School Readiness

Children who settle into school easily are the ones who have attended a quality Early Learning Centre or Pre-School with a professional school readiness program, says new entrant teachers.

Our Fantail Flyers school readiness program has been created by our experienced and qualified team, in collaboration with the new entrant teachers of our local schools. Special attention is given to not just word recognition, numeracy and vocabulary but also concentration, working in a group and routines.

As part of the program Fantails will provide lunchboxes and drink bottles to help with this change of routine as children enter school. Our aim is to build confidence so children can move comfortably into "big school".

While every child is different, by the time they leave Fantails to go to school we would like them to have developed the following:

Early literacy and numeracy skills

Name recognition and writing
Alphabet recognition and letter sounds
Counting and number recognition
Matching one to one

Characteristics needed for ongoing learning

Taking an interest
Communicating with others
Persisting with difficulty
Being involved
Taking responsibility

Confidence in self-help routines

Being able to go to the toilet and change their clothes
Managing their lunch box so they don't eat it all at morning tea
Packing their bag at the end of the day

A good grasp of problem solving skills

Asking questions
Developing a hypothesis
Negotiation
Willingness to try a number of approaches and not being discouraged by failure

Sound social skills

Working collaboratively with peers
Having confidence to contribute ideas in both formal and informal settings\Solving conflicts themselves
Making friends and showing empathy
Managing their emotions

At Fantails literacy and numeracy are taught in a variety of ways including:

Active outdoor games that include Alphabet/number/shape/colour matching /grouping of people, objects and things
Sequencing. What's next? Who is missing? First and last games
Individual printing books
One on one to learn to copy and write own name and other family members names
Copy a story they have recited about a picture or theme
Whiteboard and markers/magnetic letters to create words
Letter recognition games. My name begins with.............? Ben's name begins with..........?
Children's name to copy in their art
Story listening and retelling and/or acting out
Letter sound games
Games with rules
Letter/Number Hunts. Matching a letter or number written on their hand to one hidden somewhere in the centre or outside
Rote learning of numbers
Opposites board games
Setting lunch tables - counting cups/plates etc.

Parent Testimonials