Worried about your child being ready to start school? Wondering how to get them ready to learn and take that leap from nursery to school? Want your little one to have the essential skills they need to cope with life’s little challenges?

At Hopes & Dreams, we foster readiness to learn through a holistic approach called the 6Rs. This framework includes getting children ready to take on risks independently and goes beyond just preparing for academic environments. 

Here’s what readiness to learn does for your children in their early years and beyond…

The 6Rs - A Recap

Our 6Rs approach aligns with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. This means we nurture the crucial curiosity, love of exploration and social-emotional skills that will help children prepare for school and set them up for life.

The 6Rs is designed to prepare your children for the future, and it includes:

  1. Relationships - Developing respectful and meaningful connections with others is an essential skill, building a sense of empathy and cooperation.
  2. Remembering - Understanding how their memory works and learning from what they experience. 
  3. Reflection - Encouraging children to reflect on their experiences, helping them to learn from challenges and successes equally to reinforce critical thinking.
  4. Resourcefulness - Fostering problem-solving abilities and creativity in the face of the challenges they encounter.
  5. Resilience - Helping children bounce back when they come up against troubles, even when they may seem small to us, creating perseverance and a positive attitude.
  6. Readiness to learn - A preparedness and willingness to take in new information.

What is Readiness to Learn?

According to the EYFS framework for holistic development, readiness to learn involves “the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.” Practically, this includes several skills and qualities…

  • Cognitive Skills: Attention, memory, problem-solving, critical thinking.
  • Social-Emotional Skills: Self-regulation, empathy, communication, cooperation.
  • Physical Skills: Fine and gross motor skills, coordination, sensory integration.
  • Approaches to Learning: Curiosity, persistence, initiative, enthusiasm.

These skills are developed through play and real-life experiences, happening naturally and spontaneously with the guidance and support of trusted adults.

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Nurturing Curiosity

How can we get our children ready to learn and prepared for their first step into independent thinking? The easiest route to this is nurturing their natural sense of curiosity. Our little ones have abundant curiosity, and it can make exploring, questioning and discovering a lot easier.

Here’s how curiosity provides children with that all-important readiness to learn:

Independent interests: Engaging deeply in their personal interests (e.g. cars, dinosaurs, building bricks, TV shows) leads to them finding interest in other topics too

Problem solving: Figuring out how things work or how to solve problems (e.g. figuring out how a toy goes together or how to climb over a playground obstacle).

Persistence: Being curious enough about something to keep trying, even when faced with challenges or blocks. 

Excitement to learn: Fostering an eagerness to know and understand more about the topic at hand or aspects of the world and daily life.

Sparking curiosity like this is no small task. We encourage it by asking questions and genuinely listening to answers. We make space for exploring the world through the senses and help make connections and point out patterns to them.

Hopes & Dreams encourages curiosity through open-ended play, hands-on activities, and outdoor exploration, so this curiosity becomes a built-in skill they can call on as they learn.

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Building Social-Emotional Foundations

Social-emotional skills are essential in navigating the whole of your life, and it really begins at school. To support this vital ability, we focus on;

  • Managing emotions and behaviour to self-regulate
  • Building relationships with peers and adults. 
  • Following directions and taking turns
  • Expressing needs and feelings appropriately

Children develop these skills through group activities, conflict resolution, and emotional literacy exercises.

Executive Function Skills

These are skills that will ensure your child feels confident navigating school and the different expectations there. We do this by bringing focus to developing: 

  • Working memory - Able to bring information to mind while actively doing something (like following instructions).
  • Inhibitory control - Resisting impulses and staying focused on the task at hand rather than following immediate urges.
  • Cognitive flexibility - Ability to adapt and change thought processes on the go, taking into account new information or sudden changes in circumstances.

All of this is important for planning, organising, focusing and following through on tasks, which is essential both in school and in the lives ahead of them.

Is Your Child Ready To Learn?

Readiness to learn is different for every child. It’s a journey that starts at nursery.

Hopes & Dreams provides a nurturing environment based on a proven, holistic framework where children can develop the essential skills they need for learning.

Want to know more about your child’s development process during nursery? Read our blog here.