Preparing for primary school.

ceebeeby

In the first few weeks, he'll be lucky to stay awake past 5 o'clock, never mind extra work (no homework in Reception in our school), or, he might go complete opposite way and be very hyper (walk in the park after school).

Can you buy a really plain lunch box from supermarket (about £1) and get some permanent pens and he can draw the designs on himself??

Make sure the batteries in the camera are fully charged for the first morning pics in his new uniform.

Stiff upper lip and no nonsense at the gates. You need to be a very brave, matter of fact Mummy, remember to give him a big kiss and cuddle, and tell him to enjoy the day. Remember to tell him exactly where you'll be waiting when he comes out of school, so he doesn't get even a second of panic wondering if you've come to pick him up.

Enjoy the day because you'll remember it forever, even if he doesn't!

Glad

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

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He'll need a sandwich box and drinks container. Is it impossible to find these things without TV characters he's never heard of/skulls/kittens with crowns on them?!

plenty at LAKELAND

£4.99



£3.99



I always used these sipper bottles from Lakeland too

sold out online but sure to be instore

280ml £2.25 and 540ml £175

Penny_Watcher

An insulated lunchbox/bag with space for a small ice pack can be useful. I found out after a couple of months that although the lunchboxes were stored in the school's kitchen they weren't put in the fridge, just left to warm nicely in the heat of the kitchen :eek:.

And name everything he might take off :rolleyes:. And his lunchbox too.

Gingham_Ribbon

Very tempted by the laptop lunchbox. I'm not convinced that yoghurt wouldn't leak out and get on everything else though. But if it's definitely a decent seal, that might be the one!

Good tips everyone. Thank you. Please keep them coming. I have a laundry pen, though haven't marked anything yet. Hadn't thought about marking lunchboxes etc. Good idea.

sealady

Out of interest is he going full time straight away or are they staggering it! Our school works on a system where the first 3 weeks the teachers do home visits and they and the TA visit all the kids in their home enviroment. They then come in groups of 5 for a morning or afternoon session until October half term. After half term they come full time which is when the real shock to the system begins.

Gingham_Ribbon

Doh. didn't think of lakeland. They look perfect.

Gingham_Ribbon

He's straight in full time. They take the children in small groups over a few days, but they all go in full time. They do home visits too and he's been in for a play already and loved it.

Becles

I just buy Tesco Value 3 litre storage boxes to use as lunchboxes. They cost around 90p. Then it doesn't matter if they get lost or broken as they are cheap to replace. Also buy Tesco Value cutlery if you are sending yoghurt, pasta salad etc., so again, it doesn't matter if they get lost.

A planner on the kitchen wall is useful, so you can see at a glance that he needs his reading book on Monday, PE kit on Tuesday etc. Encourage him to check it and help pack his own bag too as it's good skills in learning to plan for the day.

Mine had at least one reading book each week and a library book of their choice to read at home. If he's doing Oxford Reading Tree, don't be surprised if you get books with no words in. The teacher said they have to cater for children who've never looked at books before, so you just have to talk about the pictures. Both of mine could read, and we found that stage hard as they wanted books with words in!

I can also remember them having an exercise book where they had to draw pictures and attempt to write words for different letters and then words with different letter sounds. It tied in with Jolly Phonics. Then they started getting worksheets for numeracy and literacy, but they were not too lengthy so easy to fit in at home.

Hope all goes well and he enjoys it. My eldest starts secondary school this year, so we're going through new school worries too!

bandraoi

For labelling things, get the iron on tshirt transfer sheets and print out a page of his name repeated over and over. Then cut them up and iron them on.

These things - http://www.thecraftypc.com/transfers.html
I'm sure you can find a deal somewhere.

scat

I worked in a Reception Class last year.

1. The most important thing is to check their reading bag every day and fill in their reading diary. We didn't give out any formal homework but you are expected to be reading with your child every night. Re Letterland - I think it's old hat now. My own children did Letterland but it was phased out in our school some time ago. We now use Jolly Phonics. You can buy various resources and the cd of songs is very good. I worked with a little boy who knew all the songs before he even started and it didn't do him any harm!

2. Make sure you know when, and when not!, to let your child take toys etc into school. We used to say children could bring in toys on a Monday - this was an important 'share' time and those that didn't have a toy felt excluded.

3. P.E Kit - it will disappear into the wrong bag at some point! Make sure you check it frequently. Label everything. Make sure your child has clothes/shoes that he can manage to take off by himself.

4. Always have spare pants in school! Even if they don't have 'accidents' at home chances are they WILL have one at school!

5. Encourage your child to have a friend home for tea asap! It will help him to settle if he makes friends quickly.

6. Focus on fun! Reception class is all about learning through play and having fun. Show interest in what he is doing, encourage him to talk about his day but don't pressure him to tell you about 'work' he is doing - he probably won't realise that he is doing is work at all!!!!