Information for Parents

What is Here Comes Super Bus?

Here Comes Super Bus is a four-level, story-based course designed for children learning English as a first or second language. It is suitable for children in their first year of learning English as well as for those who have already followed an introductory course. 

Each unit is built around a central story which is linked to a topic of special interest to children. The activities and tasks are built around the language and content of the story to suit the specific needs, interests and psychological characteristics of the young learner

What are the objectives of the course?

• To build up children’s confidence and develop their linguistic, social and emotional skills/abilities
• To lay the foundations for future study in terms of language-learning skills and strategies, vocabulary, basic language functions and structures
• To make learning English enjoyable and fun
• To encourage children to use English as a means of real communication
• To enable children to listen and talk about themselves and the world around them
• To build up an atmosphere of co-operation and collaboration in the classroom
• To link English with other subjects in the school curriculum
• To make children aware of their achievement and progress in terms of language as well as in terms of attitude towards learning, participation and involvement in the class activities.

How can I support my child's learning?

When learning a language, interest and encouragement from family members can be very important. Your support will help your child to value his or her own learning. Here are some tips about how you can help your child:

• Take an active interest in your child’s work. Your child will pick up on your enthusiasm.
• Make the English work you do with your child enjoyable by playing some of the games below. Give your child plenty of time to answer questions or to do activities.
• Be positive and give praise for anything good your child can do. Don’t just comment on mistakes.

What can I do to help my child get the most out of the course?

Look at the stories that your child has done in class. Ask your child to point to the pictures while you listen to the story on the course CD.

Ask your child to teach you a song from the coursebook. This will give your child more confidence and they will also see that you value using English. With dialogues, ask your child to act these out with you.

Many coursebooks have characters that appear throughout the book in stories and in activities. Ask your child to introduce you to the characters. You can ask questions like: What’s her name? How old is she? What does she like? What colour are her eyes / is her hair?

Get your child to tell you about a reading text in the coursebook. Then ask your child to read the text and answer any questions about it in the coursebook. Allow your child to do this at his own pace – don’t rush your child while they are reading.

Select some correct grammar sentences from your child’s coursebook. Write the words in these sentences on pieces of card or paper (a word on each piece). Then mix them up and ask your child to make sentences from the words.