Transition from Reception to Year 1

[cjt110]

It dawned on me over the last few days that DS won't be in the "sanctity" of Reception from tomorrow....

The small reception only playground where you drop them at the class room door...

Where the only homework was home reading and 1 lot of maths homework...

Where they don't just "play" all day...

So, what is the transition into year 1 like? I know it will vary from school to school but is it a steady transition or jump straight in at the deep end?

It's a steady transition

Ime (one NT & one AS DS already been through it) they ease them in. So start with more playtime & reduce it as time goes on. This may vary between schools though. I also think they like feeling more grown up.

My AS DS, in particular, really thrived in Year 1 in a way he didn't in Reception. He loved the structure, as too much choice of toys in Reception overwhelmed him, so he ended up doing repetitive water play & not learning much. I've heard other parents say similar.

In our school the yr 1 children go to the reception classroom in the afternoon. Its lovely because they still need to play and the reception children get a chance to play with the yr 1 class. So its not a huge jump for them.

They spend the first term transitioning.

So to begin with it's mainly free learning (like reception) but gradually more structure is introduced.

It will be well managed and everyone will be fine.

Thanks all.

From my experience the first term is still a lot of playing and they slowly build up to more learning. Homework didn't significantly increase but they do the phonics test near the end so got flashcards to practice for that.

DS (9) still talks wistfully about reception- "It was so great, you could just do what you want all day"