Starting School

By: Janet and Allan Ahlberg

Age: EYFS

This would be a lovely book to use to introduce young children to the concept of school. It tells the story of a group of children starting school and explores the activities that are common in daily school life. Themes of change, growing up, routines, trying new things and essentially school life.

Many young children would be anxious towards starting school, as they may have little knowledge about what happens in school. I think the positive approach in this book would make these fearful children feel more comfortable towards school and even excite them. Role play could be used to familiarise the new ideas.

Simplistic language and structure allows EYFS children to actively engage with the text. They may recognise certain activities already, like making models and storytime, but also may want to find out more about new activities/less common activities like assembly. These should be highlighted and discussed to inform and excite children.

It would be a nice idea to use this text to form a more personalised version (e.g. use the children's names, include activities that are specific to their school, children could draw pictures/take photos on a school visit and add names of their new teachers).