Transition to School Programme

In the preschool room (3 ½- 5 years) we offer a transition to school programme. This is done in the morning as part of mat time.

We offer the children the Letterland programme which includes a letter for the week, a song and a story all based around that letter. This helps to teach the children the sound, words that start with that letter and the formation of the letter.

We then move on to the number of the week. The children get to count to the number and learn how to recognize the number.

We also have a shape of the week. The children learn what the shape looks like, how many sides it has etc.

Then we have the colour of the week where the children look for things around the room that are that colour and share this with the class.

We also have news bags were we systematically choose a child to take the news bag home. They have a week to find a news article and to bring it preschool to share with their friends.

The children are split into three or four groups depending on stage. During this time the teacher focuses on the independent level of each child. We plan our activities based on the number, colour, letter, shape or emergent curriculum. We also work on skills such as fine/gross motor development, scissor control, pencil control, self-help skills, listening and following directions. This is also a good time for small group games and learning to work alongside other children.

When your child is a few months away from starting school we aim to make contact with your child’s school and if there are a few children attending the same school we will organize a school visit. This is where we take the children attending the school down to meet the teacher and spend a bit of time in the class room. This is a great way to introduce the new environment to the children as they have their peers around them to support them through this change.