Home and School Organisation

Getting Ready to be at School

Our You Can Do It program supports your child with developing their confidence, resilience, persistence, organisation and getting along skills. Starting school is a big transition, not only for your child but the whole family. Everything is new or different including, routines, friends and adults, five days of learning, managing belongings, regulating emotions. There can be a whole lot of navigating and negotiating for your child and this can be exhausting. You can support your child at home by establishing long term healthy habits like:

• helping getting ready for school and creating homework routines.
• establishing positive morning and afternoon routines
• encouraging your child to help with chores, cleaning up, learning to tie their shoe laces and getting dressed themselves.
• if your child does find it challenging using the toilet for a bowel action, setting up a plan and some further supported practice will be beneficial.
• allowing plenty of time for rest, relaxation and sleep.
• to support vocabulary development and confidence by encouraging your child to speak in full sentences when requesting something, re-telling a story or answering a question
• by allowing them to complete a task, and feel proud of their achievements.
• encouraging persistence by looking for opportunities for your child to practise something over and over until it is mastered.  It’s also important to explain the difference between luck and effort.
• developing resilience, as it is okay to struggle. It is okay to be challenged, it's okay that perhaps you didn't get a turn or you had to wait. It is okay to play with lots of children, it is okay if something isn't working to try again, ask for help or walk away.

Home Reading 

Home reading should be a fun and rewarding experience for all involved, so if it is becoming a battle or a source of frustration, take a break and try again later. It is fine to read a book with your child (eg. a page each) or to read to your child before they read the book to you. Aim for 15 mins at the most as children may lose concentration after that point and they have had a full day of learning school.

During Term one we encourage you to share a wide range of texts with your child. At the beginning of Term two your child will begin to borrow decodable reading books. 

Home Learning

Later in the term your child will receive their first homework grid. The homework grid has been designed by considering the whole child. It will include many different activities which your child can complete. The purpose of the homework grid is for your child to develop successful learning habits like being organised and responsible, as well as sharing our school learning with you at home. 

We have created some home learning packs in literacy that will help you support your child to work towards achieving their next steps. The packs are all based around areas of phonological awareness and phonics. Achievement of these skills are fundamental for children learning to read. These include: 

• Rhyme
• Blending and segmenting
• Initial sound identification
• Fluency
• Handwriting

The pack your child receives will be at the discretion of your child’s class teacher. This is informed by data the teacher has collected during progress monitoring. Your child’s teacher will borrow the pack out under your child’s name and it will be sent home in their book bag. This is an individualised process. We advise that you work through the pack over a 3 week period, spending around 10 minutes each session (as this is in addition to reading). Then return the pack to school.