What is school readiness? The Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), childcare professionals, parents and primary teachers, agree school readiness entails:
- Having strong social skills
- Coping emotionally with being separated from their parents
- Relatively independent in their own personal care
- Having a curiosity about the world and a desire to learn
It is important that children are ready to leave preschool and move onto school, and parents and practitioners can positively encourage children about the new, exciting change. This can be done by talking about the new school to ensure they are aware and ready for the new chapter of their lives. At Tops Day Nurseries, we prepare children for school by starting with familiarity.
We discuss going to a new school and how it will be similar to nursery but with different children and new friends. Some of our nurseries create a ‘school board’ where the children’s photographs are displayed alongside the name of the school they will be going to. This gives the children more confidence in knowing other children will be moving up to big school with them.
To ensure there is a good and effective transition for the children to school, we work hard to build relationships with the local schools. We try to visit the schools the children will be attending, giving the children a chance to meet the teachers and see the school. Tops Wareham visited a local school and had a fantastic time! The teacher had planned lots of fun activities for the children to enjoy and provided some uniform take back to nursery. The uniform is now in the role play area throughout the year.
Tops Winchester have created transition bags at their nursery. The bags have been introduced for parents to borrow to 
prepare their child for the transition to big school. The bags contain a school uniform, pencil case and activity booklets.
Good luck to all the children who are leaving us this September, and we will be sad to see you go. We hope you have a wonderful time in your new schools, and best of luck for the future!
