PREP SCHOOL NEWS
Helping your child prepare for Reception or a new school It’s May, your school place is confirmed and now is the time to start to prepare your family for the transition into the new setting. If you have a pre-school aged child heading to Reception in September, these thoughts may be crossing your mind: How has this time come around so quickly? How is my child going to be ready for full time school in 3 months? If your preschooler is your first child, then the questions may be compounded by jargon and unfamiliar expectations, which bear no resemblance to any of the things in place when you were at school. If your child is older and they are starting a new school, then you might be wondering what you can do to help transition them. After multiple lockdowns, independent schools are seeing an increase in new joiners so if you’ve chosen an independent school, there may be further questions especially around the jargon! Here are my top tips for getting your head around it all and helping your child get on a positive footing in September.
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Accept any offers to visit the school. In Covid times, it has been very difficult to visit schools and although you may have met the
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school team via virtual events, nothing beats a real in-person visit. Any settling in sessions or induction events are helpful in familiarising your child with the environment. Your child will see what is expected with regards to uniform , get used to seeing bigger crowds of children and get to know the classroom and teachers. At this point it’s important to get excited with your child. Any of your own feelings of uneasiness and wanting to press pause on time to keep your child a ‘baby’ need to be quashed as these will pass to your child. Be the adult and model the approach to the next step in your child’s life.
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Uniform - another way to get excited here. Encourage your child to try it on as many times as they wish. Make it fun and treat it a bit like part of the dressing up box. If you’re at a school where
