This is a public service announcement for parents of 2016 Reception starters

[kippersyllabub]

1. Whatever "settling in" arrangements your school tells you they have, you, the parent are entitled to send your child to school full time from the very start of the Autumn term, or part time until they reach compulsory school age. This is up to you. It is not up to the school. If you need to quote legislation at the headteacher, it's the school admissions code (this is secondary legislation) and this has been clarified in the 2015 report of the Office of the Schools' adjudicator.

1. It really helps if they can take themselves to the loo, get changed for PE and put their coat on. Counting, reading and writing early don't make a huge difference compared to the above.

1. label everything

Have I forgotten anything?

Keep one sweatshirt back for school photos, concerts etc so they have one that isn't covered in stains and faded.

Second the surname labelling. I have 5 dcs and it's so much easier not to relabel everything for each child.

blowmybarnacles - my friend's DS was hyper after he started school. My friend spoke to her health visitor, who suggested bringing bedtime forward to 6pm (5:30pm if she could manage it) for a term or so. It worked , it seems like he was getting so overtired that he couldn't sleep - a bit like an overstimulated baby.

My daughter also has ASD and I've had a meeting with the new head head, a meeting with her nursery keyworkers (she has 2) plus the new head in attendance. She also has 3 additional settling in sessions and the head teacher will be visiting her at nursery to get to know her a little bit (more than the usual visits teachers normally do)
If the school know your child has sen they will move heaven and earth to make sure everyone is happy and settled. (a good school will anyway!!)

Moving on slightly - please do eventually teach your child to do its laces (once their feet are plates of meat you can't get the Velcro-fastening shoes any more) and upper KS2 teachers are really too busy doing a zillion other things to tie the laces of a hulking great helpless 10-year-old with stinky socks.

Also - life skills like swimming, telling the time, knowing what day of the week it is and how to spell your middle name are things best taught and reinforced by parents so start now!

From a teacher friend.

Make sure your child is used to fetching things they need, rather than used to sitting there and asking for the green crayon to be passed over (when the crayon is on the same table).

Sew a 10 cm piece elastic on the neck of their jumpers . That way they can hang them up on on peg in hot weather and not lose them. You can also write their name on the elastic if it's white!

There is a book with a poem and shoelaces attached that helps children learn to tie their shoelaces. I bought it from Amazon but can't remember the name.

Get them used to asking for things in a clear, loud voice if possible (such as when ordering a dinner in a cafe).

Encourage them to wipe their own bottom but be prepared for loads of skidmarks.

Is the book the one about the bunny going into the hole? It was a more fun way of teaching kids to tie their laces. I had forgotten all about that.

Gloves on string. They always go missing otherwise. And another shout for no laces if they can't be tied independently. Elastic is a good alternative if you must have laced styles, but Velcro is best.

Another one I thought of this morning... if you have a DD, the white ankle socks with coloured patterns in the colour of your school are a nightmare. The first week, with matching socks each day, they look cute. By week two, you have three pairs and two odds; by week three, you have one pair and four odd socks and your DD refuses to wear two socks when one has dots around the tops & one stripes.
I am amazed at the sheer number of socks & tights DD has. Grey tights, grey knee high socks to wear with winter uniform when it is too warm for tights, white knee high socks to wear with summer uniform when it is top cold for ankle socks, white ankle socks. Sigh.

Persipicia I don't think your DD will have to take her glasses off whilst doing PE but she will probably have to take them off to take her tshirt off & then put them on again. Try & get her into the habit of always putting them in a shoe or somewhere else obvious when she is doing this so she isn't having to feel around for her glasses.

I've just found it on our shelf. It's called 'I can tie my shoelaces' and has a poem: It's time to learn to tie your shoes! Red Hen and her friends will show you what to do.

:www.amazon.co.uk/Can-Tie-My-Own-Shoelaces/dp/1849566194

Link didn't work
www.amazon.co.uk/Can-Tie-My-Own-Shoelaces/dp/1849566194

Oriana my son calls that program La La Laa after the theme tune!

Another vote for Stickins, for water bottles, shoes and clothes.

Get a water bottle that doesn't leak, even upside down or shaken. Otherwise their journal and books and paperwork will be ruined.

My son wasn't tired in the first term, but most are. So avoid exhausting sport or swimming lessons after school for the first term. Have a relaxed quiet half term in October. It is very busy leading up to Christmas and learning all the songs for the Christmas show.

My son couldn't do up a zip coat, so I bought a winter coat that also had press studs down the front. Practice getting dressed, undressed and turning sleeves back out. Practice eating well with cutlery.

Put a spare pair of pants in their book bag.

Don't get school coat and PE bag unless you have to, they all look the same. Put a distinctive keyring on book bag.

Get a family calendar. Mine has space to write everything I need. When an email comes called 'dates for diaries', write it all on the calendar straight away and look at it often.

If you send fruit/veg snack in, don't pick something like strawberries, they get squashy and drip in the bag. Grapes or raw carrot are ideal.

Keep your morning goodbyes quick and smiley.

Don't send anything precious in for show and tell etc, it may get lost.

I'm surprised at how many parents are saying they get told things via paper in book bag rather than emails and e news bulletins. I haven't used my cheque book once, it's all done via a school online paying system. I can log in and see what's outstanding or paid. We also get plenty of notice for bringing things in or costumes or dates for class/school performances and sports day.

The school online paying system costs the school. So it probably depends on the size of the school as to whether it is worth the expense.

I don't think the option of full time or part time until the child reaches 5 is new. We were given this option 2 years ago (England). We were advised to go full time from the start even though DS2 had only just turned 4 so we did. In the end, every child except one in his class went full time, so if you do start part time, you're more likely to be the odd one out. Sometimes he used to fall asleep in the afternoons, but the teacher / TA just put him on a beanbag in the corner and said it wasn't a problem.

Can I echo the suggestion about donating old pants and socks to school? DS's teacher leapt on me when I suggested (after the 5th or 6th bag in five or six weeks of soggy trousers, pants and socks was handed discreetly to me at hometime) that DS1 would be going up a size in pants and did they want his old ones for spares?

She told me her son usually donated his outgrown pants at the start of the year but he was now nearly fifteen and with the best will in the world, they couldn't make them fit four and five-year-olds anymore.

Beware of the Charlie and Lola book about starting school - it don't have it hand but I think it says she doesn't need to wear uniform, which is massively unhelpful for most schools!

Instead of an ice pack in the lunchbox, freeze Frubes and put one of those in.

I think a child of reception age will quite probably find it difficult to not leave needing the loo until the last minute. They should and must be allowed to go as soon as they ask. Some of these children are only just four, as my daughter was. It infuriates me that all these children are lumped together as one lot when some have had 25% more time on this earth than others.

Instead of an ice pack in the lunchbox, freeze Frubes and put one of those in.

or the yoghurt pot. or the juice carton.

However, once they've eaten the yoghurt or frube and packed the rubbish back into their lunchbox it will get all sweaty and start to go hard. Yoghurty lunchboxes are a pita to clean.

lunchbags get clean easy in a rinse&spin cycle of the washer.