Preparing Your Child for Prep 1

Your Journey Starts Here

Starting Prep 1 is a wonderful milestone for every family. It marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter filled with learning, friendships, and growing independence for each and every child. At Dollar Academy, we are committed to making this transition as positive, gentle, and reassuring as possible.

Helping Your Child Feel Ready

Over the summer, simple conversations can make a big difference. Talk to your child about their new teacher and practise saying their teacher’s name together. Reassuring discussions about school routines, playtimes, and meeting new friends can help build confidence and excitement.

Prep 1 pupils enjoy a very social school day. The classes often work together for aspects of the curriculum, such as the People Who Help Us topic, and all Prep School children play together at playtime. This gives children plenty of opportunities to see familiar faces, make new friends, and interact with different year groups throughout the day.

Preparing for the School Day

If your child is still having a daytime nap, we recommend gently encouraging them to drop this over the summer so they can adjust to the full school day.

From their very first day in Prep 1, children will begin the phonics programme and will have a small amount of phonics homework each evening. They will also start bringing home books to enjoy reading with you at home each day.

Children arrive in Prep 1 with a wide range of interests and developmental stages. Some are eager to begin formal reading, writing, and numeracy, while others are happiest learning through play. Both approaches are entirely appropriate. At this stage, we always encourage any formal learning to be child-led, with play continuing to be a priority.

Learning to Read

If your child is showing interest in reading, prior to starting school, we have a few pointers for you to consider:

Encourage them to say the letter sounds rather than letter names (for example, e is pronounced “eh”, not “ee”).
Avoid focusing on the alphabet or letter names at this stage.
A good starting point is exploring the sounds in your child’s own name.
Match letters to objects in everyday life, such as e for egg or g for grass.

Sharing storybooks together is incredibly valuable. Talk about the pictures, discuss what is happening in the story, and follow the text with your finger as you read. This helps children understand that text moves from left to right and that books are read from front to back. Simple games such as Eye Spy are also a fun way to practise listening for sounds and building early literacy skills.

Learning to Write

Many children enjoy practising writing their name as they look forward to starting school. If your child begins writing, we ask that you support them in forming their letters correctly from the outset.

Pencil grip is an important aspect of learning to write and, if possible, should follow the Nelson script. If your child is interested in writing their name or other words, we encourage you to use the Nelson template below to help ensure good habits are established early.

Nelson handwriting – Artofit

This shows:

A black dot to indicate where to start each letter
An arrow to show the direction of movement

Learning About Numbers

Early number concepts are best learned through practical hands-on experiences rather than written work. Using concrete materials such as counters, or plastic numerals is far more meaningful for the children at this stage.

Helpful activities include:

Spotting numbers in the environment (bus numbers, door numbers, calendars, signs)
Playing hopscotch
Laying the table with the correct number of items
Collecting items while shopping, such as four bananas
Counting and sharing toys, food, or sweets
Playing games like hide and seek

Curiosity about numbers, patterns, and quantity is just as important as reciting numerals. It can also help to highlight the difference between numerals (for example, 2, 5, 7) and quantities (such as 10 grapes or 4 pencils), as this builds a strong understanding of numbers.

Reading

Writing

Counting