How can I help my child?

Settling into School

To help your child settle into school, here are some of the ways in which you can help to prepare your child and support the learning that will be taking place in the first few months of Foundation.

• A good night’s rest is essential if your child is to be able to cope with school.
• Television - Please choose carefully the amount of television and the suitability, (especially before school).
• Give your child lots and lots of constructive praise and positive encouragement for even small achievements - they thrive on it!
• Read or write to your child every day.  It’s a wonderful way to share some time together and will lay the foundations for your child becoming a reader and a writer
• Talk about words in the environment e.g., signs, letters on taps, point out words as you read book titles etc.
• Encourage your child to be independent and to be responsible e.g., dressing themselves, carrying their own school bag, tidying up after themselves, carrying out simple tasks e.g. giving a message.

• Provide scrap paper and pens/pencils/crayons to encourage your child to ‘write’ and draw.  In the beginning accept all scribbling as the child’s writing and give lots of praise!
• Please encourage the correct grip at all times when children are using pencils, crayons, pens and paintbrushes.
• Share books/puzzles/games with your child, if you have any, and talk about ‘special’ letters e.g. those in the child’s name, the first letter in family members’ names.  Also talk about taking turns, sharing, etc.
• Play with sounds especially the first sound in a word e.g. t-t-table, ch-ch-chair.  Play ‘I spy...’ with the beginning sound, not the letter name.  At school we will be referring to the name of the letter and the sound it usually makes.
• Foster your child’s curiosity by giving them lots of first hand experiences and talking to them about what they are doing, questioning them, and answering their questions.
• Please try and avoid using the term ‘reader’, but rather ‘take home book’.  It is important that children do not see these books as being different from any other book.
• Please encourage your child to ask for things politely using people’s names, looking at their faces and saying ‘thank you’ on receipt.
• Listening is a very important aspect of everyday living and particularly learning.
• Reinforcing our school values of Respect, Resilience, Friendship, Excellence and Honesty.

We highly encourage you to develop good listening habits with your child i.e. looking at the speaker, thinking about what the speaker is saying and waiting until the speaker has finished before speaking.

• Remember -  children model behaviour!