Description
In the early years, we recognise that transition is not a one-off event and that a successful transition is one that has been carefully planned over time to gently nurture the skills children will need for this big change in their lives.
This toolkit has been designed so that you can use the aspects that are helpful for your setting, practitioners and families, without it becoming overly time-consuming and cumbersome.
Each aspect of the toolkit can be used alone, or in conjunction with each other.
Successful early education happens when families and education professionals join together to support children’s development. Learning should be play-based, fun and engaging to capture children’s enthusiasm.
Here we have included some ideas and
activities for sessions that will support children’s transition to school and nurture connection in families.
These ideas can be used in any way you wish to support family engagement in settings. It may be helpful to invite different school professionals to attend the settings too (see letter templates document) as this is a nice, informal way to support parent/teacher meetings initially. Involving children in the process of inviting their family members is a lovely way to engage families in these sessions.
Consider supporting children to design their own
invitations to these sessions, and discuss with children who they would like to invite.
As every family is unique, it may be that grandparents, guardians, older siblings, aunts and uncles, foster carers or family friends attend. Be mindful of this in the language that you use on the invitations, in order to ensure these sessions are inclusive of all children and their important people.
Find out more in this factsheet.
This resource has been developed as part of a ‘Transitions and partnership working toolkit’. The toolkit was produced as part of NDNA Cymru’s FPEN project supporting partnership working and transition in the early years sector with settings, schools and families. This project is funded by the Welsh Government. All resources can be downloaded for free in the shop or here, where you can also watch a short introductory video to the resources within the toolkit.
