Why Nursery (and Pre-Reception) gives your child a great start

A child’s educational journey will have a major impact on their lives and many parents wonder when the best time is for their child to start their journey. Why wait when the advantages of your child joining an educational establishment early has numerous benefits. 

A nursery school provides children with an educational environment where they can adjust to the structure of a school day ahead of starting school. By doing this, they are more prepared for the transition of starting school and it will give them a number of advantages such as:

Developing social skills

When children are used to mixing with and playing with children their age from early on, they will have the chance to develop their social skills, which will help them to make friends in the future. Children who are not used to spending time with other children and do not learn concepts such as sharing,  turn-taking and considering others, may struggle to adapt when they start school.

Get used to the routine

Getting into the routine of the school day, including getting ready for school and the school run will be a much smoother transition if they have already been doing a similar routine at nursery. The habit of waking up at a certain time, eating breakfast, getting dressed and getting to nursery on time will set them up for the right routine when they get to school.

Even though learning is not as formal in the early years education setting, there is still some structure around setting times for meals, as well as doing group activities for set amounts of time. This structure will get children used to how the school day will be and also helps them get used to home time and knowing that parents always come back to pick them up also helps children to settle when they get to school age.

Build confidence and independence

If your child spends most of their time having one to one attention from parents, grandparents or their childminder, it can be difficult for them to get used to not having this level of attention at school. By attending nursery, they will develop greater independence, where they play on their own or with peers, rather than always looking for the attention of an adult.

The experience of being in groups at nursery will also help them to gain confidence around spending time with other children and being away from the security of being with their primary carers.

Learn new skills

At nursery, purposeful activities are planned that will promote the development of new skills from using mathematical concepts and early literacy to exploring the world around them. Developing some of these skills early on will ensure that when they get to school, these skills are embedded and they will be prepared for the next stage of their learning and development.

Develop communication skills

As well as learning how to make friends and socialise, children can also build up other important communication skills at nursery such as talking to and listening to others. Developing listening skills is just as important as learning to talk, and children who attend nursery will have experience of this much earlier.

You might think that your child does not listen very well at home but at nursery they are more likely to conform to what their peers are doing and this routine will help them to understand why it is important to listen to teachers.

Nursery can also help to show children what sort of behaviour is acceptable at school. Children will often behave differently with other adults than they do at home, so nursery gives them more opportunity to develop good classroom behaviour. 

How Gateways can improve your child’s growth

At Gateways, we support children in developing new skills and building confidence at every stage of their education pathway, from nursery school through to Sixth Form. The Gatehouse and our Pre-Reception area in Littlegates, helps to prepare children for school life, by adopting routines and developing skills that they can build on when they get to compulsory school age.

One of the unique benefits of Gateways is our small class sizes, which give children an environment where they can be confident and thrive in a group situation, rather than feeling lost in a large class.

By attending Gateways’ Early Years departments, children become familiar with the school premises and indeed benefit from being able to use our fantastic facilities so when it comes to starting school, the transition is smooth and stress-free, they are familiar with the school and they will already know many of their classmates. 

Find out more here – https://www.gatewaysschool.co.uk/nursery/