Starting school checklist

All the key information you need on things like uniform, term dates, and school meals is available from the Parent Hub. 

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Many parents, carers and nurseries. ask, ‘what can I do to help, before they start school’, so we thought it might be useful to put together a list of suggestions and ideas.

• Stories, stories, stories! Share them, read them, talk about them loads! Engaging positively with books and learning to read is key to children’s success at school.
• Harness curiosity – ask and encourage questions. Start with “I wonder...”
• Feelings and emotions – talk about our emotions and develop ways that you think your child can self-regulate. For example, ‘what could I do if I was feeling angry?’ (Count to 10, breathe slowly, have some time on my own etc).
• Zips – teach children how to do up their zips on a coat.
• Recognise their name – play games to make it fun. It will be good practice for finding their pegs, trays and jumpers.
• Label everything! Show your children where their names labels are.
• Holding knives and forks and cutting their own food.
• Practise fine motor skills – holding cutlery, pens and pencils, using scissors etc
• Practise gross motor skills – climbing, balancing, throwing and catching etc
• Peeling fruit – every day we have a healthy snack, teach your children how to peel oranges and bananas.
• Toileting – recognising the need and urge to go to the toilet as well as being able to wipe themselves.
• Sitting with their legs crossed – practising, what this looks like and how it feels.
• Drinking water – Additional fruit drinks are acceptable in their packed lunch, but children should be drinking water during the day and in class.
• Getting dressed – lay out their uniform, make it fun and time them. See if they can beat their previous time!
• Practise the route you will walk to school. Again, time yourselves.
• Mark make – everywhere and with everything! Let your children practise holding pens, pencils, chalk, paint brushes. Let them explore making mark in different places and on different material. Ask them to talk to you about what they’ve done, even if it looks like ‘scribble’, it is so important for children to be able to give meaning to what they do.
• Puzzles – great for learning and practising sustained concentration. It also helps with problem solving and communication.
• Shape and number hunting – when you’re out and about look out for numbers and shapes. Ask you children to describe what the shape is like, even if they can’t name it yet.
• Occupations/roles - discuss what different roles there are in society and make links to family and community. Challenge stereotypes.
• Colours – explore colour mixing, what new colours can you make.
• Lunches – discuss their likes and dislikes. Look at the current menu and try to explore some of the foods at home.
• If you are on Instagram, I would highly recommend that your follow phonicsfamily for some really fun and practical ideas.