A Practical Parent’s Guide to School Readiness

How will I ensure my child is school ready? After the birth of her son, this was the question that inspired Danielle, a primary school teacher, to bring Before Big School to life. Drawing on her experience and knowledge from the early childhood classroom a practical parent’s guide to school readiness was created. 

Before Big School explores the academic, emotional, and social aspects of school readiness and is filled with practical ideas and activities which can be embedded into your day. With a focus on incidental, meaningful and play-based learning experiences, Before Big School aims to assist parents in preparing their children for school without the use of structured learning- no flashcards or worksheets required. 

My name is Danielle and I'm a teacher, mother and author of two books, and I am currently studying a Masters of Child Play Therapy. I'm so excited to share with you how I can offer school readiness and early learning support for you and your child.

When I was seven years old, I decided that I wanted to be a primary school teacher thanks to my truly wonderful and kind year two teacher Mrs Burns. And this is what I did. Straight out of high school I studied a Bachelor of Primary Education specialising in early childhood education. While studying I worked in before and after school care.

I’ve spent a decade working in primary school classrooms teaching prep to year three. I’ve also spent time working in kindergartens. Early childhood is truly my area of passion.

When I was teaching prep, I came across parents who felt overwhelmed by the start to school. They had concerns about their child’s readiness, doubts over whether they should send them early or to repeat another year of kindergarten and were unsure how to best prepare their child at home. While there is plenty of information online about school readiness, I couldn’t find many parent friendly resources that covered what I believed they needed to know and that I was happy to refer them to. I wanted something simple, practical, and informative. After the birth of my son, I began to think about his start to school. What would I want him to know and be able to do before he walked through that classroom door? How would I prepare him at home? This is when the idea for my first book Before Big School was born. I decided to create my own resource for parents to support their little one’s learning journey at home and their start to school.

Since its release in March 2022, Before Big School has made its way into hundreds of parent’s hands and has been featured on Mamamia and Beyond the Bump podcast. Following on from this I launched an online course expanding on the information from my book.

Danielle x