Assistant Principal Report 

Dear Parents and Carers, 

It is a busy time of year at school. Teachers are gathering data and writing reports. Pre-school children are coming to Melton West on Tuesdays to help prepare them for Prep 2023. Our Year 6 children are preparing for Graduation and the move to Secondary School.

All our year levels are preparing to step up to the next year and starting to wonder about their new grade and their new teacher.

Making the move from early learning to school, from one grade level to the next and from primary school to secondary school is a big step for both children and parents. It’s exciting and it’s daunting. But with the right preparation, you can help ensure the experience is positive and fun for everyone. Parents have a big impact on school success. Here are some tips to help your child make the transition to school, to secondary school and to the next year level. 

Recognise the changeIt is important to recognise and normalise your feelings and your child’s in the lead up to the transition. It’s okay for children (and parents!) to feel nervous or unsure, but focus attention on the positives - like growing up, making new friends, and learning new things. 

Support their developing social-emotional skillsEmotionally intelligent children can self-regulate and more easily build other important skills. You can support your child’s emotional development by helping them recognise the emotions they’re feeling, negotiate with other children, and self-regulate in socially acceptable ways. 

For Pre-schoolers: Build on early literacy and numeracy skillsReading books to your child promotes literacy skills and a love of learning. Books are a fun and engaging way to develop vocabulary, knowledge, creativity, concentration, empathy and imagination. Numeracy skills can be developed by counting, sorting items into larger or smaller, measuring ingredients during cooking, or dividing food into equal shares. 

For Pre-schoolers: Establish familiarity with the concept of schoolConsistency builds confidence. Children feel secure when they know what to expect, so use the preschool year to gently introduce the idea of school and the environment, behaviours and routines they’ll encounter. Try:

• Talking and reading about school
• Letting them dress up in their school uniform
• Arranging playdates with children who’ll be attending the same school
• Practicing the routine of getting ready and packing lunch

Have a conversation

Start the chat about what went well and what didn’t go so well and what changes they can make for the next year. When kids have a hard time in school the previous year, parents should be talking to them about what they learned from that hard time. After all, we’re supposed to learn from difficulty. This talk should ideally happen at the end of the school year because the experience is fresh in your child’s mind. If you wait, your child may even deny that last year was bad. Nevertheless, now is still a good time to have this conversation if you have not had it already. Also if your child has had a really successful year chat about why and how they can ensure that they have another great year.

 Preparing your child for their next learning step will reinforce what their preschool or school teacher is doing, and can really help them make a successful transition to the next step on their learning journey. 

 Kind regards

Jennifer O’Connor

Assistant Principal.