Is your child starting Reception this year? Niki Page, a Reception teacher with over ten years of experience and an EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) phase leader in a school rated Outstanding by Ofsted, shares how to get your child off to a great start.
Settling in and making friends is a big worry for parents, and school is, after all, where your little one learns the bulk of their social skills. Personal, social and emotional development is one of the cornerstones of Reception’s curriculum, and the foundation for achieving the other learning goals.
Here are her tips for getting the first few weeks off to a great start.
What can I do to help my child settle in faster?
Most Reception classes will try to keep children in their preschool or nursery groups so they have familiar friends from day one. Your child might also have been invited to taster days to help them settle in faster. Some schools offer ‘stay and play’ sessions, which give you the chance to get to know the classroom and the facilities available.
Is there anything worth doing in the last two weeks of the holidays?
Two things, and neither of them takes long.
Walk the school route at the time you’ll actually be walking it, and do it more than once. Your child gets to see the gate, the crossing and the walk in without the pressure of it being the real thing, and you get a proper sense of how long it takes.
Then start moving bedtime earlier by about fifteen minutes every few days. Trying to fix the whole thing on the night of the 31st rarely works. A gradual shift over a fortnight is far kinder on everyone.
What do I actually need to be ready?
Uniform and clothing
- School uniform, three or four of each item (check school requirements)
- PE kit as specified by the school
- Plimsolls or trainers for PE (check school policy)
- School shoes, properly fitted
- Wellies (many schools keep these at school)
- Waterproof coat
- Spare full set of clothes in a named bag, kept in the school bag permanently
Bags and kit
- School bag (check size requirements, some schools specify)
- Named water bottle
- Lunchbox if not having school lunches (check whether the school is nut free)
- Book bag if the school uses one (often provided or sold by school)
Labelling
Do this before everything else gets lost. Uniform, shoes, water bottle, book bag, all of it.
- Iron on or sew in labels for uniform
- Name stamps or stickers for shoes, water bottle and lunchbox
- A Sharpie for anything else
Get ready for back to school
The gap between the end of the school day and the end of your working day is the bit that catches most families out, and it arrives at exactly the point when your child has nothing left to give.
We wish you and your children all the best of luck as they begin their school career!
