Transition to Primary 1

Every year, no matter where they are in Edinburgh, children moving into P1 spend their final weeks of early learning becoming familiar with the same story and doing shared activities. This means that when your child starts school, they and their new classmates will already be familiar with the story and characters, and the themes of journeys, adventure and friendship. These themes are closely linked to the experience of moving from early learning to school and by exploring them together, we hope your child will find this important transition easier.

This year, our chosen book is ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen.  You can watch and listen to him reading the story.

What we are doing

• six weeks of activity ideas for children to experience in early years settings before the holidays
• six weeks of summer ideas and activities for families during the summer, including The Great Edinburgh Bear Hunt
• ideas to help children explore the book and its themes further through play in P1, with their new friends

Summer holiday activities

Here are some ideas including indoor and outdoor activities, stories and games for each week of the summer holidays. We would love to see how you get on with these activities so please share your experiences on Twitter, using #EdinBearHunt

Week 1 activities including going on your own bear hunt, bear hunt yoga and listening and singing to songs

Week 2 activities including listening to We're Going on a Lion Hunt and stone painting

Week 3 – activities including a new book, more songs and a trip to your library

Week 4 – activities including songs, yoga and a walk to your new school

Week 5 – activities including listening to The Color Monster, looking for Edinburgh Bear at free festival events and making up a song about how you feel about school

Week 6 – activities including more stories, going on a family picnic and getting ready for your new school morning routine

The Great Edinburgh Bear Hunt

Edinburgh Bear will be popping up all over the city for you and your child to find throughout the summer holidays. When you spot him, tweet his location using our hashtag - #EdinBearHunt – including a photo if you would like to. Edinburgh Bear will be hiding in all sorts of places, so you can take part in the Bear Hunt while going about your usual activities, or even make a day of it and see how many you can find in one go, the choice is yours!  Look out for Edinburgh Bear on this poster.

Grant payments

There are three extra payments for parents to help towards the costs of being pregnant or looking after a child:

• Scottish Child Payment
• Best Start Grant
• Best Start Foods

You may be able to get these if:

• you live in Scotland
• you or your partner are getting certain benefits or tax credits
• you or your partner are pregnant, or are the main person looking after a baby or child who's the right age for a payment

You can apply to the Scottish Government online, by phone or by post. You can find out more about the Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grants and Best Start Foods payments and apply online.