How finding a good preschool helped Sophie to thrive

Finding a loving supportive preschool for Sophie to go to, from three to five years old, rather than keeping Sophie at home, was a fundamental preparation for school.

At the (irreplaceably valuable) Primary School ‘Transition Week’ for incoming Kindy children, Sophie’s Kindergarten teacher for the next year said to me, “You’ve done a great job with Sophie!” and my immediate thought was, “It was the preschool!”

The preschool had done a beautiful job of teaching Sophie the fabric of school life: gradually separating successfully from me and trusting other adults, she had learned to happily enter her own school world without me following and being comforted by the routines, one familiar thing turning into the next sitting on a small chair at a small table with a small group of other small children concentrating on individual activities sitting on the floor with everyone for large group activities opening and eating her packed school lunch with the other children packing away and cleaning up after herself lots of lovely social skills, greetings, farewells, learning people’s names, enjoying lovely moments of company and friendship with the other young children

On one of those transition days at Sophie’s new school, I walked back to the classroom to retrieve my bag I’d forgotten, and stunned by the deep focused silence of all the children sitting at small group tables concentrating, my Sophie sitting there amongst them concentrating beautifully too, I held my breath, I couldn’t disturb them and decided to come back later. Thank you preschool!