Admissions 2024-25
Welcome to Springdale First School
School Readiness Evening
On Thursday 21st March we invited parents whose children are due to start school in September 24 for a presentation evening to discuss and to find out exactly what 'School Ready' means. We hope this provided some tips and ideas to help prepare your child for their new adventure, and to provide you with useful resources that you can share with your child at home.
Please see the attached at the bottom of the page the slides which were shared on the evening.
Getting Ready for School
We know that starting school is a big milestone for you and your child. We hope this information both reassures and excites you as we look forward to preparing for Springdale’s latest recruits!
Whilst we appreciate you want to prepare your child as much as you can for starting school, one thing to remember is that pre-schoolers don’t need to do lots of what you might think of as ‘schoolwork’ at home before they start. Across Poole, we’ve used the term ‘School Readiness’ to encompass all the skills that we believe children need to be secure in, to enable them to make a smooth start.
School Readiness is when a child holds curiosity and enthusiasm for the world around them. They are able to co-operate and share with one another. They speak clearly in sentences whilst listening and understanding what others say. They move with co-ordination whilst being able to address their care needs.
This can be summed up as…
7 skills to support children in school readiness:
Co-operating
Listening and understanding
Sharing
Dealing independently with care needs
Speaking clearly in sentences
Having co-ordination
Showing curiosity and enthusiasm
Whilst it is brilliant if a child can write their name or count to 20, we are not expecting the children to start school being able to do these things. It is important to recognise the importance of the above 7 skills, as they lay the foundations for successful future learning.
All these skills can be encouraged at home in creative ways. The ‘simple’ things can be really helpful, too: singing nursery rhymes, being interested in numbers, sharing stories, solving puzzles and just doing things with your child like baking, getting out in the garden and simply chatting with them. Good communication is the heart of all learning. Talking, reading aloud and singing all stimulate children’s understanding and use of language. This helps them learn to become good communicators and eager readers.
Helpful Resources
Below are some links to documents from the Professional Association of Childcare and Early Years (PACEY). These are wonderful resources which offer ideas on how to best support and prepare your child for school. The activities are things that can be incorporated into your day-to-day routines.
A Parents Guide To Preparing Your Child For Starting School
Top Tips for Parents
Other useful web links
Follow this link to enjoy singing some of your child’s favourite nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are great for developing young children’s language acquisition.
Nursery Rhymes - BBC School Radio
Here are some online maths games which help develop your child’s counting skills and support their recognition of numbers and shapes.
The Gingerbread Man Game Teddy Numbers Underwater Counting
Ladybird Spots Shape Monsters Curious George Bug Catcher
Sharing Stories
Whilst it’s important to follow your child’s lead in terms of how much, or little, they want to discuss the transition, sharing stories about starting school is a great way to naturally bring up the transition in an organic way. As a parent, you too will have your own thoughts and feelings about the experience but, it’s important to try and instil in your child that this is an exciting event and not something to fear.
You can help your child to be excited, enthusiastic, curious and confident about starting school by reading books about starting school with them. Children have lots of transitions in their lives, handling this transition to school sensitively will help your child to build resilience and to be ready to take on all that school has to offer. Reading books together about starting school will allow your child the chance to start to form a picture about what school might be like and to ask you questions. Building your child’s confidence and resilience in this way will help them to explore, access the activities on offer in school and find solutions. These form some of the basic skills needed to learn.
Here are a few books that you might enjoy together…
