Parents Page
You and your child are welcome to visit our preschool anytime before their official start date. Additionally, we will invite you to a designated “Stay and Play” session, where you can meet our staff and let your child explore our classrooms in a relaxed setting.
You’ll also receive an “All About Me” form to complete, giving you the opportunity to share important details about your child to help us support their transition smoothly. We look forward to welcoming you!
Starting Preschool
Parents Resource Bank
Welcome to our Parent Resource Bank, a collection of helpful guides, activities, and tips designed to support you and your child through their early years. From fun learning ideas to practical advice on language development, wellbeing, and school readiness, our resources are here to provide guidance and support for families every step of the way.
Walk & Talk
The Walk & Talk Trail is a collection of engaging activity cards designed to help parents and carers of children aged 0-5 find more opportunities to connect with their little ones while out and about. These easy-to-follow prompts offer practical guidance on making everyday walks more interactive, supporting the development of vital language and communication skills in a fun and natural way.
Chat, play & read
The Chat, Play and Read booklet is designed to support parents and carers of children up to 3 years old to chat, play and read more with their children at home and while they are engaging in their daily routine. The simple no-cost activity ideas with prompts and suggestions, will support families to incorporate more interactions with their child and support the development of their communication and language skills.
Building Strong Literacy Foundations
We are passionate about nurturing our children’s early literacy skills. A great way to support early literacy is to turn story reading into a conversation. Some ideas include:
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Encourage them to talk about whats happening in the pictures.
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Pause to have conversations about parts of the book they are interested in.
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Use comments and open-ended questions that encourage them to think deeper about the story.
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Make predictions - ask them what they think might happen next…?
Take a look at this video from the National Literacy Trust featuring one of our favourite stories, ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy. It offers some valuable tips on how to make reading more fun at home
Words for Life
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Words for life, from The National Literacy Trust is a Uk based charity helping children to develop literacy skills to succeed in life.
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All of the content on Words for Life has been designed to provide parents, children and young people with activities and support to improve their language, literacy and communication skills from home.
Family Hub
Family hubs are a single place to get support for children, young people and families.
​Find activity timetables and where to find them, as well as Children's Centres.
This page has advice on childcare; pregnancy and birth; support for babies, toddlers and school age children, keeping families safe; money and benefits; children's social care; professionals supporting families and a youth link.
speech & language uk
Speech and language uk give families the confidence and skills to help their children. If you're concerned about your child's speech and language development, they offer free resources and services that can help with understanding what to look out for, child’s speech, language and communication milestones, how to get support and even some simple ways you can help your child at home.
Rhyme time sacks
Learning nursery rhymes is a great way of building a child’s vocabulary and is a lovely activity to help bond with a baby. By adding actions and props while you are singing makes the activity more fun and interactive.
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Make up a ‘Rhyme Time’ basket with instruments, puppets and objects!
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Top Tips for reading together at home
Reading with your child is one of the best ways to support their language development, imagination, and love for stories.
This guide shares 10 simple and effective tips to make reading together enjoyable and rewarding, helping to build lifelong literacy skills in a fun and relaxed way.
Healthy ted's lunchbox
At Hillside Preschool, we are committed to promoting healthy eating and encouraging nutritious choices for our children. To support this, we’ve added the "Healthy Ted's Lunch Box' guide with ideas for creating balanced and healthy lunchboxes.
Please remember that we are a nut-free preschool - to keep all children safe, do not send any peanuts or peanut-based products, including Nutella. Additionally, for safety reasons, please ensure that all grapes and small tomatoes are cut in half lengthways to prevent choking.
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Starting
Reception
​​Take a look at this helpful document from startingreception.co.uk, which offers valuable tips on preparing your child for starting school. It’s full of practical advice and ideas to help you build your child’s confidence and independence at home, supporting them to feel ready for school both emotionally and practically.
starting reception.co.uk also has a page of really useful links for preparing your child for school. It covers:
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Growing independence
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Building relationships & Communicating
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Physical Development
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Healthy Routines
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Talking with your toddler
Webinars
from speech & Language uk
Speech & Language Uk offer free 'Talking with Your Toddler webinars' that are designed for parents of children aged 12 months to 4 years who may be concerned about their child’s talking or understanding of words. Webinars are led by an experienced speech and language therapist and offer practical activities and strategies to support your child’s communication skills.
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