Child Development & Learning FAQ's

Frequently asked questions

What do I do if my child is upset?

• Despite all efforts, some children will still become upset. Do not panic or let your own emotions show.

• Trust the teacher – he/she is experienced and resourceful and used to dealing with these situations

• When you have reassured the child, leave as quickly as you can. The teacher will distract/ humour him/her more easily when you are not around

• If you are worried, phone the school office on 057 8644020– we understand that this is an anxious time for you also.

How do I assist my child’s learning?

The Importance of Play

• The importance of play to youngsters should not be underestimated. Recognising that play in early childhood has a significant role in the social, physical, and cognitive development of a child is crucial.

• Play is an essential part of growing up and researchers believe it's critical to ensure children reach their full potential in life. Play helps your young child to learn new skills and ideas and build new information about the world around them. More importantly, play stimulates your child’s natural sense of curiosity. Through play a child will acquire many of the necessary skills that will subsequently be used for successful learning.

• It is crucial to facilitate play with and for your child. Please see Aistear tips for Parents at the following link for more information https://ncca.ie/en/early-childhood/for-parents/

Aistear is a new framework developed by the NCCA to encompass all children’s learning and development from birth to six years, hence overlapping with the first two years of primary school. Play is an essential methodology for learning especially in the early year’s classroom.

• Play can be used to teach many subjects in the curriculum for example, a play corner on the dentist develops oral language, pre reading with the print rich environment, Geography, Art, social skills, Science, SPHE to name but a few.

• Playing at the water table develops social skills, oral language, early mathematical skills, capacity, and science among other subjects.

• If your child is talking about ‘playing’, welcome this idea as it is here that the crucial early year’s learning takes place.

• The methodology of ‘play’ is embraced in the infant classroom in Barnashrone N.S.

Homework – Link between home and school

• Homework is given on a Monday and is clearly outlined for the week ahead although this may very at times depending on the topics being covered. Your child’s teacher will notify you further about this.

• Please only do assigned homework – don’t allow your child to go ahead in a workbook etc.

• Oral Homework is vital in Junior Infants – practising sounds, things that begin with…. Counting items…. Spotting numbers/ shapes in the environment etc.

• Rhymes are a vital part of early literacy and numeracy.

• Homework is collected on Fridays – flexibility if you have a busy evening during the week i.e. – if you are away on one of the evenings, you can catch up with that homework on another day of the week.

• If you are uncertain about anything relating to this, please do not hesitate to ask the teacher by sending in a note or calling the school with your query.

• You can contact us by calling the school on 057 8644020 or by emailing the school at barnashronens@yahoo.ie

• The school will contact you regularly via email and text message so it is vital that we have your correct email address and phone number. Please notify us immediately if these change.

Oral language

• Word power is the key to all learning.

• Language permeates all subject areas across the curriculum.

• Language is described by Russian Psychologist Lev Vygotsky as a ‘tool for thinking’. Quite often, we as adults use speech to stimulate our thinking, when we ask ourselves in the shop for example “What did I come for again?” Encourage your child to use language at every opportunity.

• It is important that the child’s ability to talk is as advanced as possible. It is through speech that s/he communicates his/her thoughts and feelings, his/her needs and desires, curiosity and wonder. If s/he cannot express these in words s/he will tend to remain silent and will often withdraw from the learning activity of the class.

• Talk to your child naturally and casually about things of interest that you or s/he may be doing-at home, in the shop, in the car, etc. Remember that all the time s/he is absorbing the language they hear about them. It takes him/her a while to make it his/her own and to use it for his own needs.

• Make time to listen when s/he wants to tell you something that is important to him/her. But don’t always make him/her the centre of attention.

• Always nurture his/her sense of curiosity and wonder. Facilitate to him/her to chat about the Why? How? When? Where? If? etc. These demand more advanced language structures.

• He/she will have his own particular favourite stories that s/he never tires of hearing. Repeat them over and over again and gradually get him/her to tell them to you.

• Encourage them to describe pictures in their book when you engage in shared reading.

• Play games with them as you travel in the car, for example I spy……A lot of time in the infant curriculum is spent developing the children’s oral language.

First steps in reading

• As mentioned above, word power is indeed the key to all learning.

• However, learning is a gradual process and the pre-reading preparation is crucial.

• It is essential not to rush or push your child into reading.

• Some ideas for preparing your child for reading are as follows:

• Provide a print rich environment with a selection of attractive books at home – it is important to create a ‘love of reading’ within your child before they start school

• Regularly read to your child – shared reading creates a strong bond between parent and child

• Talk about the picture and the story

• Don’t pressure your child about reading as you may turn them off it. Reading is to be enjoyed and should never start as a chore for a young child.

• Say nursery rhymes with your child – Reading nursery rhymes to your child will in turn help them to develop awareness for rhyming sounds within words. Nursery rhymes are the building blocks in helping your child to read.

• In Barnashrone N.S., we teach the letters through the Jolly Phonics Scheme. We would encourage parents to purchase the Jolly Phonics Apps (available in Android and App Store) so that children are more familiar with the letter sounds rather than the letter names. This will assist in their decoding of words in their reading later on. When it comes to reading with your child, we always encourage parents to sound out the letters in a word rather than saying a letter name.

• Experience has shown that the reading scheme works best when parents and school work together with the child, with this in mind blending and phonics activities, as well as reading, will be sent home with your child in Infants. In Barnashrone N.S., we as a staff take on a whole school language approach to help children read.

• Do not be alarmed if the children are not bringing home words and books in the first term for homework. Be patient, this time before words and books are sent home is a crucial part of the children’s pre-reading development. This will be explained by the infant teacher.

First steps in maths

• Maths for young children does not involve directly doing 'sums' tables, addition or subtraction. The maths programmes for infants is more concerned with language for understanding and talking about certain things in his/her daily experience:

• Counting - as associated with the child's environment

• Colours - again as relevant to the child

• Prepositions, before/after, under/over,

• The Early Mathematical activities of sorting, matching, comparing, and ordering are essential in the development of all areas of maths in the curriculum

• Simple mathematical language full/empty, heavy/light, long/short, early/late, morning/evening, day/night….

• Understanding these concepts comes quickly for some children, slowly for others. Be patient. You cannot force Maths understanding on a child.

• In your daily routine use opportunities to use maths vocabulary for example, ask questions such as: How many? Is it full? Is it heavy? Does that have more or less than?

Writing

• Writing is not easy for a young child.

• He/she must hold the pencil correctly and make regular shapes. Finger and hand muscles are only gradually developing at this stage.

• Using jigsaws, Lego, beads to thread and playdough facilitate the development of hand/eye and fine motor co-ordination.

• Using colouring books and thick crayons can also be helpful.

• There is no need to teach your child letter/number formation before starting school. An awkward pencil grip and incorrect formation of letters can be difficult to change later.

• Please support the script used in school when your child does start handwriting at school. As mentioned in the reading section, in Barnashrone N.S., we teach the letters through the Jolly Phonics Scheme.

• Barnashrone N.S. supplies your child with a set of Jolly Phonics worksheets throughout the course of the year.

• The children may do homework on these worksheets to consolidate and revise letter formations that have been taught in school

• We would encourage you to talk about the letter formations with your child, as many of the formations may be different to your own handwriting style. It is important that the children not be given different methods for the letter formations. Avoid, where possible writing your child’s name with block capital letters. The children will be taught that capital letters are only used at the start of their name.

Gaeilge

• Most children enjoy learning another language.

• A positive attitude helps considerably.

• Be careful that anything you say does not give a negative attitude towards Gaeilge. A negative attitude will only make it more difficult for your child.

Early Intervention Programme

• In Barnashrone N.S. we support the understanding that Early Intervention is crucial in the child’s success at school.

• The infant class teacher and the Learning Support Teacher offer an early screening programme for Infants at the start of the first term in Junior Infants.

• This early screening establishes a good baseline for the teacher and highlights any difficulties that children may have in some of the basic skills.

• Early intervention has proven to be the first step on the road to schooling success and facilitating all children to achieve their best individual potential.

Other areas of the curriculum

• Infants learn through many other activities at school. The school curriculum encompasses The Visual Arts, Music, Drama, Religious Education, Social, Personal and Health Education, Physical Education and Social, Environmental and Scientific Education.

• In keeping with the nature of the curriculum, at Barnashrone N.S. we embrace the development of the holistic child in the primary school. To this end we offer a wide range of activities.

Social Skills

• These skills are very important.

• Good manners are expected at all times i.e. the use of please/thank you, addressing teachers and other students properly and general respect for themselves, others and the environment. This standard is expected both within the school and on out of school trips etc.

• During the year your child will be learning about different social skills to develop their ability to deal with their peers, adults, daily situations and scenarios. These skills are skills for life which will help your child to be a resilient person, capable of coping with the challenges of everyday life. Please remember that although we want to fix everything for our children, it is better if we teach them the skills to do it themselves. Listen to them and talk to them but remember that you cannot solve every problem for them. Remind them to be kind and respectful to others and to expect the same in return. Ask them questions about how they would feel in certain scenarios and how they think other people might feel. This develops empathy towards others and will help them to see things from other people’s point of view.

• Children are encouraged to make lots of friends rather than being a loner or being dependant on one friend only. Remind your child to include everybody in their games, not just their best friend. Promote inclusivity where possible reminding them that everybody is different. Rough behaviour and name calling is not allowed.

• We have policies in relation to conduct, attendance, homework, healthy lunches, special education, anti-bullying, child protection and many others which are all available on request from the school. We do currently have a minimal website which we hope to develop further in the coming year. The school has a Facebook page where we make regular posts.