Head of Preparatory School
Three weeks in and my child is so tired!
There has been lots happening in Prep in the last three weeks and over all our start to the year has been a happy and exciting experience. For some though, the novelty of starting a new school and navigating new school routines or even getting used to the old ones can create some wobbles as tiredness sets in. Some Preppies won’t miss a beat and will fly into their new year without a tear, but for some, it is normal to experience and elicit some degree of apprehension. To help with Parent expectations, below are some of the typical things we see across our Prep community in the first fortnight.
Emotions
Expect your child to be emotional (excited, apprehensive, sad, fearful, worried, etc). Starting school or returning to school after such a long break can present enormous change, and one that you simply cannot over prepare your child for. Talk about, welcome, and support all those little feelings as completely normal responses to a very big change. It would be an anomaly for most children to breeze through this transition. So also talk about how every other child in their class will probably be feeling just the same as your child feels.
Tiredness
Expect your child to be tired. There is so much learning outside of just the curriculum. Your child is learning to function in a much more complex social arrangement, building trust with a new teacher and environment, learning to sit still and listen for extended time periods, working collaboratively, learning advanced sharing and turn taking skills, learning advanced play skills and many many more things. All this learning typically produces a tired brain and tired child. They will rapidly absorb this new routine in the coming weeks and the tiredness is likely to fade. A tip is not to overschedule your child. Maybe pick one extracurricular to do in the first term as to ease into routines and to allow your child to figure out what interests them.
Behaviour
Expect some slight changes to your child’s behaviour at home and school. Early learners use a lot of emotional energy during the day, so on some days they can be running on empty by the time they see you. This is a very common occurrence with parents frequently asking how their child can be an “angel” in the classroom, but difficult at home. Come to pick up prepared for a big, undistracted hug and acknowledge how well they did without your and how happy you are to be picking them up. This helps to reconnect their primary attachment and refills their emotional resilience until the next drop off.
All these responses are normal. Please just remember your child is doing well and you’re doing great too. We will always get in touch with you if we are thinking conversations need to be had.
My main tip in these first few weeks is to arrive at pick up with a big smile and to just listen to their stories of the day. Simple prompts can sometimes help ‘I know you had PE today, what was the best bit?’ or ‘Can you teach me a French word today that you learnt?’ As parents we want to know every detail of their day and who they played, what did they eat etc etc, but after a hot, sweaty day your child will probably just want to get outside and play for a while to unwind and eat!
After a few weeks, if you are finding that your child is still having difficulty with the navigation of school, please come and talk to me or Mrs Clinton and I am sure together we can find some strategies to help.
PCG Morning Tea
The PCG met for the first time this year and it was so wonderful to see new and old faces at the meeting. Thank you to all those parents who have volunteered to be class representatives. I look forward to working with you all and deepening our connection between school and home across Redlands House and Prep School. A big thanks must go to Jen Mast for all her work to gather such a positive group of parents together.
Clubs Update
A reminder that after school Clubs are not on this term. As a prep team, we have been looking at some key questions around Clubs and have decided to move them to lunchtime and before school time slots. More information will be sent over the next few weeks as to what Clubs will be on offer and how to register for term 2.
School Bags
The Redlands Prep school bag that can be purchased from the uniform shop is the appropriate size for our prep students to fit everything they need to bring to school. With this said, can I please ask that all lunchboxes are placed inside the children’s bag and not hung on the outside of the school bag. These hanging boxes are becoming a trip hazard in the classroom and are too big for our Prep students to manage themselves. A simple lunchbox with a drink bottle that fits into the mesh holder on the outside of the bag is all that is required please.
On some days our students must bring instruments, library bags, sports clothes to school and a hanging lunchbox are an unnecessary addition to their load.
We ask the name tag on the school bags to be filled in and students can place ONE ribbon or a key ring on their bag for identification. We will discuss this with our students over the next few days.
We will aim to have all lunchboxes in bags by Monday and please use time on the weekend to discuss with your child what singular piece of identification they would like on their bag.
Parent Helpers
We have new decodables and guided reading sets of books that we have purchased for our Prep students which is very exciting. With new books comes the need to cover and protect them so we are putting the call out to our fabulous Prep community to help us cover them!
I am planning to have book covering working bees from 8.30am-10.30am the following dates.
Mondays – 28/2, 7/3, 14/3
Wednesdays – 2/3, 9/3,16/3
Fridays – 4/3, 11/3, 18/3
With COVID guidelines in mind, it is possible for us to have 5 volunteers each session. Volunteers need to be fully vaccinated and will be required to wear a mask the entire time they are in the school. There will be coffee involved to help you make your mind up!
If you would like to help, on all or any of these days, please email me directly. A big thank you in advance from all of us in Prep.
Mrs Ainslie Breckenridge
Head of Preparatory School
abreckenridge@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9848