Our school has been hosting our 2020 prep students over the last three weeks for our annual Prep Transition Program. I particularly enjoy these days and the opportunity to start to get to know our future Prep students and their families. There is a lot of work that goes into the organisation of our Pre-Prep Day and I thank the staff of St Joseph’s for their efforts in making the program such a success
With our Prep Transition Program happening at the moment, I am frequently asked by parents, how can they prepare their children for the transition to school. There are some very simple things that can be done.
- Have a good routine which includes a time to go to bed and to get up, a healthy breakfast
- Show them the importance of being punctual by being punctual yourself
- Talk to them in the car, at the dinner table, about their day, the highlights as well as the lowlights, reminisce and LISTEN.
- Model good relationships showing respect and gentleness especially with their teacher as they are with them for a large part of their day.
- Let your children know you have faith in them and their potential to be good learners. Stress learning rather than achieving.
- Read together. Great conversations and as well as so much learning can happen when a story is read to a child. Make it a fun and enjoying thing to do with them.
- Learn about the world together. Cook, grocery shopping, go to libraries, markets, sporting events.
- Expect them to do their best and let them know that this is an important part to success.
- Talk about school positively, about what they have learnt, how they are going, what they need to do to improve themselves as learners and who can help them. Make sure you include yourself in this list!
- Help them to establish a positive attitude to their learning and good work habits. Model persistence, resilience and talk to them about this. Let them know it is OK to make mistakes as this is part of learning, not to be afraid of taking risks with their learning, in other words “Have-a-go!”
