The program provides help for parents in order to prepare their children for their first year of school after reception. It is important that parents, teachers and peers alike support children in order for them to gain independence and the social and emotional skills they will need at school. .
Separation anxiety is very common among children and parents before and during the first few weeks of school. This anxiety among children is usually connected to a negative feeling such as loneliness or sadness when separated from their main attachment figure. The refusal to attend school usually occurs after extended periods of time away, for example, after a summer holiday or an illness. A stressful situation, such as the death of a loved one, a new neighborhood, or change in schools may also aggravate symptoms of separation anxiety such as clinginess, crying and full blown tantrums. Most of these symptoms are quite normal, preschool children are at the age where they begin to understand they are their own independent person, and the realization that their parents will not always be by their side becomes painfully clear once they begin school. Bowlby (1973) explained that at an early age infants learn attachment, separation and reunion responses that remain with them throughout childhood. He suggested that the fear of abandonment and anxiety may be the result of a particular type of attachment formation. For example, insecurely or ambivalently attached children reported higher number of separation anxiety symptoms than securely attached children. .
Although separation anxiety is usually associated with children, they are not the only ones who suffer when it comes to letting go. According to the Telegraph article, two thirds of parents' experience feelings of anxiousness when their child first begins school. "Over two-thirds of parents feel anxious about their child starting school with half believing that they are, in fact, more anxious than their child" (Bayram, 2014).