Moving from Preschool to Primary School
Moving to Big School is a very important time for children and their families.
It involves a big adjustment in their lives and for some children this change brings excitement and happiness about making new friends and learning new things. For other children it can instead bring anxiety and overwhelming feelings about moving to an unknown environment and coping with the reorganization of their identity as they move from the status of a preschooler to a “school child”.
However, ChildDiary has noticed that children’s experience of transitions can be positive when key people in their lives collaborate by sharing important information and when they work in partnership with each other. Park Academy Childcare shared 3 tips and ideas to help prepare kids for this transition:
Independence is key: practising with them will help develop the skills they need for this new and busy environment. Simple skills like putting on and off their own coat, opening their own lunch box, going to the toilet by themselves and washing their hands will be of great benefit to them and make them feel more confident and in control.
Preparation is everything: it will be a busy, exciting and perhaps an anxious morning on that first day, so we need to make it as calm as possible. Try to make sure you have everything ready the night before. You may need to get up earlier than usual to give yourself time, just in case anything doesn’t go to plan!
Trust the Teacher: once we reach the school we need to take the lead from the teacher – remember they do this every year and they know all the tricks to settle a child. If our child becomes upset, as hard as it may be we need to leave when advised to. We can also take comfort in the knowledge that this upset will only last a short time – the fact is they will probably have recovered before we have!