Is school?readychildyourfor Our top 8 indicators your child is ready to thrive.
We use the term ‘school readiness’ when referring to whether a child is ready to participate and succeed in school. School readiness is not focused only on knowledge (such as counting, writing their name or knowing colours) but refers to a broader range of skills including social, emotional and physical abilities and behaviours. In this booklet we give you our top 8 indicators that your child is ready for school and can thrive. We also provide tips on how to foster these skills, behaviours and knowledge.
1. Eating and drinking independently (can open lunch box). Eating and drinking independently is an important skill to prepare your child for school. Spend time with your pre-schooler practicing use of their drink bottle and opening their lunch box. Teach them how to open packets and unwrap food. Building your child’s fine motor skills in other ways can assist this development. Simple activities such as playing puzzles or using tongs and scissors can help.
2. Recognise their written name.
Recognising their name also helps them feel important and begins the process of sight reading.
Children are curious to learn to recognise and write their name. Writing their name is one of the first things they will learn to do, so being able to recognise it and perhaps spell it is a great start.
To help your child recognise their name you may like to make their name with magnetic letters, alphabet beads, or cut letters out of magazines and glue them on to paper.
3. Hold a pencil to draw.
Being ready to start school means having a good pencil grip, between thumb and two fingers. By school commencement most children can draw simple shapes, such as a crosses, squares and diagonal lines, and they may know how to write some capital letters.
Activities you can do at home to develop your child’s hand muscles and finger control to prepare them for writing include pegging washing, crafts using scissors, painting and threading or weaving.
4. Sing songs and rhymes about numbers. When children can sing songs and rhymes about numbers it nurtures developing their number concept and early math skills. There are many fun songs and rhymes to teach your child to count forwards and backwards, such as: • One, two, three, four, five once I caught a fish alive • Five little ducks • The ants go marching • Hickory dickory dock.
5. Play with others – share and take turns, join in games. Encourage your child to develop relationships with other children of a similar age who they may not be familiar with. This could be at the local park or through a playgroup. Arrange playdates so your child can practice social interaction. Parents can actively facilitate developing skills such as sharing and playing games together.
6. Enjoy listening to stories. Regularly read to your child to develop their love of stories. This will teach them to sit through reading an entire book and prepare them for Visitliteracy.yourlocal library for story time, where they can learn to sit with other children of a similar age to listen to a story being read.
7. Follow simple instructions. Being able to follow simple instructions is an important school readiness skill. At school children will need to listen to and follow short, basic instructions from their teacher, telling them what they need to do or where they need to go. Children gain self-confidence when they can follow instructions and become more independent. To increase your child’s ability to follow instructions you can task them with simple instructions or play basic board games.
To help your child become more independent you can encourage them to increase their capability with self-care tasks such as washing their hands, getting dressed and blowing their nose. In the shortterm these activities may take a little longer, but with practice they will become efficient! Where possible, provide verbal rather than physical assistance. Being able to separate easily and confidently say goodbye to parents each morning will help your child to get off to a good start each day at school. Practice a goodbye ritual with your child and discuss the routines of school. You can set up playdates with other children or visits with family members where you are not present.
8. Self-care and independence (can wash hands, blow nose, dress and confidently say goodbye to parents each morning).
Early in Prep at Shelford, students are encouraged to harness their passions and develop lifelong interests. We prioritise literacy and numeracy development and offer a range of experiences and specialist subjects, where students can explore the arts, languages and technology. Small class sizes allow our teachers to know and individually nurture each student so they develop to the best of their potential. Our girls very quickly become successful learners, and confident and creative individuals. Shelford offers a strong sense of community spirit where our students and families feel a sense of belonging and pride, and every girl has room to thrive. To find out more about Shelford please contact our Registrar, Marie De Sousa on 9524 7413 or email mdesousa@shelford.vic.edu.au Girls’ Grammar Crescent Caulfield shelford.vic.edu.au
About Shelford Shelford Girls’ Grammar is an independent school for girls from Prep to Year 12. We’re a small, inclusive school with an outstanding academic reputation and wonderful sense of community. We believe extraordinary care creates extraordinary girls, and we’ve been helping girls thrive for almost 125 years. At Shelford we believe the first year of school is a vital one, laying the foundation for your daughter’s education. With the right structures and support, children learn how to successfully interact with others, problem solve, experiment, take risks and explore.
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Socialisation is paramount to a good Prep year. The skills students develop during this time are critical competencies they will need throughout their entire lives.
