what should they know before they start school?

[yossa]

Have just begun to panic as my ds starts school in sept and i must admi that i still dress him and wipe his bum when he's done a poo. Not that he's stupid - it's just for speed and to make sure he looks nice really. He goes to nursery 2 days per week so has good social skills but i just would like to know what schools expect them to be able to do both educationally and socially?

[SoupDragon]

Well, they're expected to get dressed and wipe their own bottoms

Educationally, the only thing I made sure DSs could do was to write their own names.

[welshmum]

From what age should they be learning to wipe their own bottoms.....

[Hulababy]

Being able to dress themselves to a certain level is sueful. They will be doing PE, so make sure he can sort out his main items of clothing. As for shoes - go for velco!

Toileting will be done by your little one alone, no help usually. So let him practise from now. I know it takes longer, but he needs to have a go. Same as knowing to flush and then wash hands afterwards.

Being able to eat his dinner with cutlery, reeasonably tidy, especially if staying for school dinners.

If he goes to nursery he may do some of these there anyway. I know DD does a lot of these things at nursery (she also starts in September) - they just give them more time.

They could probably do with being able to recognise their own naame written down. Ability to write name is handy, but reading/writing will be covered from scratch in reception anyway.

Educationally isn't so much of a big thing as they will do baseline assessments within a few weeks of starting and the teacher will work out what each child needs to learn and at what point they need to start from.

So rather than specifics there - look more for being able to sit still and listen, to remain focuses on a ask for a lengthy period of time, sharing, listening to others, hand up to ask questions, waiting turn...again lots of this I bet he is doing at nursery anyway.

The main thing to remember is that the children are all at completely different levels both educationally and emotionally when they start. Some will be ahead in certain areas; some behind in areas. The teachers will be completely used to this and lessons will be geared towards it.

[prettybird]

I don't think they need to know anything educationally - although it helps if they can recoginse/write thier naems.

They should be ableto wipe their own bottoms - however, ds was still asking for help and for a w hile was trying to hold it in rather than go while at school - with the consequent problems of explosions/leakages when he couldn't hold it any more (on his behlaf). However, the school are obvioulsy used to it, as they simply put some fresh clothes on him (they have a wee stock) and ask that you wash and return the borrowed clothes.

Ds was 5 3 weeks after he started school and is right in the middle of the year age wise - so I'm sure some of the younger kids probably have "problems" to.

He has to be able to dress himself as they have gym twice a week, so he ha to be able to get in and out of his gym clothes.

[jenkel]

My dd will be 4 years 1 month when she starts school in September. At the moment she can recognise her name, eat fairly well with a knife and fork but we arent too good with getting dressed. Normally as we are in such a rush in the morning I help her for speed otherwise we would never get out. This is the one area I am going to work on, she can pull skirts on, tops are a bit tricky and she has no idea about buttons. So I want to teach her how to do buttons. But thats all I'm going to work on, and I'm not too bothered if she cant do it as she will be the youngest in the class and the class does have a nursery assistant to help out with things like that.

[AbbyLou]

I would agree with most of the basics people have said. I teach Year 1/2 at the moment but spent a few years teaching Reception early in my career. Being able to go to the toilet alone is a very important one. We are seeing more and more children in our school who are not even toilet trained at 4 and it puts an awful strain on the school staffing wise. It is also not very pleasant for the person cleaning up as I'm sure you can appreciate. It is also important to be able to get un/dressed as children usually have PE twice a week. It drives me mad when children don't know how to put clothes on - I still have some now in year 2 and they get left until they do it!! A threat of going into assembly in vest and pants always works!!!lol
As for 'academic' things I would say help your child to read and if possible write all of his name. We like our YR children to be able to count to 10 and maybe recognise some numbers and also know some letter sounds. However, we have a Nursery attached to our school so we have a lot more input early on.

[LIZS]

Able to get shoes and coat/hat on and off with minimal help then other clothes.
How to use the toilet and wipe.
Sitting down to eat and drink, attemping to use knife and fork.
Social niceties such as using please and thank you.
Recognise name, on peg, clothes, books etc, and perhaps attempt to write it.
Listen to and follow basic verbal instructions.
Respond to a story or group conversation and take turns to speak.
Take turns with other children, line up and await turns.
Sit with an activity for a while, colouring , puzzles etc.

[yossa]

thanks guys. i feel a bit better now. He can go to the loo on his own and odes so at nursery but more often than not has skid marks on his pants!! i suppose i should just be more chilled about that. uses fork and spoon at the moment (and i cut his food up) maybe should work on that but will check with nursery - bet he does all these things there but acts like a baby here coz i will do it for him and he sees me do it for ds2

[sandyballs]

Don't worry too much Yossa. I started a similar thread last Sept when my twin DDs started school. Neither of them were able, or even wanted, to wipe their own bums and I was really stressing about it but they soon catch on. I think the practical things are more important for them to know than the alphabet or writing.

[mumeeee]

I work in a nursery we do some work with the older children to get them ready for school. This is encoraging them to manage the toilet themselves, put their coats on, take off and put on shoes, sit still at story time,answer simple questions and recognise thier writen name.

[singersgirl]

Definitely second the practical things. We spent lots of time practising socks and buttons.
I didn't teach bum-wiping but DS2 has invented his inefficient version of it for when a boy's got to do....

Also, making sure they can open lunchboxes or snack packs. It took me a long time to realise why DS1 wasn't eating his grapes - he couldn't get the lid off the pot.