A personal parent’s strategy for school readiness recommends (according to a United Nations report), that the starting point is antenatal care; ensuring mother and child have all the required health and developmental checks during pregnancy and when the baby is born. Following on, engage with your child to make sure s/he is properly stimulated and learning to use all their senses (such as colour, sound, smell and textures) through structured and unstructured play and learning.
Encourage your child to develop independent skills, such as feeding themselves, going to the toilet, asking for what they need. Help them develop a positive attitude to learning, to making mistakes, perseverance and problem-solving. Provide social opportunities with peers for them to learn turn-taking and sharing. Personally model appropriate social and emotional behaviour in your social interactions.
It is important for parents to identify what they want from the school that their child will attend. Equally, parents should know ahead of time, what criteria the school requires to gain entry. An effective school readiness strategy will include putting your child on the school’s list of new in-takes, in accordance with their time-scale and procedures.
Parents may need to enlist the help and support of family or external agencies such as nursery or a child-minder, if returning to work (and especially if both parents work full-time). In which case, active engagement with your network or line of support is vital - to ensure your child achieves the various milestones of development (mentioned in School Readiness Part 1). It may also be worth considering a tutor or supplementary school to support their academic development in reading, writing and numeracy and to ensure they are prepared for school in terms of being able to sit still for a period of time, focus, ask for help, solve problems, take the initiative, and so on.
The chart below provides, an at-a-glance checklist to ensure school readiness that can be easily applied, or adapted into the basis of a personal strategy.
Call us on 01992 651 300 for further information to see how we can help, or to book a place for our next Open Day. You can secure your child's place straight away by completing the enrolment form online.
