7 things your child’s secondary school teachers will be glad they learnt in their early years
There is a reason that the early years are known as the foundation stage in education. For it is now beyond dispute that how a child learns and develops in their early years is critical and has a lasting impact on their future in education and beyond. The attitudes and dispositions that secondary school teachers strive to develop in the children that they teach can be learnt in a child’s early years. So what can your child learn in their early years that, if built on rather than dismantled during primary years, will stand them in good stead for academic and personal success as teenagers?
1. That practice makes progress
Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does make progress. Whether it is revising for an exam, improving at the violin or refining that tennis shot, teenagers do well when they recognise that repetition, repetition, repetition is the answer. In their early years, a child can learn this too. How we talk to them when they are learning something fiddly like putting on their own socks, trying to use a knife or climbing a bit higher than before, can help create a mindset that by persevering and practice, they will find it easier over time. It’s hugely empowering for a child to learn that if they are in control of their progress!
2. To ask for help when they need it
At parents’ evening in a secondary school, a good proportion of parents will hear the same message from every class teacher: “Your child is doing well, but to do even better, they do need actively to seek help when they need it.” When they are part of a bigger class, some children can get a little lost if they don’t have the confidence to call out for help. Support is inevitably delayed if a child waits until a teacher notices they are struggling. We can teach children from a young age to seek out help when they need it, to see asking for help as a positive attribute and to experience the benefits of getting help.
3. To cope with setbacks
This is a big one. Whether you call it grit, resilience or something else, it has been shown that the ability to cope with setbacks is a crucial quality for success. Some children struggle with this in their early years: A three year old may try to unzip their coat for a while and then get angry when they can’t do it. How we respond to their struggle can either embed that mindset or help them to shift it to a more positive one.
4. That everyone can do maths
There’s no such thing as a ‘maths brain’. Research has shown that humans are mathematical beings, right from birth. Yet by secondary school, a great number of children will identify as ‘not being very good at maths’ and this mindset will be what holds their maths attainment back, rather than any innate difficulty with the subject. If we can enthuse all children with a love of maths in their early years and a sense that they can ‘do maths’, we’ll be laying a strong foundation for a positive attitude to maths in their later school years.
5. To read for pleasure
Except for a child’s socio-economic background, whether or not they read for pleasure is one of the most important determinants of their success in school. All secondary schools have reading for pleasure as a whole-school priority, using various initiatives to get teenagers reading. The joy of reading can start long before a child is able to read on their own, but must remain through their process of learning to read. This is all built in a child’s early years.
6. To have a strong sense of self-worth…
We all want this for our children and your child’s secondary school teachers will want it for your child too. A strong sense of self-worth includes how they see themselves as learners, as friends, as humans. We can build a child’s self-esteem in their early years by being consistent and caring adults they can form secure attachments to; by ensuring they see themselves (regardless of gender, race or ability) in the resources and stories they encounter at nursery; by showing our trust in their ability to make choices for themselves and by being interested in them and their ideas.
7. …and of the worth of others
Empathy is not a skill we are born with. It is a skill that develops, partly through experience but mostly through brain development, in the first four years of life and beyond. As it develops, it needs to be modelled and taught. There are also age-appropriate ways to discuss racism, ablism, sexism and homophobia in a child’s early years. Indeed we now know that it is preferable to start the conversation early. If we want children to grow up to treat others with kindness, we should lay the foundations before they start school.
At Two Hands Preschool we know that each conversation, each opportunity we provide, each behaviour or attitude we model contributes to laying the foundations for future learning. When your child is a teenager, probably will not have clear memories of their time at preschool. But they will nonetheless be, in part, shaped by their time here. And that is a responsibility we do not take lightly!
