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Getting familiar with the school environment
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Familiarising you and your child with the school can help to ease and nerves and prepare your child for their new environment.
In addition to any scheduled school visits, you can also:
See if the school has a website. Look it up with your child and see what pictures there are. If there is a school brochure go through that for pictures and interesting information.
If there is a picture of the school building itself, talk about it: the way in, the colour, the size. Guess which classroom you might be in, talk about the playground and the games that might be played.
If there are any pictures of the Head, talk about their role and why they are always especially kind to the new children and how they look forward to meeting them.
Do a few practice school runs. Drive or walk...which ever you expect to do when the day comes. The school will be locked, but you can still go to the gate and walk around the outside and peek in. Talk about what you see.
Take a camera and let your child take some pictures which you can talk about and show other family members.
Share tips and advice about starting school in our primary school forum
