School readiness is more than knowing the alphabet

Before a child starts school, most of the preparation goes into letters, numbers and writing their name. Those are useful. They are also, in our experience, almost never the reason a first term goes badly.

What decides that is a quieter set of skills, and they are teachable in the months beforehand.

The skills that actually carry the first term

Following instructions without their name attached. At home, instructions are personal and direct. In a classroom, most instructions are given to the group. A child who only responds to their own name will miss most of the day.

Sitting and attending. Not silently, and not for long. Enough to stay with a shared activity for a stretch, and to come back to it after being distracted.

Managing without an adult in reach. Waiting a few minutes for help. Tolerating that attention is shared out.

Asking for what they need. Saying they need the toilet, that they are stuck, that something hurts. A child who cannot ask will usually show it in behaviour instead.

Basic independence. Shoes, bag, lunchbox, toilet, hand washing. Every one of these that an adult has to do is a moment the child is separated from the group.

Coping with transitions. Stopping something enjoyable when asked. School moves on a bell whether anyone has finished or not.

Recovering from small setbacks. Losing a game, being told no, someone taking the toy. The recovery time matters more than the reaction.

Playing alongside and with other children. Turn taking, sharing space, joining in something already running.

Fine motor control. Not handwriting. Holding a pencil without pain, using scissors, managing a zip and a button.

A rough checklist

In the term before school starts, it is reasonable to expect a child to be working towards being able to:

• respond to an instruction given to the whole group
• stay with a group activity for around ten minutes
• wait a short time for adult attention
• say when they need the toilet, and manage it mostly alone
• put on and take off their own shoes and bag
• stop an activity when asked, with a warning
• recover from a small disappointment within a few minutes
• take turns in a simple game
• hold a pencil and use scissors comfortably

Nobody arrives with all of it. This is a direction, not a pass mark.

If several of these are a long way off

That is worth acting on, and there is usually time. These are teachable skills, and the months before school starts are the cheapest time to teach them. It is far easier than trying to build them in November while a child is already struggling and forming a view of themselves as the one who cannot do school.

Our school readiness work in Wave Community targets exactly this list, in a setting that looks enough like a classroom for the skills to transfer.

If your child starts school soon and you are uneasy about it, tell us what you are seeing.