Tips for parents of this years reception kids

[roseyposeysmum]

Just that really - it is a bit of a minefield.

How many items of uniform, packed lunch or school dinners ? Any tips to make it all easier ?

2 words - Cash's nametapes.

These were the type of school bags we had - different patterns now obviously :o

www.gap.eu/browse/product.do?cid=79153&vid=1&pid=343442&scid=343442027

They don't seem to do a girls one.

Can anyone recommend a leak proof drinks bottle?

I want something a tad smarter than my usual fruit shoot bottle

Do parents really steal other kids uniforms and cut the name tag out?

it literally never occurred to me that this would happen. < naive >

Oh yes IllegitimateGruffaloChild you would be shocked!! I always write names inside the cuff as well as on the label, we lost too many jumpers with logo on to the "oh we cut out the labels because it had their sibling's name in" crowd (that only works if they ACTUALLY have an older sibling!! )

And if you do not label at all, then lost property is a bit of a free for all!!

Systyma (sp) do a good drinks bottle with a twist up and down lid that is leakproof. It comes with a sandwich box ir in its own in a bigger size, in pink or blue. I got mine in waitrose and sainsburys.

at the bitter voices of experience!

I guess this is the water bottle of choice?

Good tips. Thank you.

Yup - that's the water bottle - DS(3) and DD (5) can both manage it fine

DD has managed with just 2 of main uniform items (jumper, skirts, summer dresses) - we bought 6 shirts as they came in a 3 pack but would have been fine with 4 if they had been in a 2-pack. I would just buy what you think you can manage with as a minimum then add if you need to as they grow out of it so quickly. M&S uniform is a little on the small side - worth going up a size if you want it to last (dd started Yr R in age 6 stuff which still fits and will hopefully last through to Christmas)

Not read whole thread but

Label everything
Be prepared for the exhaustion
Be prepared for settling in problems even if they have been used to nursery - I was totally taken aback by this, and very upset, as was DS. It passed.

I have managed with 6 polo shirts, 3 sweatshirts and three pairs of trousers. Oh, and a super optimistic pair of shorts - ha!

Brilliant, thanks for all the tips and links!

Out of interest a question to the ladies who label on the cuff, hem ets... how do you locate your uniform that has been stolen. Do you turn over every childs cuff :-)

I like the idea, just wondering if i could embroider name on the front.

That your very bright, articulate and hilarious 4 year old will just become an also-ran in the great melting-pot that is school...

Which is a good lesson for life...

Clarks sell shoe labels which go inside the shoe so can't fall off etc.

When there's about 10 other boys/girls all with the same black Clarks shoes they're a must!

willsmum you said "Every teacher's nightmare when children come back to school and put the sound /u/ on the end of every sound as in /cu/! It holds them back with reading, spelling and writing"

Can you explain this a bit please? I don't understand

I'm a bit worried about the after-school exhaustion thing, given that DS still gets exhausted after nursery, and has been completely wiped out after his one hour school taster sessions (AND he's nearly five!). Wondering - what do you actually do with them after school? I'd love to curl up with a book (as would he), but I also have a 2 year old who makes this a little tricky . But he's usually too tired and grumpy to do art/craft type stuff. So, what are good 'downtime' alternatives to TV, please?

DVDs

Ablative absolute, I would say for the first term, don't worry about 30 minutes tv time when you come home,
if you let hm veg out for 30 minutes with a snack it will recharge his batteries enough to see him through to bed time
if that is the only tv he watches in a day it isn't much!

The current trend in learning to read is 'synthetic phonics' with the focus on the pure phonic sound so 'sssss' not 'suh', 'mmmm' not 'muh' etc. When they are first beginning to blend sounds together to make words it is much easier with the pure sound. Many schools do 'jolly phonics'. At our school the teacher usually runs a parents evening about learning to read before they introduce phonics to explain to parents how they do it. Our school also tell parents not to worry about teaching the children how to write as the schools often have particular ways of writing letters. They also say definately don't teach them to write using just capital letters.

Just to say though I read some research that said that one of the key indicators as to how children do at school is the parental support given. So do the reading each night, go to the library and find books related to the topic, visit places linked to topics, practise any handwriting send home, send in any show and tell things requested. Also show the teacher respect in front of your child - if you moan about the teacher in front of your child then they will not be as well behaved in school. If your child is in trouble at school back the school up. Lack of respect for schools and teachers causes a huge amount of behaviour issues in school which then impacts on everyones education.

Lots of great tips. :)

As a Y1 teacher (with DS in Y3 and DD about to start YR), my order of preference is:
Toilet themselves and wipe bum
Do up coat by themselves (this can still be a problem in Y1 and drives me nuts)
Read every night but don't insist books are changed every day - rereading is valuable for fluency and expression
Use pure sounds when sounding out words (as willsmum said, it's c-a-t NOT cuh-ah-tuh)

The Oxford Owl website is fabulous and has a section with soundclips of how to say each individual sound www.oxfordowl.co.uk/question/index/3

Im glad I have found this thread! Dd2 starts in September.

My question - Do they take a rucksack with a spare set of clothes? Do they take a ruck sack at all?