The Cardboard Caterpillar: How Michelle Moore is Helping Kids Start School with Confidence

Starting school is a huge milestone for any child, but for many, the transition can feel overwhelming. That’s where The Cardboard Caterpillar comes in. Founded by Michelle Moore in 2021, this innovative learning hub is dedicated to ensuring children are school-ready, offering a structured School Readiness Program and personalised tuition for older kids.

With primary school places soon to be announced, we spoke to Michelle about the importance of early years education, practical tips for parents, and how her program is making a real difference.

Liverpool Noise: Love the name, can you tell us a little bit about The Cardboard Caterpillar and how it started?

Michelle Moore: I’m glad you love the name, thank you! It all started in 2021, initially as a school readiness business, after I saw a decline in the number of children starting school ready to access the curriculum. I wanted to support parents/carers and teachers in giving little ones a head start in their education, so that they could start school ready to thrive. Today, we are a learning hub that offers a unique School Readiness Program for pre-schoolers, and high-quality, personalised maths and english tuition for older ones. 

Liverpool Noise: Over the last few years there has been a lot of research into the importance of the Early Years Foundation Stage, what are your thoughts on this?

MM: The Early Years are the most crucial for development as the foundations that are made during this time impact all future learning and behaviour . 

Between the ages of 0-5, children’s brains also develop quicker than any other time in their lives. There are more than a million connections made between nerve cells per second! So providing high-quality education and embedding learning through our Early Years Foundation Stage, during this crucial window, is absolutely vital in order to set them up for all future success and prevent gaps in learning later on.  

Liverpool Noise: With primary school places being announced for many over the next few weeks, what can parents do at home to help their children get school ready?

MM: One of the most important things parents can do is help ease their transition into school and support them settling in quicker. Bring the topic of starting school into daily conversations, and get older siblings or family members that are in school to share their positive experiences. Look on the gallery pages of the school website and see some of the wonderful things current Reception children are doing. Taking regular walks to the school and sharing books that talk about starting school will also help support this.

Encourage independence at home so that your little one is able to dress themselves, zip up their own coat, go to the toilet and wash their hands on their own as they will be expected to do these once they start. Opening packed lunch pots, peeling bananas and oranges are also handy to learn!

We can also help to build up their fine-motor skills for pencil holding/writing. Play at home with lego, play-dough, threading, tweezers and mark make!

I would also suggest parents sit together with their little one at a table and focus on an activity for up to 10 minutes.

Liverpool Noise: The Government have set a recent target in their Plan for Change, aiming to get more children school ready by 2028. What are your thoughts over this? 

MM: I’m so excited that school readiness is being seen as a priority and it is being addressed by the government. I think it would benefit our children massively. I’d love to share some of the work I’ve been doing on this with nurseries, and the council, to help raise school readiness standards together. 

Liverpool Noise: What is the difference between your School Readiness Program, and what children get from nursery?

MM: Nurseries do an incredible job. Our school Readiness Program is slightly different in that it exposes children to the sorts of things they will experience in a Reception classroom, with school like rules and routines, but in a small group, nurturing environment so that when they start school they have the confidence and knowledge, knowing they’ve experienced these things before, which helps them settle in quicker. 

Within our classes, we follow a structured scheme that supports the development of fine-motor skills, the beginnings of reading, and number sense, so they start school ready to learn, thrive and access  the curriculum from day one. 

Liverpool Noise: Should children in Reception and KS1 need a tutor?

MM: Sadly with large classroom numbers, low staff to children ratios and a fast pace curriculum, not all current learning is being embedded before children move on to the next year group, which can cause gaps in learning later on, and confidence issues. 

Tutoring at this age should always be fun, engaging and foster a love of life long learning. We always aim to secure, consolidate and challenge pupils on their educational journey, and instil confidence.

Follow Michelle @thecardboardcaterpillar on Instagram for updates.