Garswood Reception Induction

Every year the Spring and Summer terms in Reception class are incredibly exciting and busy ones for Garswood’s Reception team with the welcome and induction of new families to our school community.

Once you've received an email or a letter confirming your child has a place at our school, the induction process will begin.

Face to face or a virtual induction?

No matter what we are faced with, we are committed to making sure that your child has a smooth, happy and safe transition into school. We are always rethinking how to best engage with families and children. Though we will always try to do a face to face, on-site induction, if this is not possible we are able to provide a transition remotely. But what does induction look like?

At Garswood Primary we are clear from the start that we want to ensure children, parents and carers are given the opportunity to feel welcomed, set at ease and supported as they transition either from our own school nursery, or from the wide range of other local settings.

Mrs Bagshaw, our Early Years lead provide opportunities to visit the classroom and for any children who can't attend our setting she will visit them at home. This should hopefully ensure a familiar face will be greeting our new starters on day one of their journey to ‘big school’.

There will be a parent/carer on site meeting which will be held virtually if needed. This will give you a chance to find our more about the school and complete all of the paperwork. The uniform ordering processes will be explained along with how you can order school dinners and school milk - as well as finding out about how your child will be supported during their Reception year.

Rest assured - whether we are working face to face or virtually - whatever we are faced with, our priority is making sure that your child has a smooth, happy, safe start to their school life.

These are our aims:

We want new families to feel a warm welcome to Garswood;
We want to give families an opportunity to see the school and get a glimpse into life at Garswood;
We want to give families the opportunity to share any worries, concerns (or their excitement!) and ask questions;
We want families to start to become familiar with and to get to know staff, and for staff to begin to build relationships with families;
We want two-way communication, not just school giving information;
We want to help children to start to feel familiar with the Reception environment;
Most of all, we want families and children to feel a sense of belonging to the Garwood community.

Communication Channels:

Welcome to our webpage! This should be a starting point. One of our steps was to establish a webpage specially for new Reception children starting Garswood. This has allowed us to put all of the information, photos of the environment, videos, booklets, online sessions, video ideas and much more in one central place that would be easy to find for our new parents.

Induction Packs:

An Induction pack will be provided to all of our new starters now with activities and forms and general routines and ideas that can all be used to prepare children for their new journey to ‘big school’. If you are unable to attend school, we will deliver the pack to your house.

Extra opportunities before the big day:

Mrs Bagshaw used the virtual world to bring to you some videos that may help your child prepare for starting school. ‘Introduction and Belonging’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Listening Carefully and Exploring Sounds’, ‘Rhyme and Tuning into Sounds’, and ‘Dough Disco’ are just some of the opportunities that are available. They can be found at the bottom of this page.

You can also follow us on Twitter @GarswoodPrimary and when your child starts school you will be given your own account to Microsoft Teams to let the virtual journey continue from home.

Please feel free to email us with any of your worries, concerns or questions to [email protected] and Mrs Bagshaw, Mrs Potter or another member of our Reception team will be able to respond.

We can’t wait to see you all in person and welcome you to the Garswood community, but we hope, when that time comes, you will already feel like one of our family.

Student Login