Pre-school - what is available?

[floops]

At what age do children start state school in your area? I know my children will start school the Jan after their fourth birthday but will it be full time or are they introduced slowly? Do schools in your area offer any other nestling in process at a younger age? I am just preparing myself for making the transition from nursery to school easier. Any tips / extra info from all you experts who have been there before?

I haven't been through this before either, as ds starts in September. Where we are all children start school in the September after they have turned 4. The local schools all seem to have different policies regarding settling in periods. The school that ds will go to decides according to when they are born, eg the youngest children do only half days for a full half term, whereas some of the older ones start full time straightaway. Ds's school have also organised several half day settling in sessions before he starts in September. We have already taken him to look around and it struck me how similar lots of the activities are to those that he does at nursery, although the main difference for him will be that there will be twice as many children.

Floops - our area is the same as lisaj - all start in September when they are 4. Recently moved from Oxfordshire where currently children start the term after they are 5 - so there is a big difference across the country. (However, just heard that in Sep 2004 Oxf will move to the Sep when 4 system).

In our school the children start very gradually with lots and lots of visits, half days, home visits, etc. They don't go full time for the first month. Our school also does a parents evening after Easter where they tell us what they expect in terms of independence - taking clothes, shoes and coats on and off for PE and playtime, independent use of toilet, eating with a knife and fork, etc. These sorts of things are a big help to staff in school, but also give the children a lot of self confidence if they can cope on their own too.

My oldest started school when he was 5 yrs 2 mnths, so it will be a shock for me for ds2 to start when he is only just 4. Not sure how he (or I?) are going to cope with that?!

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