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“WAKE UP! WAKE up! C’mon, first day of school,” announced Nemo in Finding Nemo.

Grab your school bag, sharpen those pencils, put on those new shoes and get to bed early – back to school is almost here.

While it might seem like the summer has just started, the classroom beckons. And with it comes excitement, uncertainty and nerves over what lies ahead.

“You can never be overdressed or overeducated,” said Oscar Wilde. With that in mind, and to ease us all into September, I’ve gathered my top tips to have parents and kids school-ready.

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside you”, said Ralph Waldo Emerson.

One sure way to stall that unique voice that is your child’s is for it to be quashed by algorithm-driven content on screens – telling them what to think, what to say, how to look, who to be or not be friends with, how to act.

As we watch while the US courts attempt to hold digital platforms like Meta accountable for deliberate product design that is harming children, there are steps to limit how much time our children spend online.

Measures like removing all phones from mealtimes, a complete ban on phones in bedrooms, and parents limiting their own scrolling in front of children can have a big impact on what and how much content children see online and help them to discover their own voice.

Summertime means that routines around sleep have been upended – time to recalibrate. Setting a curfew and removing phones from bedrooms is a great first step. Increasingly, in a society that prizes productivity, sleep is considered expendable. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” is a common response from the young.

But mounting evidence tells us sleep is not a luxury – it should be viewed with the same level of attention as diet or exercise. Always-on digital culture and blue-light exposure from screens have undermined our natural rhythms.

And it’s not just physical health. Poor sleep doubles the risk of developing depression, while consistent sleep supports emotional regulation, facing daily challenges and combating stress.

And it’s a chicken-and-egg scenario. If sleep is curtailed, kids are far more likely to dive into sugary snacks and junk food, as impulses are lowered and cravings spiral to boost their depleted energy reserves.

Restricting caffeine in the evenings, taking phones out of bedrooms that are cool and dark, and nurturing regular bedtime and waking hours can add vital minutes and hours to sleep routines — for parents and children alike.

“It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings,” said German philosopher, Meister Eckhart. This applies to setting up a good sleep routine in September for the whole family.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can,” said US tennis legend Arthur Ashe.

Nothing tastes as good as home cooking that is deliciously free of additives. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. Pasta Bolognese with mushrooms, onion, garlic and tomatoes or chicken stir-fry with a mix of onions, garlic, courgettes and peppers are delicious, healthy options that take about 20 minutes to rustle up and serve piping hot.

Getting children around the table for the evening meal most week evenings can really help to stay in touch with what’s going on at school as well as having a regular routine around home-cooked food.

The first few weeks can be exhausting, especially when harassed parents return from work and have to get a meal on the table. Things should settle down after a few weeks. Small steps are better than big changes. Remember, nobody’s perfect.

As important as sleep and a healthy diet is physical activity. Irish research tells us that just one in five primary school children and one in 10 secondary school students meet the WHO recommendations of 60 minutes of physical activity daily. Six out of 10 primary school students (57%) travel to school by car, while a third walk, less than one in ten (7%) use public transport and a tiny fraction (3%) cycle.

Getting kids into a routine of active travel to and from school can make all the difference to their wellbeing. Barriers to active travel exist – heavy school bags, heavy traffic, unsafe road crossings. But cycling and walking offer more than just physical activity – they offer independence, critical to mental wellbeing as children mature into young adults.

Remember Helen Keller’s words: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Primary school can be a hotbed of bugs – colds, flu, hand, foot and mouth, RSV, chickenpox and slapped cheek syndrome.

Most of these can be curtailed by good hand hygiene – washing hands regularly in school or using hand sanitiser. Parents are often unsure whether a child needs to stay out of school with minor illnesses. The HSE advise that children can usually attend school with general cold symptoms – minor cough, runny nose or sore throat; while children with a temperature of 38C or more, diarrhoea or vomiting, or who are low in energy should stay at home.

Head lice are the bane of parents and teachers alike. They are very common, particularly in girls with long hair. Hair should be checked regularly with a fine-tooth comb, and if head lice or empty eggs (nits) are found, the hair should be thoroughly combed. Combing may need to be used in conjunction with a head lice treatment available from pharmacies. The treatment may need to be repeated a week later to kill any newly hatched lice. New parents may be horrified to find head lice in their child’s head, but they are remarkably common and the sooner the head is combed and treatment applied, the easier it is to clear them.

“I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught,” said Winston Churchill, which seems an apt quote when considering common school bugs.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” said Lao Tzu and is a good line to remember when thinking about the benefit of vaccines in preventing serious and life threatening illness.

Junior infants and first year secondary school students are offered vaccination at school to protect them against serious illness.

In the first term of junior infants, children are offered a booster of tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and polio (4-in-1) and a booster of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

In the first year of secondary school, children are offered the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, another booster against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (Tdap) and a bacterial meningitis vaccine (MenACWY).

The monumental impact of MMR and pertussis vaccines was outlined in a study in the Lancet (2024) that estimated that the MMR vaccine has saved at least 94 million lives, with the Diphtheria Tetanus Pertussis (DTP) saving tens of millions more.

Make sure your child is one more addition to those phenomenal statistics.

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world,” said Robin Williams in one of my favourite movies, “Dead Poets Society.”

A love of reading has far-reaching benefits for children, building reading skills but also confidence and creativity, as well as being hugely entertaining. Enjoying books and discovering new perspectives can also introduce children to a range of opinions and viewpoints. That’s good. It helps them to think for themselves and build empathy – so vital in the challenging and intolerant world we live in.

It can feel daunting to factor in yet more time in the day to find the time to read with your child or for older children to be able to enjoy reading themselves. Limiting screens and routines around regular bedtime help to build a consistent habit that doesn’t feel like a chore.

Comic books, cereal packets, magazines or audiobooks and podcasts, it doesn’t really matter, so long as children are reading because they want to and enjoy what they are discovering.

One final quote: “School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside,” said Lon Watters. Your children may not appreciate that on day one, as they turn in the school gate, but down the line they will value all that school has to offer… education, friends and a lifetime of opportunity.

I’ll leave the last line to Taylor Swift: “Being fearless isn’t being 100% not fearful, it’s being terrified, but you jump in anyway.”

Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor in Cork.

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