Preparing for Big School 5
In the run up to the start of the new school year, I talked about various things we did to prepare Baby for school. This is his first year in school and part of our preparation involved preparing him for the move. Followers of this blog will know that Baby has been in nursery from a very young age. He is used to spending time with nursery teachers and other children, with significant chunks of the day during the working week away from us. He is, therefore, also used to being dropped off and picked up by us at the start and end of the day, respectively. There has never been any trauma at drop-off or pick-up. As school will have a very similar routine, we did not expect him to have huge problems settling in. Indeed he has settled in very well and he loves school.
Our major concern, in the run up to the start of term was that he would miss nursery. He had spent the best part of 4 years at the same place, surrounded by people that he had grown to know very well. He had a good relationship with his nursery teachers and he had a lot of friends. Most of his friends lived near nursery and had been allocated schools that were close to home; we live a bit further away from nursery and, as a consequence, none of Baby's friends from nursery are attending his school. We worried that change to school would affect him because he would be moving to a new environment where he knew no one.
In the months leading to the start of term, we took great pains to point out his school to him every time we passed it to get him used to the concept of the move. We told him all the fun things that he could be doing, that he will meet new teachers who will look after him, and make new friends. He did have some questions about school- e.g. would their be certain toys in school- and we answered them as best we could, also introducing the fact that there will be work involved and it would not be all play, but it would still be fun. The nursery was very helpful in talking to the children about moving to school, how that was a fun thing that children do as they grow up, and organised a graduation day to mark the end of the nursery stay for the children. In the year or so leading up to departure day, the nursery teachers had been busy preparing the children for school, introducing some structured learning for the children everyday. It was very light-touch but we did sense that Baby would probably not be thrown by the school routine. The school organised settling sessions for the children to meet their teachers and potential classmates, and parents' sessions to brief the parents on what they could expect and how they could help the children settle in to the school routine.
All of the above were most helpful. I cannot say which had the most impact but it would be fair to say that all of them played a part in Baby settling in so well at school. He is happy and cheerful, has made friends, and loves his teachers. Getting him to school in the morning has not been a problem as he is eager to go. Long may that last!
Our major concern, in the run up to the start of term was that he would miss nursery. He had spent the best part of 4 years at the same place, surrounded by people that he had grown to know very well. He had a good relationship with his nursery teachers and he had a lot of friends. Most of his friends lived near nursery and had been allocated schools that were close to home; we live a bit further away from nursery and, as a consequence, none of Baby's friends from nursery are attending his school. We worried that change to school would affect him because he would be moving to a new environment where he knew no one.
In the months leading to the start of term, we took great pains to point out his school to him every time we passed it to get him used to the concept of the move. We told him all the fun things that he could be doing, that he will meet new teachers who will look after him, and make new friends. He did have some questions about school- e.g. would their be certain toys in school- and we answered them as best we could, also introducing the fact that there will be work involved and it would not be all play, but it would still be fun. The nursery was very helpful in talking to the children about moving to school, how that was a fun thing that children do as they grow up, and organised a graduation day to mark the end of the nursery stay for the children. In the year or so leading up to departure day, the nursery teachers had been busy preparing the children for school, introducing some structured learning for the children everyday. It was very light-touch but we did sense that Baby would probably not be thrown by the school routine. The school organised settling sessions for the children to meet their teachers and potential classmates, and parents' sessions to brief the parents on what they could expect and how they could help the children settle in to the school routine.
All of the above were most helpful. I cannot say which had the most impact but it would be fair to say that all of them played a part in Baby settling in so well at school. He is happy and cheerful, has made friends, and loves his teachers. Getting him to school in the morning has not been a problem as he is eager to go. Long may that last!
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