How to Get Prepared as a Parent for Your Child's Nursery Admission
Education
4-6
The big day is coming. Are you prepared?
When preparing your child for school admission, you leave no stone unturned, but what preparation you do as a parent makes a whole lot of difference. Getting your child admitted to a school for the very first time can be a herculean task. Since the school will evaluate your child's eligibility for admission based on your own performance, there's already enough pressure on you. By now, you must be aware of the struggle you need to put your child in the best school possible in order to provide them with the right education. However, with effective planning and preparation, you can easily ace the interview.
Why are parents even interviewed?
To start with, knowing the purpose of the interview can help you frame the way you want to approach it. Also, it can help understand the rationale behind it. The more information you have about a situation, the better prepared you will be to cope with it. The purpose of getting parents interviewed is to:
- Analyze if the child and the parent are the best fit for the school.
- Ensure that the school is overall equipped to meet your child's needs and can offer any additional learning support if required.
- Evaluate parents' rapport with their children.
- Know the child beyond what is written in the application form.
- Explain the nitty-gritty of how the school works and all its differentiating factors.
- Give parents a chance to find out anything more they need to know about the school.
Check out: Nursery Admissions Form Filling Guidelines
Tips for parents to prepare for a school admission interview
- Try to get rid of performance pressure.
When there’s high competition to get your child into the best possible school, parents seem to feel the pressure to perform their best. But you need to understand that this stress might get transferred to your child, making everything fall apart. Hence, it's important to make sure you take informed steps to keep this pressure away and focus on preparing. Remember, it's just a learning experience and you are allowed to make mistakes.
- State your true qualification
Don't try to inflate anything. When the admissions counselor questions you about your profession or qualifications, always say the truth. Understand that you don't have to impress the counselor but need to show them what influence you have on your child.
- Be prepared with every piece of information possible about your child.
You can expect to be bombarded with questions about your child's hobbies, interests, behavior, and so on. Try to discuss all possible areas of your child with your partner, as it might not be possible for you to be with your child every time. Spend more family time together and keep all the information handy.
- Browse and prepare a list of commonly asked questions.
There are always a few questions that you will find common. All schools will be asking you these. So, spare some time, do your research, and figure out the list of common questions. Craft your answers and practice them. Ask your partner to come up with their list of questions and exchange them to cover as much as possible. This will make you feel prepared. To start with your research, here are a few questions you can start with:
- What are your educational qualifications?
- Do both parents work?
- How would you like to describe your child's nature?
- Do you live in a joint family or a nuclear one?
- Why did you choose this particular school?
- What is your role in your child's education?
- What is your opinion on homework?
Check out: Top 20 questions for parents during nursery admissions
What questions should you ask the admissions counselor?
It's not enough for a school to have a beautiful infrastructure, playgrounds, air-conditioned classrooms, laboratories, and tablets. Learning is about more than just buildings and facilities. Here are a few questions you need to ask about the school to your counselor as a responsible parent:
1. Is the school entirely future-ready?
It's always important to see how a school is prepared for the future rather than its past performance. As your child will be in school for more than 10 years, it's vital to know whether or not the students will be equipped with the skills they need to navigate uncertainties and succeed in the workplace. Ask how they develop problem-solving attitudes in students. What does their curriculum look like?
2. Ask about how qualified and experienced the teachers are.
You will rarely have the opportunity to meet the teachers at the school. But it is very crucial to know about the teachers who will be with your child for the most time. Always ask whether the teachers undergo periodic professional development to keep themselves upscaled.
3. Ask about learning outside the classroom.
Establishing real-world connections is as important as learning in the classroom. Ask about the breakup of learning inside the classroom and outside.
4. Safety should always be paramount.
Talk to the counselor about how their teachers discipline their students and what their punishment policy is. Apart from this, it is of utmost importance to know what their rules and regulations against bullying are and how they approach it.
5. What about diversity in learning?
Ask how much teaching is personalized to cater to different students and what kinds of other engaging activities they use to help slow learners and encourage diversity.
6. Ask about the core value system of the school.
Moral guidance and values need to be an integral part of the school program. Ask how values like kindness, resilience, and honesty are practiced in class.
CONCLUSION
Schools are the foremost foundation of knowledge that children are exposed to. As a result, selecting a school that is committed to assisting your child's development and keeping up with the times is critical. Invest time in preparing yourself to be an asset in your child's education process and keep an eye if the school does the same.
Also read: Get your child admission ready with these top 20 questions for Nursery admissions
