Getting ready for big school: the skills that matter most

Parents often ask us whether their child needs to know letters and numbers before kindergarten. Teachers will tell you the same thing we will: the skills that make the first term easier are mostly not academic.

Independence. Managing a lunchbox, a drink bottle, a zip and a toilet visit without adult help buys your child enormous confidence.

Endurance. A full school day is long. Sitting, listening, moving between spaces and staying regulated until home time takes physical and emotional stamina.

Coping with change. Being able to wait, share attention with twenty other children, and recover from a disappointment is what carries a child through the year.

Practise in real life. Pack the lunchbox together. Walk the school route. Let your child do up their own shoes even when it is slow. Small daily repetitions do more than any worksheet.

Our Prep for School groups target exactly these skills in a small group, so children arrive in kindergarten already having practised the day.