Wales-based educational resources provider Daydream Education has made a selection of its downloadable study tools available for free to support home education during lockdown. It has also issued a set of tips to help parents ensure their children get the most out of home study.

The Bridgend-based company was founded 25 years ago by Chris Malcom after he identified a need for quality educational posters in school classrooms. Its posters are now in over 90 percent of UK secondary schools and are used widely internationally as well. With schools closed, however, the company’s customer base has shifted as it experiences a surge in demand from parents who are keen to support their children with their home-based learning.

As well as posters, Daydream Education produces its range of Pocket Posters revision guides, which present all the information from their posters in book form and come with a free digital app which includes assessment activities and reporting. To help teachers, parents and children with their homebased learning, Daydream has released a range of free resources, which can be downloaded from its website.

Chris Malcom, MD of Daydream Education, said: “Our posters are designed to present all the essential information needed by pupils in an eye-catching and memorable way. They’ve been a teachers’ favourite for many years, but now more and more parents are recognising the benefits of using these at home.

“Students studying at home are also benefitting from our revision guides and the accompanying digital resources and tests, which help to ensure they continue to progress at a good pace while studying at home. Home study can be stressful for both parents and children and we hope that by providing a selection of free resources via our website, we’ll be able to help them through this challenging time.”

5 home education study tips from Chris Malcom are:

·         Decide on a specific location for home study and stick with it. Having a designated area for study – even if it’s a corner of the living room – can help your child get into the right mind-set as soon as they sit down.

·         Remove as many distractions as possible – switch the TV off, discourage mobile phone use while studying, and if possible, make sure younger children stay in another room.

·         Break your child’s study period into blocks of 20 minutes, allowing breaks of 10-15 minutes in between. These short, sharp sessions, known as spaced learning, have been shown to be the best for maintaining concentration and retaining information.

·         Make sure your child has access to the resources they need to help them when they get stuck. Our free online resources can help here.

·         At the end of a session, do a quick-fire assessment to check understanding of the topic covered. Our free digital resources available when you purchase our Pocket Poster Revision Guides include quick-fire assessment activities, which can be used to test your child’s levels of understanding and keep track of their progress.