringing explicit language and violent or sexual topics of conversation into
01:46the classroom. Jen Hoey started advocating to keep kids
01:49safe on the internet after her daughter encountered a predator through an online game.
01:54And I became very quickly aware that as parents we are not sufficiently understanding the
02:02risks that our children face when they go online unsupervised, in particular in their
02:08bedrooms. Keeping devices out of bedrooms is strongly
02:11encouraged in her online parenting group and using a lockbox overnight.
02:19Setting up for success.