Letter from a New Parent

Nursery to Reception Transition-One New Parent’s Experience 

Over the summer leading up to the start of my child starting at Cranbrook, I was starting to think about how he would make the transition to school and how best to ease him out of his nursery, which he loved, into the new, bigger, more structured school environment. One of the things that really impressed me about Cranbrook was the support they offered through this transition.

We were invited to take our children to the school for an hour once a week over several weeks leading up to the start of term. The children were encouraged to use all the resources on offer in the classroom during this hour-the toys, the white board, the outside equipment. There were also painting and creative activities on offer.

This gave the children an opportunity to be together in an informal setting and to start to get to know their teachers. Over those weeks my child’s confidence grew tremendously and we were able to use these “school hours” to talk about what he was looking forward to as well as what he was worried about .It was also a great chance to meet and get to know other parents!

More than this though, the school then arranged a home visit. Just after the start of term two teachers came to visit us for an hour. One played with my child and got to know them in their own home while the other talked to me about any questions and concerns I had about the school and the transition.

We talked about how my child was developing-what he liked to do, what he was good at. It was great to be able to talk and concentrate on this while knowing my child was being looked after!

So my child made the transition to school very smoothly. On the first day there were no tears and he was immediately comfortable with his teacher and the other children.

A great introduction to school-thanks to Cranbrook.

Caroline Stern.

Mother of Ricardo Garcia in Reception Class.