School Readiness and Transitions

School readiness 'gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for future progress through school life'. 

At St Vincent's Nursery, we are continually providing children with the skills to be school ready. Our Early Years Teacher, Mrs Pickering, greatly focuses on school readiness mainly in the Pre-school room, with regular interventions in the Early Learners room to ensure that the children are ready for transition to Pre-school.

The Pre-school room offers exciting learning opportunities including focus on reading, writing and maths. Emotional well-being is key to becoming school ready; supporting the children's confidence and self-esteem results in them becoming critical thinkers and active learners who show curiosity to learn. When starting school, it is important the children are independent; we support their confidence with their self-care skills and their ability to independently dress themselves which is enhanced by PE lessons which take place during the summer term. 

Communication and language skills are vital; during our daily routine the children are given never-ending opportunities to enrich their skills. Various physical activities support the children in gaining greater control with their fine motor skills and before heading off to school we aim to ensure that the children are able to independently write their name and use scissors securely.

Transition to ‘big school’ is exciting but also can be very daunting not only for the children but their parents too. To support each child’s transition to school we have put into place many transitional activities throughout the summer term. These include, for example:

• Stay and Play visits in the Reception classes, which allow the children to explore the environment inside and out
• Packed lunch in the school hall
• Joined play with Reception in the school playground
• Teachers and teaching assistants come in to read a story to the children in the Pre-school room 

We work tirelessly towards achieving a smooth transition for our children into the next exciting phase of their education.

In September 2021 we sent out a survey to all parents whose child transitioned to a primary school in September to gather feedback on how they felt the transition went, despite the very challenging year. This is how parents would rate the quality of preparation for transition to school:

'My son has become a confident, kind and caring child, who is a team player, and this has been helped with the nurturing at nursery.'

 

'My child has loved all the activities on offer, especially the range of physical activities, arts & crafts and construction. The quality of care was second to none, exactly what a parent leaving their child needs and more.'

 

'The family ethos, the amazing staff, the communication... my children have never been unhappy to attend a single day. Thank you so much!'

 

'It is a warm, friendly and happy place which has the children's best interests at heart in absolutely everything they do.'

88% of parents felt that the team prepared the children and families 'extremely well' for school, both physically and emotionally, whilst the remaining 12% of parents felt 'well' prepared.

88% of parents rated the quality of care and learning opportunities as 'outstanding' whilst 12% rated it as 'good'.

100% of parents would recommend St Vincent's Nursery to others.