For many parents of 3 and 4 year olds, following school places releasing on the 16th April, school is front of the mind. Whether you’re ready and excited or working through the stresses of a school appeal, you’re likely beginning to hear the phrase ‘school readiness’ banded about! A potentially daunting prospect, today we’re sharing a summary of what you can do to help your child prepare for, and thrive, in the early years foundation stage (EYFS).
What school readiness is - and isn’t
School readiness is a term used to describe key life skills children will benefit from having when entering primary school. Focusing around independence, the term is less about academics than it is about ensuring a child will cope, and thrive, in the classroom environment. Think using the toilet and getting dressed, over counting to 10. We’ll signpost throughout this post, but a great place to start is our free ‘getting ready for school’ resources here!
It’s important to note, in all of this, that some children will naturally pick up these skills more quickly than others. Equally, there is a substantial difference in the capacities of a September baby, and one born in August the following year, especially at this age - even though they are headed for the same class. You may find your September born child can hop off to school having been dressing and toileting for over a year, while your August baby is just about getting to grips with buttons. Do what you can, and make it fun.
Self care
A big skill, and one often overlooked, is the need to dress and undress independently. As little ones embark on their first PE lessons, the more they are able to negotiate getting changed themselves, the better off they’ll be. There are lots of ways to practice this at home - make a game of it, like this one here! Some particularly important areas to focus on are ties (if your child’s school uses them), socks and tights, as well as doing and undoing buttons and zips.
Another vital skill is being fully independent with toileting. Most schools have policies in the EYFS for supporting children who may still need a little help, and to support with accidents, but the expectation will be that all children starting school are toilet trained (unless they have an additional need that has been discussed with the teaching team). If your child is not toilet trained, and there is not an obvious reason for this or support in place already, make getting them there your top priority before starting school.
This being said, there are lots of skills still involved in negotiating a new bathroom situation without an adult on hand. Practice locking and unlocking bathroom doors, for example, as well as highlighting the importance of handwashing, using soap, and leaving the toilet clean after they have used it. It’s also important to practice reminding your child to go to the toilet regularly, even when they are having a great time on an activity. Most accidents in the EYFS happen when a child is so engrossed in what they are doing, they forget to go until it’s simply too late! Accidents are unavoidable, but it’s a great idea to get your little one used to recognising their body’s signs and not hold it. Here’s a great resource on helping your child with self care.
Social and emotional skills
Second to self care comes social and emotional skills. A key part of the EYFS curriculum, giving your child plenty of opportunity to explore and communicate their emotions will put them in good stead for their classroom life! Our social skills activity cards can help give you ideas for supporting this, while our feelings game can help develop emotional regulation.
School routines
Your child’s teacher and the surrounding team will spend the first few weeks of the EYFS exploring routines, where things are, and how to negotiate the classroom. Don’t worry too much about the intricacies of this early on. Some fun steps, though, to getting your child comfortable with their new school routines, are practicing trial runs for the ‘school run’, as well as practicing getting ready! Perhaps you could go for a walk on the school run route and try on school uniform! Here are some great resources to take a look at.
Hand eye coordination
Hand eye coordination skills are important for all of us - and the Reception year will see your child using and developing them a lot! From writing to counting, dressing, and more, supporting your child to work on their fine motor skills (small movements with hands) and gross motor skills (large skills like hopping, jumping) can really help them prepare. Threading, weaving, and using pinching mechanisms are all great ways to support children in strengthening their hands for writing while fun games like counting skips, seeing how high you can jump and more are great ways to get children using big strong movements. Here’s an activity card set to help with the latter!
Early literacy
Helping your child prepare for learning to read and write prior to starting school is as much about what to do as it is what not to do!
Progression in reading and writing (often collectively described as ‘phonics’) in the EYFS year will vary a lot from school to school, although all schools have the same goal of getting children reading and writing. In the UK, all schools must use what is called a ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ programme - a learning route to get children reading. The different programmes used (Read Write Inc, Little Wandel, are a few common ones) have different paces and a very clear structure that your child’s teacher will follow - so we would recommend not specifically attempting to ‘teach’ your child any reading approaches before they begin school (unless they are very much interested). This is to avoid any confusion with the formal programme they will begin when they do start school. Equally, teaching your child letter names (‘the alphabet’) will not help their progression when they start school - as this is not the format of learning to read, but instead the route to formal spelling once a child can already read letter sounds. If your child is very eager, contact the school and ask what they would recommend!
Instead, the most wonderful thing you can do for your child to get them ready to enjoy reading is just that - read read read! Share stories, poetry, nursery rhymes and more. Show them that reading is wonderful to get them excited about learning this vital skill. Another great way to get children prepared is to look into what was previously called ‘Phase 1’ of the old UK government scheme ‘Letters and Sounds’. Phase 1 will likely have informed their nursery teaching and focuses on getting children’s ears attuned to differentiating between sounds as well as supporting speaking and listening. A few resources to help in this are our sound hunt and our nursery rhyme game. For writing, it can be helpful to encourage your child to recognise and write their name (or at least give it a go!) as well as exploring lots of ways to make marks and ascribe meaning to them (a precursor to formal writing).
Early Maths
As with early literacy, early maths should stay playful, fun, and not a chore! While orally counting to ten is fun, there are better ways to get your child a little ahead for when they begin school. Number recognition is important, as is one to one correspondence (the concept that to count items, you must say a number as you physically count the item) - so lots of games working on this can be great (try our counting game and early number skills cards). Recognising key 2D shapes are also important, however, the Shape Space and Measure element of the UK’s EYFS curriculum was removed in 2021 - so less of a focus is needed.
Good luck!
We hope these tips help you navigate the fun that is school readiness. Please do not treat this as a checklist, but more a lovely smorgasbord of ideas for helping your child be the best they can be!
