THE first few weeks at St George’s Infant School and Nursery have unearthed all types of personalities from the brave and bold, to the more discerning and inquisitive child.

What can be a big leap for some children, headteacher Jackie Moore explained, is more like water off a duck’s back to others at the Colchester school.

In the region of 16,800 children across Essex had started reception this September. This their first year at school will be remembered – mainly by their parents and through photographs – as one of constant bewilderment, too-large uniforms, tears, and more importantly, laying the foundation for their academic futures.

Mrs Moore said: “It’s a little easier for those children who came from the nursery or have siblings in the school already as they know our routines and can recognise some of the staff by sight at least.

“While others are more nervous that first day and it takes them a little while to open up, there are some children who are very confident and happy talking to you, and will dive straight in.

“They come in at all different abilities and it’s lovely to see them develop. Each time I come into school, they look so grown up.”

It has taken just three short weeks for the 90 reception-aged pupils at St George’s to adapt to their newfound school life, which Mrs Moore is particularly proud of as pockets of children already strut in by themselves.

Each class has 30 pupils and one teacher supported by two teaching assistants, who during the first week play a large part in helping them get acquainted with their surroundings and settle into new routines.

These will include the youngsters getting dressed and undressed for PE, becoming used to the echoing school hall, but also telling the cooks what they would like to eat for lunch each day at the canteen hatch.

Then there are the crucial interpersonal skills being taught, which act as a blueprint for how they will navigate the big wide world.

Mrs Moore said: “The school’s expectations are drip-fed to them.

“We have a big emphasis on our children developing communication skills and getting on with each other because these are life skills – being able to negotiate what we want and communicating effectively. Until you can do that, you can’t learn.

“Our children need to be able ask for what they need, recognise differences in others and generally get on with other groups of people.

“One of the ways we do this is through whole school themes, which we follow for one term at a time.

“Currently it’s ‘celebration’ so they learn about birthdays, families, the harvest festival and Diwali, where we can introduce the principle of sharing or showing gratitude, for instance.

“All small children have to learn sometimes they just can’t have what they want, when they want it, which they will eventually understand in a big class of 30.”

Until age seven, the children will remain in the infants before making the transition to St George’s New Town Junior School, just a stone’s throw away.

In those three years, they will have already been used to assessments, started soon after they join in Reception.

This is followed in quick succession by the Government’s national phonics screening test in Year One, leading to their first SATS exams a year later.

These controversial exams in maths and English - reading and spelling, punctuation and grammar - shows what level a child is performing at against national target standards.

When a teacher discovered the spelling test, due to be taken by close to half a million Year Two children, had been accidentally published on the Department for Education website this January, critics accused the Government of pressurising young children too soon.

Mrs Moore, who has been the school’s headteacher for 12 years, also disagrees with how early these “formal” statutory tests begin.

She said: “Those born in the summer months will actually take their SATS at six years old and not seven – but the way it works at the end of Key Stage One is it feeds into our teaching assessment, and is a good way to tell whether there were any gaps in our teaching.

“We refer to exams as ‘special work’ and there’s always practice involved to ensure the children aren’t worried about doing them.

“Most of them are fine because they’re well prepared but as with anything, some children find exams harder than others and will always go through life feeling nervous doing them.”

St George’s curriculum, which structures teaching and learning around themes, means the pupils will benefit from a more continuous learning process focused on experiences, discussion and hands-on activities.

Mrs Moore said: “Our next whole school theme is Paolo Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon painting, then in the summer it will be the natural world, which ties in with our allotments and there is plenty of opportunity for gardening.

“As a school you have to follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and within that there are certain things the children are meant to be able to do, but how you achieve them, is up to the school.

“Good early years practice is to follow what the children are interested in, which means you can meet the requirements of the curriculum in a variety of ways. One particular year the children were really fascinated by bridges and also windmills so we used them in our teaching plans.

“The real pleasure for me is seeing what children can do and the pride they take in themselves.”