Skip to content ↓

Helpful Hints

  1. Remember that a child’s confidence and positive attitude is vital.  School is a great adventure.

 

  1. Encourage independence – children should be able to fasten their own shoes, use the correct words to ask to go to the toilet, wash their hands properly, blow their own noses, dress and undress themselves, use a knife and fork correctly etc.

 

  1. Allow them to tidy up at home and put their toys away tidily – this will help when they are expected to clear away in school.

 

  1. On the first day hand your child over to the teacher and leave quickly – long partings unsettle the children.

 

  1. At the end of the day, meet the child and make sure you are there in plenty of time – children need the confidence to know you are there.

 

  1. For the first few weeks children may be very tired after the school day so do allow a nap if they need it.

 

  1. Children may volunteer information and may welcome gentle interest but try not to ‘interrogate’ every day.

 

  1. Try not to make comparison with your own early education.  Memory does fade after a long time and apart from expectations changing, your comparisons may not be accurate.

 

  1. Structured play will play a great part in your child’s early education.  Please don’t dismiss it – it is vital for mental, social and physical development.

 

  1. You can help your children in many ways – reading stories and poems to them (right through primary school, not just the very early years), pointing out signs, notices etc when shopping, allowing them to help with weighing and baking, helping them to count with shells, buttons, coins etc so that they get a ‘feel’ for an amount rather than just knowing the name of numbers etc.

 

  1. Children develop at different rates.  Try not to worry if they don’t appear to be making great advances early on.  Some children who are pressurised too much early on regress later, while a slower starter may well overtake his peers in time.