Starting school is an exciting time, both for your child, and you as their parent. It is a critical time in their growth and development, a real milestone.
Unfortunately, some parents feel that their job is done and that the class teacher is now responsible for their child’s continuing development. This, however, could not be further from the truth. You as the parent are still vitally important in ensuring that your child’s developmental journey progresses smoothly.
Here are a few things that Reception Teachers wish you knew:
You have more to do than just drop your little one off at school in the morning. You need to work in partnership with the teacher; make yourself known. Keep each other informed about anything at home or in school that might affect your child’s behaviour or mood. Becoming a volunteer at the school can be a wonderful way of getting to know the school and showing your child how much you care about what they are doing.
Make sure your child arrives on time each day. It is distressing for your child to arrive after activities have begun; it hinders the teacher’s efforts in getting a smooth, happy start to the day.
Make sure your child has a healthy breakfast before they leave home. Studies show that children who have a healthy breakfast behave better, are more focused and learn more.
Read to your child frequently. School will hopefully be sending books home on a daily basis. Read to your child as often as possible, once a day is not enough, two to three times should be a minimum; books are vital to your child’s development. Make books exciting; talk about the pictures, characters and settings. Encourage them to guess what the story is about and at the end of the book ask them what they enjoyed. As well as reading books from school, take your child to the library and have them choose their own books of interest.
Encourage written exploration. Give your child lots of opportunities to use a variety of writing instruments such as pencils, crayons, coloured pencils and paint. Your child should be encouraged to enjoy expressing themselves graphically. They will start with lines and scribbles but these scribbles soon form the building blocks of letters and words.
Make sure your child has lots of opportunities for play. Children learn through play, both on their own and play within groups. It helps to develop their social skills which are very important now that they are sharing their day with so many other children. They also need a chance to relax.
Try not to overbook your young child’s after-school time. Your child will be tired at the end of the school day. If you want your child to be happy try not to rush them from school to other organized activities. Instead take them home, give them a snack and drink, let them play, share a book together and chat about their day. This time after school can be a lovely time for both you and your child.
Homework. When your child first starts school their main homework task will be reading. They may also be asked to gather information for school projects, one of the most likely of these being ‘All About Me’, a topic very popular in Reception classes. Homework is an opportunity to extend your child’s learning; it is therefore important to make this a stress-free activity. Show your child that you care about their school work by taking an interest in what they are doing and ensuring that they finish and pack their homework for school the next day.
Limit television and online screen time. Young children often spent many hours using electronic devices and this limits the time they have for talking, reading and playing; all of which are vital to their development.
Help them to develop self-control. Young children need help learning how to express their feelings and needs in an appropriate manner; this is something that is useful to practise at home. Consistent boundaries at home help your child to settle into new structures and expectations at school. Poor impulse control at school can lead to a loss of learning for your child.
Ensure that your child has a good routine for getting to bed at a sensible time. If your child has not had a good night’s sleep they are unlikely to be successful at school the following day.
Valuing your child’s education and working alongside their class teacher to support learning will help to ensure that your child gets the most out of their time at school.
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