How to Support Your Foster Child at School

When you foster a child, one of the biggest challenges that you might face is getting them into a successful school routine. Often, children who’ve grown up in foster care, or been placed into the system as a result of neglect or abuse, will have faced some difficulties in an educational setting. If you’ve recently fostered, or you’re trying to prepare ahead of a new child joining your family, this guide will run through the best ways that you can support your foster child at school.

Develop a Realistic Routine

Between the school day, homework and extra-curricular activities like sports and social clubs, education can be overwhelming for a lot of foster children. These responsibilities can be very demanding, so helping your child to develop a routine that is realistic for them and their current capabilities is key. If they aren’t used to doing homework, expecting them to immediately sit down for two hours every evening to complete extra work is unrealistic and sets them up for failure. Instead, work with them to slowly increase the amount that they are confidently able to take on, and you’ll encourage them to build healthy habits and grow in self-confidence.

Encourage Their Ambition

Unfortunately, lots of children who grow up in the foster care system have doubts about their ability to achieve their goals. This can be due to a multitude of factors, including the lack of interest shown by parents or relatives throughout their upbringing. However, one particular study showed that many of the children in foster care feel that the adults in their life don’t believe in their ability to succeed. That’s why as a foster parent, encouraging their ambition and supporting them to work hard even in the face of failure or setbacks is vital. This shows them that even if they aren’t doing well at school now, they still have the potential to in the future.

Utilise Available Resources

Whether you keep your foster child in their current school, or their social worker agrees to enrol them into a new one, the school should be able to provide a number of resources to help them learn or point you in the right direction of where to find additional support. However, it’s easy to overlook some of the other establishments that can help you if you’re struggling to encourage your child.

For example, the agency that you choose when fostering a child will often have their own resources that can help, such as a dedicated social worker or helpline that you can reach out to. Services like orangegrovefostercare.co.uk offer a huge variety of support for families across Essex and other regions who are looking to improve the lives of young people, and this could be the perfect agency for you if you want to help a child change their life path and grow into a happy, healthy young adult.

School can be an overwhelming environment for any child, but for children in the foster care system the issues that kids face at school can be heightened, and this can lead to some unwanted behaviours. By following these top tips and doing everything you can to support your foster child at school, you can boost their self-esteem and encourage them to take pride in both their academic and extra-curricular performance.