The time is coming - before we know it, school begins! If you have a child who is about to start Reception (also known as EYFS, Early Years Foundation Stage), this is an exciting yet nerve-wracking time for everyone. In this blog we’ll share our top tips for ensuring your child has a smooth transition, is as emotionally well as possible, and is excited for this new life phase!
Keeping everyone well
Coughs, colds and sneezes are unavoidable - but emotional wellbeing is something we can prepare ourselves and our children for. Before starting school, do what you can to read books about the transition process. We love Starting School by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, and the Pete the Cat series by Eric Litman and James Dean.
It’s also great to begin opening up conversations about feelings and emotions to help your child develop the language they need to express how they feel. They might still struggle once the time comes, but forewarned is always forearmed! We love The Colour Monster as a source of inspiration for chatting about feelings - plus we have a great set of downloads for working through this with your child too, like The Feelings Game. Make time where you can to gently talk about the transition when it’s relevant. Once the time comes, you’ll be glad you prepared!
New relationships and friendships
Your child may already know children from a feeder nursery, or their entire class might be a brand new set of faces. Plus, with new teachers, teaching assistants and other adults to come across, there are a lot of new people to know. If your child is going to have a one to one adult teaching assistant, this is also a big new face in their life. You are likely to discuss their space in your child’s education well before school term begins, but if this hasn’t been covered, reach out to your child’s school or setting to help get things ready.
It might be worth trying to set up a few playdates, if there is a shared chat group between parents, over the summer holidays. If this isn’t possible, you could help your child prepare for new relationships by talking about their teachers, what a teacher does, and how they help your child. For friendships, try reading books about building relationships, or even role play with your child, practising getting to know new children or starting school!
Managing challenging behaviours
Challenging behaviours are unavoidable when big life changes occur. 4 and 5 year olds are experiencing their first time on the planet - nevermind a whole new scenario to get used to! The first port of call when it comes to challenging behaviours like tantrums, emotions or battles of will is avoiding them in the first place. Try and have extra slack for your children, who might be snappy, overly tired or overstimulated when they first begin school. Try setting up some regulating activities for when they get home, such as play dough, running around outside, stories, or simple colouring. You know your child, and how they wind down, best!
That being said, you can’t always prepare for big emotions coming out. Children will often hold all their feelings in throughout the day at a new setting, then let them all out once they feel like they’re back in a safe environment. It’s not you, it’s their little brain working its way through a really new thing! A lot of the preventative measures above also help bring a child down from an emotional high, but sometimes having lots of snacks on hand and some favourite activities can be helpful to get them back to a level space.
If your child is, or you suspect they are, neurodiverse, change may be another big challenge for them. Visual timetables, sensory spaces and lots of calming opportunities for regulation will be particularly key for them. We also like this article from CBeebies about helping your child deal with change, which has lots of helpful tips around this area.
Good luck!
We hope these tips help with an exciting and challenging time of life for your 4 or 5 year old. The biggest takeaway will always be trying to keep up connection, and where you can, fill your cup (so that you can fill theirs too!). Good luck!
