Applying for a school

If your child is starting school in September 2024, school applications need to be sent off by 15th January 2024.

You can do this by following the link https://www.southampton.gov.uk/schools-learning/find-apply-school/school-applications/

If you need any support with this please talk to a member of our team.

Skills you can start working on at home...

1. Becoming more independent with dressing.

Encourage your child to start putting their own clothes on. Start off by putting legs or arms in by themselves, or pulling trousers up. Playing games such as 'See if your arm can go all the way through the tunnel and out the other side'.

Lots of praise!!

2. Recognising their name

A great way to start this in hunting for the first letter of their name in the environment such as road signs and shop logos. 'Look there is an 'M' , That's in your name'.

3. Begin to talk about a range of emotions

You can so this by labelling all of your feelings and saying why you feel that way to role model this to your child. You can also label the child's feelings, for example 'You looked really worried when you were climbing up the ladder, but when you went down the slide you looked really happy'.

Also asking how they are feeling and whats made them feel that way. If they are finding it hard to tell you maybe say 'By looking at your face i can see that you are feeling ...'

4.Touch Counting to 10.

You can help achieve this with your child by using your finger to touch objects when counting for example cars or animals when they are playing. 'How many cows live on your farm?' .

You can also do this when cooking. 'We need 4 carrots please' and get your child to pick them for you.

5.Sit and Listen to a story

You can help at home by sharing lots of stories with your child. It is great for children to read the same book lots of times to become familiar with the story and words used. This has huge positive impact on the child's language skills that they later use in school.