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These factsheets are to help you support your child get ready for school. It's not about the RAW (reading, arithmetic and writing) skills - rather helping children be curious, confident and ready to learn. e

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These factsheets are to help you support your child get ready for school. It's not about the RAW (reading, arithmetic and writing) skills - rather helping children be curious, confident and ready to learn. e

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Being outside is good for their wellbeing as well as your own and in Lancashire we have lots of beautiful places to walk and talk.

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Starting school is a key transition in a child's life.  Personal, social and emotional development, alongside communication and language are a key focus to support your child's confidence and well-being as they prepare to start school.  Transition is not just an experience for the individual child but for everyone around the child.  Your child's confidence, security and happiness are the priority.

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Starting school is a key transition in a child's life.  Personal, social and emotional development, alongside communication and language are a key focus to support your child's confidence and well-being as they prepare to start school.  Transition is not just an experience for the individual child but for everyone around the child.  Your child's confidence, security and happiness are the priority.

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Being school-ready - a guide for childcare professionals and parents to help children in this transition.

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Hungry Little Minds has been launched by the DfE to encourage parents and carers to engage in activities that support their child's early learning and help set up for school and beyond

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Hungry Little Minds has been launched by the DfE to encourage parents and carers to engage in activities that support their child's early learning and help set up for school and beyond

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Chat, play, read!

Here are some tips and activities to help your child develop their speech skills:

use things your child is interested in for play, follow their lead and make sure you're physically at their level while playing

if you notice your child looking or pointing at something, talk to them about it before they lose interest in it

picture books introduce your child to new things they haven't seen yet in real life - ask them to tell you the story, or talk about what the characters might be thinking and feeling

make reading, singing and playing even more fun by using lots of actions and different voices

take turns to make noises or speak - your child will be able to hold longer conversations, so slow down your speech, give them plenty of time to respond and listen carefully to what they have to say

talk to your child in short, simple sentences, as it's easier for them to understand you and have a go at copying when they are ready

try to use the same book or sing the same song, as young children learn a lot from repetition

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Find out how you can help your child with their speech & language development. If you have any concerns, talk to your doctor or health visitor.

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The National Literacy Trust’s new project, Small Talk, aims to support the language development of 30,000 children under the age of five by equipping parents with the skills and confidence they need to chat, play and read with their child every day. 

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The National Literacy Trust’s new project, Small Talk, aims to support the language development of 30,000 children under the age of five by equipping parents with the skills and confidence they need to chat, play and read with their child every day. 

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Words for Life | National Literacy Trust

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Activities and support for parents, children and young people to improve language, literacy and communication skills from home.

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Tiny Happy People helps parents to develop theirchild's communication skills. It offers simple activitiesand play ideas to help parents find out about theiramazing early development.

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Tiny Happy People helps parents to develop theirchild's communication skills. It offers simple activitiesand play ideas to help parents find out about theiramazing early development.

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Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child's language skills. Explore our simple activities and play ideas and find out about babies and toddlers' amazing early development.

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Children’s language development and parenting advice - BBC Tiny Happy People

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A chatty child is a happy child, so Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child’s communication skills through simple interaction and play.

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Starting School.                  From first day nerves to finding your peg, this reassuring read is full of humour and fun for children and parents alike. It offers advice and enjoyment for the whole family before school starts. 

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Starting School.                  From first day nerves to finding your peg, this reassuring read is full of humour and fun for children and parents alike. It offers advice and enjoyment for the whole family before school starts. 

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Starting School By Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg

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I Am Too Absolutely Small For School by Lauren Child - Read Aloud by Heather's Story Time Corner

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Follow The Colour Monster on a brand new adventure, as he navigates his way through his first day at school! Anna Llenas's popular Colour Monster is back, and this time he's heading off to school! But what exactly is school?

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The Colour Monster Goes to School: Kids books read aloud by Books with Blue

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Walk & Talk-Help your child to develop their communication and language skills.

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Walk & Talk-Help your child to develop their communication and language skills.

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Walk and Talk is about inspiring families to go outside and communicate with each other.

Talking to young children during everyday activities can help them learn communication skills such as:

listening

attention

turn taking in a conversation

learning new words

Being outside is good for their wellbeing as well as your own and in Lancashire we have lots of beautiful places to walk and talk.

You might talk about:

listening and describing the traffic as you drop children off to school - what sound do they make?

looking at the ducks in the pond at your local park - what do their feet look like?

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At the park

What to talk about at the park

Look around at your surroundings and point to things you can see. Is there a squirrel in the trees or flowers in bloom?

Stop and get down to your child's level. Listen to the sounds you can hear. Is there a bird chirping, the rustle of wind through the trees?

Encourage your child to try new ways of moving and talk about the actions they make such as jumping, stomping, sliding, rolling and twirling.

Bingo at the park

flowers

leaves

swings

ducks

bird

bee

You could also use our bingo activity card or make your own bingo cards.

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Early Years Foundation Stage- Baseline NFER

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Early Years Foundation Stage- Baseline NFER

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The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a statutory assessment from September 2021 onwards

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Reception 2024

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Early Talk Boost is a targeted intervention aimed at 3-4 year old children who need help with talking and understanding words, helping to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. The programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of 6 months, after a nine week intervention

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Help my child get ready for starting school

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Help my child get ready for starting school

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Time for School - Carpet Time - Starting School

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The children remember what it was like starting school for the first time.

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Play games from Time for School, a CBeebies documentary series capturing the excitement of school adventures.

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Social Interaction

Play dates: Create opportunities for the child to interact with other children of a similar age through play dates and playgroups.
Board games: Play board games with the child to teach turn-taking, sharing, waiting and the ability to cope when one doesn't win.

Small groups: Encourage small groups of children to play together in games.
Visuals: Use visuals to help children understand turn-taking.
Greetings: At the start of each session encourage children how to say "hello" and respond to the question, "How are you?" and at the end of each session to say "goodbye".

Play

Play styles: Provide opportunities for the child to explore different styles of play (e.g. imaginative play, constructive play, symbolic play).
Role play: Spend 20-30 minutes every day interacting and playing with the child. During these opportunities model language that would be suitable to use in certain real life situations (e.g. if playing with a toy kitchen, talk about what you do when preparing food).

Play stations: Set up play stations that teach different styles of play (e.g. constructive: trains, blocks, jigsaws, sandcastles, playdough; imaginative: kitchen, dress-ups, roads).

Emotional Development

Feelings: Talk about feelings with the child.
Identify emotions: Verbalise when you see certain emotions in different people.
Facial Expressions: Comment on facial expressions when reading books and talk about the way the person might be feeling and why.
Explain Emotions: Talk about ways to express different emotions (e.g. you are laughing because you are happy; you are crying because you are sad).
Sing Songs that talk about emotions (e.g. "If you're happy
and you know it" or "How do you feel today?").

Role Play different emotions.
Emotion pictures: Show pictures of different emotions and talk about them.
Explain emotions: When a child is feeling a particular way, talk to them about their emotion (e.g. if a child is crying model to them: "You are sad because you hurt your knee" OR "You are crying because you are sad").
Sing songs about emotions (e.g. "If you're happy and you know it" or "How do you feel today?").
Books: Discuss the emotions of characters in book.

Fine motor

Cutting and pasting: Use cardboard (easier to hold) to cut out geometric shapes and make pictures.
Drawing: Provide a model to copy or draw one shape at a time for the child to copy.
Colouring: Colour small shapes to encourage pencil control and improve endurance for pencil skills.
Mazes: These are a fun way to engage in pencil skills
as well as developing visual perception.

Craft: Encourage cutting, pasting and sticking various pieces of material together to create
things.
Storage: Use ziplock bags or screw top containers to store toys, to ensure the children are practicing using their fine motor skills when trying to access toys.
Play doh: Rolling, squishing, pinching and making things with playdough to increase finger strength.

Physical skills

Wheelbarrow walking races for upper body strength.
Swimming is a whole body activity that will help build strength and endurance as the child is constantly working against a small amount of resistance in the water.
Animal walks: Pretending to be a variety of animals such as crabs, frogs, bears or worms. All of these will use the child's body weight as resistance.
Throw bean bags: The added weight of a bean bag will help develop strength and endurance.

Hopscotch for hopping, or other games that encourage direct task/skill practice.
Obstacle course: Age appropriate obstacle course completion will help develop endurance.
Ball skills: Increase a child's experience and confidence to attempt ball skills.

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School Readiness Preparation Tasks and Activities - Kid Sense Child Development

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Parents Teachers Social Interaction Play dates: Create opportunities for the child to interact with other children of a similar age through play dates and playgroups. Board games: Play board games with the child to teach turn-taking, sharing, waiting and the ability to cope when one doesn't win.

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The complete speech and language toolkit, from screening to intervention.

Delayed language skills can impact learning and future success. WellComm helps identify pre-school and primary school children facing speech and language barriers early, so they get the right support at the right time.

Designed for Early Years and Primary settings, WellComm is quick and simple to use — no specialist expertise is needed. With long waits for speech and language therapy, it gives nurseries and schools an instant speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) profile and ready-made interventions that can be used straight away.

The children in Reception will be screened at the beginning of Reception and assessed throughout the year to check on progress.