Settling into the Early Years by Miss Kacey
The Early Years have had an exciting first month of school. We have welcomed new teachers, spent time getting to know one another and made new friends in class and across the Early Years. We have been finding new exciting areas to explore in our new Dilmunia campus in our Early Years department and across school.
Imagine entering the Early Years doors, the first thing that you hear is children singing, calming music or the sound of children playing. As you continue to walk, you will see the classroom doors open with children engaged in their play. If you stop into any classroom, the children will stop and say hello, giving you a little wave, if some children are feeling brave that day, they will tell you what they are doing and what they have done that was exciting that day!
“My favourite part of the day is everything.”
– by Sophia, R.4
Settling into the Early Years is a huge transition for children, there are so many changes and having to establish relationships while feeling comfortable in a new environment can be very daunting for some children. We approach transitioning and settling in with time and care, not rushing children and letting them tell us when they feel ready for the next steps. Our focus for the first half term is the children and their personal, social and emotional development, engaging in play, getting to know them and establishing routines for them to gain independence and autonomy in the classroom. In some classes, there were surveys to get to know children, circle time discussions and conversations through play to really develop our relationships. As a department, we use resources such as stories to help with children’s settling in; The Colour Monster has been a successful and well loved book to use as a prompt to engage in feelings, openness for discussion and general identification of emotions.
“Today, I feel yellow. It’s happy!”
– Elya, N.1
The children have been busy at school and it was wonderful to host our first Early Years Open Morning. While this was not the first open morning for some of our returning students, it was for a lot of children and parents. It was a fantastic opportunity for parents to come into the classroom and see their children playing, engaging with others and showing mummies and daddies how settled they were! As a teacher it was really special to see the parents getting involved and playing with the children. We hosted both our current and prospective parents and it was a wonderful start to the year seeing some new faces and allowing time for them to explore and ask questions about our approach to learning. We look forward to hosting our next Early Years Open Morning next half term and welcome parents back into our classes.
