Pre-School Care and Education

play3The quality of pre-school care and education can have a significant influence on the child's cognitive, emotional and social development which in turn affects the child's school readiness.

Studies show that high quality care and education lead to higher cognitive test scores, better school achievement, less special education placements and higher school completion rates. High quality care incorporates the quality of the care providers and the quality of the structural environment. Research indicates that participation in programmes that provide quality early childhood care and education has a strong impact on children.

Well designed early education programmes serving children in the year prior to their first year of school are shown to generate benefit for;

  • Children themselves
  • Government
  • Society in general

In short, benefits are shown to outweigh costs. In addition, it is seen that programmes that also involve the parents have a greater impact on child outcomes.

 

playschoolSchool Transition Practices

School transition practices that make the transition from home or playschool to school as smooth as possible can affect school readiness.

Starting formal education presents many new challenges to children;

  • They are expected to be responsible
  • They are expected to be independent
  • They must interact with teachers
  • They must meet certain formal academic achievements
  • They have to face large class sizes

All of these factors can make entering school a stressful experience for the child. So in addition to the children being ready for school, the schools need to be ready for the children. However, many schools have no guidelines on how to facilitate this transition and indeed 'best practice' in this area is limited.