PARENTS and carers are being reminded of some important things to do to help children be happy, healthy and ready to learn when the new school year starts .
Whether children are starting school for the first time, or moving up a year, Warwickshire County Council’s back to school podcast and animated checklist reminds people what is needed to ensure children are sorted for school when they go back next month.
Advice to be September ready including information about attendance, transport, school meals and post-16 options, is available on the Let’s Talk Warwickshire podcast letstalkwarwickshire.podbean.com/e/back-to-school/ and watch the sorted for school animation at www.youtube.com/shorts/vOTuc_dxshI
The animation covers all the things that parents should be thinking about ahead of their children returning to school such as:
* Uniform, shoes, pencil cases and book bags – Children may have grown over the summer holidays, so it’s worth checking that both uniforms and shoes still fit.
* Labels – Items being misplaced at school is a relatively common occurrence, particularly at primary schools, but the risk of this can be minimised by ensuring that all items of clothing, pencil cases are book bags are labelled with the child’s name.
* Check school dates and start/finish times – General term dates can be found on the Warwickshire County Council website but parents and carers should also check school-specific start and end times on their school’s websites.
* Club sign-ups – Parents and carers should check with school’s websites to see if clubs can be signed up to before the start of term.
* Healthy lunchboxes – There is useful guidance here from the NHS on ideas for putting together healthy lunchboxes for your children: NHS Healthier Lunchboxes
* Plenty of sleep – as important as all the other elements, parents and carers should ensure that their children get plenty of sleep over the coming week to ensure that they are happy, healthy and ready to learn.
WCC education spokesman Coun Wayne Briggs said: “We are sharing this information to help families be prepared for school or further learning.
“We are committed to supporting our child friendly county with happy, healthy, heard, safe and skilled young people. Education is central to this and we want all youngsters to have access to good education opportunities which enable them to be the best they can be. Our dedicated team of professionals at the county council does so much that underpins the amazing work that our schools do.”
Visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/sortedforschool to find out more about education in Warwickshire at the Sorted for School website.
