Nursery World - Best days of their lives

As children and parents get ready for 'real school', Michael Pettavel cautions against rushing into the future

It’s that time of the year – we are sending our children off to a multitude of primary schools, fresh-faced and eager to go. Their expectation is written on their faces, partly anxious; they look as if they’re queuing up to go on a theme-park ride – not knowing quite what to expect. Parents rush about finding uniform, attending meetings and asking earnest questions about how we think they’ll cope with the demands of ‘real school’.

I politely answer we are a ‘real school’ and we have prepared them just fine. They know how to think, independently access what they need to extend their learning and have an imagination to die for. It allows them to conjure intricate stories from thin air and turn a twig into a magic wand. In short, they have learnt how to fly. With skills like that, an hour of phonics a day shouldn’t present too many problems.

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