Back to School : Getting your Early Years & Primary setting ready

General:

Schools go through a lot of changes during the holidays including moving things around, decorating, and changing or updating procedures. It’s always good to be prepared before children come back for a new Academic Year.

If it’s a new school or changes have happened over the summer make sure you know your way around and where everything is. Refresh yourself in school and emergency procedures just incase things have changed or been updated, it’s always good to have a refresh.

Get to know any new staff members as early as possible. You never know when you might need their help, or they might appreciate yours.

The Classroom:

Creating a positive and comfortable learning environment will help inspire your class and engage with them. Providing a welcoming environment is especially important if you are a reception teacher and receiving learners for the first time in school. 

Support wellbeing in the classroom by having dedicated quiet spaces which will allow your learners to relax. Bringing the outside in, with plenty of plant life, can be beneficial too. Provide some creative spaces away from the traditional learning environment to allow children to explore and use their imagination.

• Do you have a vision of how you want your classroom to look? Consider the best furniture arrangement so that you can easily view all your children.
• Think about an overall theme as well as colours, and reflect on how children will respond to them. Having quiet areas for children away from noisy play areas is essential, especially if you have children with special educational needs. Many children can find noise overwhelming, particularly in an unfamiliar space. Remember, less is more. In term of colours, neutral tones are less distracting and offer flexibility so you can bring others colours in when needed. Green helps to reduce anxiety, hence why plenty of plant life is also a good thing. Blue is a traditional classroom choice and a small amount can be seen as a calming colour, but be careful as too much can seem cold.
• Check all your resources have been ordered and delivered in time. Do you have a good variety of resources? Sensory items can encourage reassurance and relaxation. Placement carpets allow you add structure to learning activities and help children to focus.
• Get to know all your resources. Do you know how they all work and the benefits, have you checked they are all in working order?
• Think about display boards. It’s always good to avoid having things on the wall and ceiling for the sake of it. For everything that goes up think about why and for what purpose. If you can answer these questions then leave them up. Unnecessary items can be distracting.
• Organise your desk so you know where everything is and remember to include wellbeing activities in your lesson plans. This will be invaluable to both you and your class as you progress through the year.

Activities:

• Plan an ice breaker for your new class for them to get to know each other and for you to know them, such as prompting children to organise themselves in blobs or lines based on your questions. This could be number of siblings in common, gathering those with the same hair or eye colour, or lining up in chronological order of their birthday.
• Have a daily routine and give the children some responsibility, you could get them to be in charge of tidying areas at the end of the day and setting something up in the morning.
• Consider creating a seating plan if you want to use one. There are pros and cons to a seating plan but they can help you manage activities better as well as support the different learning styles of your class.

If you do feel overwhelmed, or think you’ve left it too late, remember there is always help and support within your setting and you are not the only one getting ready. Reach out and ask for help if you need it, but most importantly remember your class may well be nervous about the new school year too and you’ll soon settle into a new rhythm.