Some years ago I remember a mother coming to see me having delivered her son into the safe keeping of the teacher on his first day.
‘I've got a bone to pick with you!' she announced. ‘My son woke my husband and myself at three o'clock this morning. He wanted to know whether it was time for school yet and was wearing his new uniform. ‘It's your fault', she said accusingly, ‘you've made school too attractive.'
I must admit that I was initially taken aback, but then she smiled and it became clear that she had been teasing me and was actually delighted with his enthusiasm.
Now I'm not suggesting that anyone should measure the success of preparation for school by how early their child gets up on the big day, but I am suggesting that confidence and enthusiasm do play a large part.
These days most children have the advantage of pre-school experience in nurseries. This improves their social skills and gives them a better chance of being able to quickly adjust to their new circumstances. If your child has not attended a pre-school group don't worry, but it would be wise to discuss their developmental needs with the prospective teacher, ideally as early as possible.
It's natural to have concerns, but it is important to avoid becoming over-anxious otherwise you may influence your child's feelings of security. Everyone has their own way of dealing with this and in my own case I remember spending two days making a wooden name label for my oldest daughter which she proudly took to school to hang on her clothes peg. I couldn't be there, but I felt she had something made by me. I certainly felt better for it. Teachers are very understanding of how parents feel at this time and often encourage the idea of children having a favourite small item with them. If this hasn't arisen you may find it worth asking about.
Something that I have done in the past, with parental agreement, is to film the reception children in school during their first half-term. The film was then shared with parents and children at a meeting in October and provided a very useful insight into what the children were doing. It also gave parents a chance to see how settled and happy the children were. Obviously schools will have a policy with regard to filming and taking pictures of children at school, but the idea may be worth asking about.
You might wonder what teachers do during the summer break to ensure the welfare of your child. I'm not saying this lightly, but one thing I hope they will do is actually ‘switch - off' and re-gain their energy. But the needs of every child will have been considered and planned for so that they can make the best possible start in September. Once everything settles down a bit in school after the first half-term why don't you ask your child's teacher if there is anything you can do to help? Often reception teachers have a list of the kind of activities that parents can help with and are grateful for an extra pair of hands.
This is a wonderful event in family life; I do hope that you enjoy it.
Most schools have good procedures in place that support the induction of reception-aged pupils and begin to provide information for parents well before the summer break. A key objective of this early activity is to help children to be confident about starting school and parents have a very important part to play in supporting the achievement of this goal.
So what should you do?
