Veteran educator says school readiness preparation should start early

Claire Halliday

Former primary school teacher Rikki Toohey believes her four decades of experience in the classroom makes her well-equipped to help parents understand some important school readiness tips that help set kids up to succeed.

To help share her wealth of knowledge, Toohey has created an e-book that outlines 50 questions to help parents assess their child’s school readiness, along with activities designed to help them nurture those skills at home.

“My goal is to educate and support parents of pre-schoolers so that their children are ready to start school confidently,” says Toohey.

Her career as an educator began in 1981, specialising in pre-school and early primary-aged children – and Toohey says she’s seen how children can be impacted when they start school without the tools that can help them thrive.

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“If they’re unprepared, it can be a really emotional and upsetting time for them, especially for kids who are with their parents all the time,” she says.

“It’s very distressing for the child.”

Toohey’s insights cover everything from communication and literacy, social development, listening, fine motor skills and cognition and can be shared with children as young as two.

“These are the basic building blocks that children need for lifelong learning,” she says.

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“And after each question, I have the educational reason for each skill and why they need it for future learning so that their parents can understand how this is the starting point.”

But instead of presenting the information like a dense academic volume, Toohey’s suggested activities can be integrated into everyday routines, using things parents and carers probably already have around their homes.

“If it’s hands-on, they’re more engaged, especially with the language, and you’re actually incorporating a lot of skills.”

Reading to children is essential

Toohey says that, although there should be no expectation that a child can read independently by the time they start school, having access to books is a vital part of a young child’s learning process.

“It’s really important to read to your children every night and even if they don’t understand the words, their language develops,” she says.

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“Just looking at a book, predicting what might happen and teaching your child that even if you predict incorrectly, that’s okay because you’re looking at the picture and you’re thinking about what could happen.

“Then that leads in to school as well when kids have to predict in mathematical problems and some children get quite frustrated with that because they’ve not done a lot of predicting.”

Simple activities, such as encouraging children to sort their toys, or even leaves from the backyard, into colour groupings, and talk about their shapes, can help young children learn valuable lessons.

“Talk about the leaves, what shape they are and what colour, and then you can make a pattern with them,” says Toohey

“So, you might have two different leaves – make a pattern and get the child to finish it.”

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She advocates starting early with young children to help them be school-ready.

“Like anything, we need to practise,” says Toohey.

“You can teach a child something, but they won’t have it straight away. Some things can take six months, and you’ve just got to keep going and going.”

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Claire Halliday has an extensive career as a full-time writer - across book publishing, copywriting, podcasting and feature journalism - for more than 25 years. She lives in Melbourne with children, two border collies and a grumpy Burmese cat. Contact: claire.halliday[at]educationdaily.au