Transition from Home to Nursery
A very important part of our work at nursery is in helping to make the transition from home to school as positive as possible.
We do this in several ways:
Home Visits
At the beginning of the term in which your child starts nursery, your child’s key worker and another member of staff will visit you and your child at home. The purpose of the visit is to get to know you and your child better and to share information about your child’s interests, experiences and particular needs. The visit will last about an hour during which time one member of staff will talk with you whilst the other member of staff spends the time talking and playing with your child. We hope that this will help both you and your child to feel more comfortable when s/he starts at the nursery.
The First Day
The first and most important part of our work in the nursery is to help make the first day at school as happy and enjoyable as possible. We do need your help with this and ask you to set aside some time when your child is starting nursery to stay in the classroom with him/her. We feel this is important for a variety of reasons: for him/her to get to know and trust a new group of adults and children, for you to see how the nursery works and be familiar with the things he/she will talk about at home, and for you to be around to tell us about your child and the things he/she enjoys doing (or doesn’t).
The first day will be just an hour visit.
After that, in consultation with the Key Worker, the length of the visit will increase gradually until your child is able to stay happily for all of the morning or afternoon session.
Please don’t get anxious if this seems to take a while. Our experience has shown that it is important to take this stage slowly.
For more guidance please read: Supporting Children's Transitions in the Early Years
We do this in several ways:
Home Visits
At the beginning of the term in which your child starts nursery, your child’s key worker and another member of staff will visit you and your child at home. The purpose of the visit is to get to know you and your child better and to share information about your child’s interests, experiences and particular needs. The visit will last about an hour during which time one member of staff will talk with you whilst the other member of staff spends the time talking and playing with your child. We hope that this will help both you and your child to feel more comfortable when s/he starts at the nursery.
The First Day
The first and most important part of our work in the nursery is to help make the first day at school as happy and enjoyable as possible. We do need your help with this and ask you to set aside some time when your child is starting nursery to stay in the classroom with him/her. We feel this is important for a variety of reasons: for him/her to get to know and trust a new group of adults and children, for you to see how the nursery works and be familiar with the things he/she will talk about at home, and for you to be around to tell us about your child and the things he/she enjoys doing (or doesn’t).
The first day will be just an hour visit.
After that, in consultation with the Key Worker, the length of the visit will increase gradually until your child is able to stay happily for all of the morning or afternoon session.
Please don’t get anxious if this seems to take a while. Our experience has shown that it is important to take this stage slowly.
For more guidance please read: Supporting Children's Transitions in the Early Years
