Parents often ask whether their child knows enough letters and numbers to start school. Teachers, in our experience, worry about something else entirely.
What the first year actually asks of a child
- Managing a bag, a lunchbox, a drink bottle and a hat, mostly unaided
- Going to the toilet independently, including the buttons and the handwashing
- Sitting on the floor in a group without needing to lie down
- Listening to an instruction given to twenty children and realising it includes them
- Opening things — containers, zips, packets
- Asking an adult for help
- Coping with a day that is much longer and much louder than kinder
Almost none of that is academic. All of it can be practised at home in the year before, in ordinary moments rather than as drills.
Practising without making it a project
Let them carry their own bag from the car. Buy the lunchbox early and let them open it at home. Practise the toilet at the shops. Give instructions from another room. Let them order their own babyccino.
The point isn’t perfection by February. It’s that none of it is brand new.
If something isn’t clicking
Some children need more than practice, and that’s worth knowing before the school year starts rather than in term two. If you’re worried about any of the above, get in touch — an early conversation is usually a short one.