First day at school
The very fact that most people can remember their first day at school in my opinion means that it must be a massively emotional day in a child’s developing life. Paula Arkley who is Headmistress of, Clifton Pre-Preparatory School, part of the St Peter’s Family of Schools in Clifton, near York, shares some of her experiences with us and gives a few tips on making the memory a pleasant one for your child, and you!
An incident in my personal first year at school has formed my own attitude to the welcome we try to give to our families when their child starts school. My mother had taken me for a polio jab and so I was coming into school late. Unfortunately, on arrival, we met the headmistress who would not allow us into school…I was four! This is still so clear in my mind that I vowed that when I became head that I would never stop a parent from coming into school with their child. We have an open door policy. We enjoy welcoming parents into school, but a word to the wise though, when you say you are going to go – go, don’t hang around. If you think your child is going to find parting difficult, hand your child over to the staff say goodbye and go, your child will usually settle easily once you are out of sight.
Make sure that you know which route you will be taking to school and how long it takes, it’s such a shame if your child always misses the welcoming first bit of the day - this is an important time for making friends and settling into school in a stress free way.
If your child is going to be wearing school uniform, check that they can put most of it on themselves. Staff will help with buttons and zips but they will expect the children to have a go for themselves. Velcro fastening shoes are so much easier than laces and buckles.
Don’t forget to name everything! Make sure that you name clothes in obvious places…you can’t imagine how frustrating it is trying to find where a parent has sewn the name tape! Many parents name coats in the pockets - our fleeces are reversible so that means at least four pockets to search through before we find the name, the back of the neck is so much easier. Biro washes off so please use a permanent marker. Another tip – when sewing labels on socks sew them down the ribbing not across it, if you sew it across the rib then the sock doesn’t stretch and it goes into holes and please don’t sew them on the soles of the feet.
Put loops on jumpers…if you can’t sew, a loop of ribbon tied in a knot and threaded through the manufacturers label works just as well.
The staff will want your child to settle and enjoy school so please let them know if anything has happened at home which might upset them (the cat has died, someone is ill).
Don’t grill your child about what they have done in school wait for them to tell you, but here are a few clues:
Red stains on the jumper…we had beans for lunch
Green/yellow stains on the jumper…we’ve been painting
Blue hands …I’ve been painting a background
Brown stains on the jumper….we’ve been gardening
Red stains from nose to chin...we had pizza for lunch!Happy first day
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