First day at nursery checklist
The bag takes ten minutes. The rest of this is what the staff need to know and what makes the first week easier, which is where the real work is.
37 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- The bag
- Spare clothes×2
- Spare underwear and socks
- Nappies and wipes, if relevant
- Water bottle
- Sun hat or warm hat, for the season
- Waterproofs and wellies
- Comfort toy or blanket
- Everything labelled with the child's name
- What the nursery needs
- Registration forms completed
- Emergency contacts, at least two
- Who is allowed to collect, with photos
- Allergies and dietary needs, in writing
- Medication and consent form
- Immunisation record
- Doctor's details
- Sleep routine and comfort habits
- Words your child uses for the toilet, food and their toySmall, and it is the difference between being understood and not.
- Before the first day
- Settling-in visits done
- Talk about it, calmly and repeatedly
- Practise the routine: bag, coat, goodbye
- Shift bedtime and wake-up to the new times
- Read a book about nursery
- The morning itself
- Leave more time than you need
- Breakfast at home, unhurried
- Bag packed the night before
- A short, clear goodbyeSay you are going, say when you are back, and go. Do not sneak out.
- Phone on, and expect nothing
- The first weeks
- Ask how the day went, not how the goodbye went
- Expect tiredness and a wobble at week three
- Check what to do about illness and the exclusion rules
- Fees, hours and the late-collection policy understood
- Learn the key worker's name and use it
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- How should you handle the goodbye?
- Short, warm and never sneaked. A child who turns round and finds you gone is harder to settle the next day than one who watched you leave.
- What needs labelling?
- Everything, including both shoes, the water bottle, the coat and the comfort toy. Twenty children lose the same blue cardigan every week.