Things to consider when choosing a school for your child

• Does your child have any specific interests that you would like the school to nurture. This may include sports, music, or languages,
• What facilities does the school provide that will assist your child to reach their full potential,
• Does the school offer any transition to school programs, to assist children and parents to settle into the new community,
• Does the school share the same values as your family? with regard to attitude, beliefs, and behaviour. This may include their policies towards punctuality and dress code,
• Do you have religious beliefs, or educational philosophies that you would like the school to share,
• Consider if you have a preference for single sex or co-ed.
• The distance between your home and the school is another important decision, it is important to also consider how your child will get to school.
• Finally, if your child has already established friendships, consider where they are going. Knowing  someone at their new school will assist your child in their transition to kindergarten.

Preparing for school

• To ensure your child has an enjoyable and easy transition to school talk to your child about what to expect at school. This includes
• Talking about the children they already know who will be starting school with them, what it will be like to make new friends, and the many games and activities they will be able to take part in.
• Discussing with your child who will pick them up from school, and reassuring them that someone will be there on time to collect them.
• Practice using their new school bag and lunch box before their first day at school. This will allow your child to get use to opening and closing them, so that it will not be difficult for them when they are at school.
• Practice putting on their school shoes and uniform jacket prior to starting school. This will help them to get use to doing it for themselves.

This is a special time for parents and children, and we hope you enjoy this stage of development with your child.

Other suggestions:

The Quirky Kid Clinic has social skills and communication program, The Best of Friends™ that assist children and developing key skills prior to kinder garden:

• Review our planned workshops for the year.
• Subscribe to our workshop reminder mail-list
• Prevention is best. If you are concerned about your child transition and for further information on school readiness please contact us.

Recommended resources

The Quirky Kid Shoppe is full of useful resources. Below are some recommended resources by our psychologists:

• How to Be a Friend by Quirky Kid:
• I feel Frightened:

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References:

Information for this fact sheet was taken from an interview with Child Psychologist Kimberley O’Brien, the Raising Children Network website and the following article.

Chandler, L,K. (1993). Steps in Preparing for Transition: Preschool to Kindergarten. Teaching Exceptional Children. Volume 25, page 52-55.

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This was an interesting conversation and you can listen to the podcast by clicking below:

You can further participate on the discussion by visiting our Forum – The Quirky Kid Huddle - http://childpsychologist.com.au/forum

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The delegates were all very friendly and happy to share stories about their ventures in NT Indigenous communities (Dr Wendy Giles) and those with similar research topics were eager to gather and share references or powerpoints to make the most of our commonalities – It was an enlightening experience!

After sufficient build-up, the time came to present my project to my new found colleagues…and thankfully, it was well-received. My Monash Supervisor, Assoc Prof. Helen Watt was in the audience for additional support but I managed to breeze through my explanations of graphs and stats without incident. I must say my return trip to Sydney through the flood plains on the outskirts of Canberra at sunset was filled with a combination of elation and relief.

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The outcome was an abundance of new ideas for the future direction of my thesis. Julie fearlessly devised a new model to further explore the impact of loneliness, self esteem, belonging and friendship quality during school transition. She also suggested the introduction of  two (2) new variables:

1. Stability of friendships
2. Reciprocity of friendships

Once again I would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr Julie Aikin and her team of research assistants for their generousity and wisdom. UCONN is also a place I would highly recommend as a well-resourced and service-oriented university – The library and the library staff were phenomenal!

Now back in Sydney, I have returned to the ‘writing-up’ stage of my project, aiming for 80 000 words by mid- 2010 with ongoing support and guidance from my long-distance supervsior, the amazing Dr Helen Watt at Monash University. Helen selflessly shared the art of connecting with international experts and it was well worth the effort.

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This is in line with Kimberley O’Brien, our principal child psychologist, current PHD research topic: Self-esteem and social relationships among students in transition to Year 7. Kimberley  has been conduction this research for 4 years under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Helen Watt from Monash University.

Kimberley will present her initial finding on the next International Education Research Conference n Canberra in November 2009.

The Quirky  Kid clinic offer  in school workshops addressing transition, bullying, self-steem and relationships. Please contact us on 02 9362 9297 for more information or to book a workshop on your school.

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