The Balanced Diet Approach

A balanced diet takes into account the essential food groups and how much is needed of each. The aim is provide the body with the right ingredients so that it can grow strong and healthy.

The world of finance follows a similar balanced approach with a healthy mix of investments for best success.

What if parents deliberately planned a ‘balanced diet’ of a range of learning opportunities for their child?

What would your essentials be? How would you balance your child’s need to develop for social and academic skills, their emotional development and their artistic or creative growth?

In which areas might the school support your child’s growth?

Which areas might be addressed at home?

Which might be best addressed through extra curricular activities (perhaps music or art lessons, or specialised sports?

It can be a useful exercise to spend some time working out what your child’s current needs are and what your conception of a healthy learning framework might look like (at this point in time). Then you can work out the areas in which the school might contribute. It is important though to remember that no school, regardless of how ‘good’ they are or how willing, can meet all the needs of the child. Getting the best outcomes needs a partnership. It is true that it can take ‘a village to raise a child’.

When you have completed the process you will have a framework for discussions with the school about the role they might plan in balancing the diet. And a road map, for the time being, of what you will take responsibility for and what extra curricular activities you might organise.

This process of reflection and review on the balance of the ‘diet’ is one that it is worth completing regularly. The plan might only have the right balance for this year (or even part of a year) but monitoring it can bring the same benefits as keeping an eye on your child’s diet.