Supporting your child's transition to primary school

The resources on this page have been designed to help parents and carers to support their child in the transition to primary school. We hope that the videos and information sheets provided will help answer any questions you may have whilst your child is preparing to start school.

children with watering can watering plants

Preparing for your visit

Supporting your child's independence and self confidence in readiness for school

One of the main questions parents ask when their child starts school is 'Will they be able to manage?' In this video we will discuss how you can support your child to develop independence and skills in preparation for school as well as how you can support your child to explore their emotions and discuss with them how they are feeling about starting school.

Incredible Independence

There are many simple things you can do to support your child during this time. We hope the tips below will help you support your child in their transition to primary school.

Developing independence

There are some things you can do together with your child to help them feel more ready to manage their own care and needs in preparation for starting school:

Mealtimes - Practice using a knife and fork pouring water from a jug into a cup, opening a lunchbox and carrying a small plate of food. You can also encourage your child to try some new foods.

Dressing - Let your child practice dressing themselves, can they do up a zip or buttons? Can they put on their own socks?

Using the toilet - If your child is worried about managing their toileting or needing help then talk with them about it. Talk to them about who they could ask for help and talk to the teacher about your child's worries and needs - it is much easier to help when you know what to look out for.

Working together - Try to tidy up together and make it part of any activity you do. In the classroom children will be expected to start talking responsibility for their belongings and working together to keep the classroom a nice place to be.

Supporting their well-being

Well-being is vital for good mental health in children and adults. When children's well-being is high they feel relaxed and more able to make choices and learn.

Self confidence and self esteem come from being allowed to make mistakes and take risks and have their own ideas - 'step back and let your child do it themselves.'

Being able to make their own choices - for example, about what they wear or which sandwich filling they'd like today gives children a sense of autonomy. This is the feeling that they can do things for themselves and builds confidence.

Skills for school superheroes

There are many activities you can do at home to help prepare your child for the transition to primary school.

Using a knife and fork with playdough is a great way to practice cutlery skills.

Many schools use visual timetables to help children get used to their new routines. Using a visual timetable at home can also be a great way to support their independence.

Further information and links to activities you can try can be found in our Incredible Independence support guide.

Helping children with their emotions

Find some quiet time and keep listening to your child's feelings about school

Talk with your child about starting school - what do they think it will be like? What are they looking forward to doing there? Do they have any questions or worries?

It's natural and normal for both you and your child to experience a range of emotions. Reassure and support them by listening, cuddling, responding and staying calm.

Your child has been learning about emotions from you since they were born. When you were clam, they were calmer; when you were anxious their behaviour would change too. This is called co-regulation. Gradually children learn how to manage their own emotions (called self-regulation) by listening and learning from you.

Having their feelings acknowledged helps children feel values and listened to but also helps them understand what they are feeling.

Some children will need help in recognising and naming their feelings. There is more information about this in our 'Incredible Independence' video clip.

There are also some great books about starting school. Have a look in your local library. This Children's Centre may also have some that you can borrow.

Incredible Independence support guide

Download a copy of our information for supporting your child with their independence

Download our Incredible Independence support guide

Supporting your child's imagination and thinking skills in readiness for school

In this video we will discuss how you can support your child to develop their thinking skills in preparation for school as well as how you can support your child to solve problems, have the confidence to explain their own ideas and tackle new experiences.

Terrific Thinkers

There are many simple things you can do to support your child during this time. We hope the tips below will help you support your child in their transition to primary school.

Developing thinking skills

In the early years children learn best when they are excited and motivated about what they are learning. The types of play where children have to think for themselves, solve problems and use their ideas and imagination help children develop their thinking skills ready for school.

Many adults have the idea of ready for school as being ready to sit down and listen to learn but reception classes are full of opportunities for children to play and explore and follow their own ideas and not just the teacher's instructions.

How can I prepare my children for this type of learning?

Find opportunities for your child to explore their own ideas. Child directed play is great for this. Let your child take the lead.
Find play opportunities that include challenges and things for your child to work out for themselves. See our Terrific Thinkers video for examples to be followed at home.
Lots of toys only do one thing. Try to find things to play with that can be used in lots of different ways. Good examples are wooden blocks and dressing up clothes that can be used to create different characters.
Talk, talk, talk with your child. Talk about their ideas, what they are doing, and ask open questions such as: What ideas do you have?, What could you do next?

Praise makes a difference

Praise makes a big difference. For your child to feel confident to have a go themselves and think of ways to solve problems, they need to feel that it is ok to make mistakes and that their ideas will be valued.

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets out how children should learn and includes the reception year of school.

Children in nursery and reception should be learning through play in ways that enable them to:

Play, explore and 'have a go'
Learn actively through 'doing'
Create and think critically - have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things.

Skills for school superheroes

There are many activities you can do at home to help prepare your child for the transition to primary school.

Challenge your child to build something incredible using recycled materials such as cardboard boxes, tubes and packaging

Den building is a great problem solving activity. Let your child make the decisions about what to use and how to create it. Can they make it big enough for the whole family to get in?

Thinking about numbers

Early years maths is about more than just being able to recognised and write numbers.

For children to be ready for maths in reception they need to know what numbers are for. Let them see and hear you using numbers in everyday situations like shopping, cooking and watching sport.

Find as many ways as you can to introduce the idea of counting. Sing counting songs and rhymes with your child.

Some children will show an interest in trying to write numbers. These may not look like numbers to start with and that is fine. The fact they are trying to record numbers is a brilliant thing so give them lots of praise.

Terrific Thinkers support guide

Download a copy of our information for supporting your child with their thinking skills.

Download our Terrific Thinkers support guide

Supporting your early literacy skills in readiness for school

In this video we will discuss how you can support your child to develop their early literacy skills in preparation for school as well as how you can support your child to develop their listening and writing skills.

Lift off to Literacy

There are many simple things you can do to support your child during this time. We hope the tips below will help you support your child in their transition to primary school.

Supporting your child's listening skills

There are a few things you can do to help support your child to develop their listening skills.

Things to try include:

Spend time talking with your child during your everyday activities and be a good role model. Listen to what they have to say and respond.
Minimise distractions - get down to your child's level and turn off devices and the TV so you have each other's full attention especially at mealtimes, storytime and bedtime.
Play listening games like Simon Says, sound recognition games and other games where your child need to follow simple instructions.

Ready to read

In order to become an early reader children need several key skills - matching and rhyming are important and so are language development skills such as listening, attention and noticing sounds.

They also need to know about how books work, why we read and it really makes a difference if they have been taught to see reading together as an enjoyable time.

When you read with your child think about using different voices, really expressing the words, using puppets or toys to act out the story - these are all great ways to make reading more enjoyable and meaningful.

Children will often ask to read the same book over and over - that's fine! It actually helps them with their understanding.

Skills for school superheroes

There are many activities you can do at home to help prepare your child for the transition to primary school.

Make a 'Talk-about Book' - Buy a cheap drawing book and get your child to cut and stick pictures they like. You could add photos, pictures from magazines or printed from the internet. Sit down, snuggle up and get them to talk to you about the pictures.

Make your own brushes - Use clothes pegs to clip different textured items such as pom poms, tin foil and feathers. Use these as paintbrushes.

Exploring 'Mark Making'

Mark Making means any type of marks, patterns, lines and shapes made on paper or anywhere else. It is the basis of learning about writing and drawing and children can get into Mark Making from a very young age.

You can encourage Mark Making indoors on paper, on a chalk board or white board, using paint, crayons, fingers in gloop and lots more. Mark Making outdoors is great fun too - you can use water with a paintbrush on a fence on a sunny day, chalk on the patio, draw with a stick in mud or in the sand at the beach.

Initially children will make squiggles and scribbles and that is great. Later they will give their marks meaning - so they might tell you they've drawn a god or written 'Mummy'. Value what they have produced (even if you can't tell yet what it is) because this is a great step in becoming a writer!

Lift off to Literacy support guide

Download a copy of our information for supporting your child with their early literacy skills.

Download our Lift off to Literacy support guide

Developing healthy habits that lead to great learning

There is lots of research on how children who have healthy lifestyles get on better in school. Being physically active and having a healthy diet are two of the main things that really make a difference in children's ability to concentrate, learn and get the most out of a school day.

Fuelled up for fun

There are many simple things you can do to support your child during this time. We hope the tips below will help you support your child in their transition to primary school.

Time for breakfast

The start of the day can be a really busy time for families. Making time to have a healthy breakfast does make a difference to the whole family and especially to children who are off to school.

Children who feel hungry in school find it harder to concentrate and manage their feelings.
Having a healthy breakfast has been shown to help with memory, levels of alertness and learning.
Complex carbohydrates instead of sugary cereals will keep your child feeling energised for longer. There are some great breakfast ideas on the Change for Life website.

What's for Lunch?

At present, in government-funded schools children in reception and years one and two can all have a free school lunch. You might decide to send your child with a packed lunch instead.

The NHS has some great tips for preparing a healthy lunch box which include:

Mixing your slices - make a sandwich with one slice of brown and one slice of white bread
Cutting down on crisps by including plain popcorn or rice cakes
Getting your child involved in making their lunch - this makes it more likely that they'll eat it.

Skills for school superheroes

Getting outdoors - how does it help with learning?

It's been quite a few years now since reception classes began offering indoor and outdoor learning. This means your child will have lots of opportunity to play and learn outside during the school day. But why is getting outdoors so good for children?

It helps your child develop a positive attitude to exercise and active lifestyle
Research shows that often children feel more relaxed and confident outdoors - important in these first weeks of school!
Lots of children need to be very physically active and have the space that being outdoors gives them to play and learn
It gives children contact with the natural world - they get to experience weather, the seasons and nature first hand
Being outdoors has also been shown to encourage social play, co-operation and turn-taking which are all essential skills in the first years of school

If you can get out and about with your child in these first weeks of their school life there will be benefits for the whole family in terms of well-being. It is also useful to think about making sure your child is dressed appropriately to be spending some of their school day outside - so having a sunhat on hot days and a coat they can manage to get on and off themselves in the colder or wet weather.