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Transition to school

Supporting a strong and successful start to school involves schools engaging with high-quality transition practices for children and families.

An effective and positive transition to school ensures that teachers know each child and family which ensures continuity of learning that meets the academic and wellbeing needs of all children.

Evidence-based transition practices

The strong and successful start to school transition guidelines (PDF 2.84MB) provide policy advice for schools to support principals, leadership teams and Early Stage 1 teachers in planning, implementation, and evaluation of transition practices.

Image: Strong and successful start to school– transition guidelines

See differentiated approaches to transition for further information on equity groups.

Further information for families

Effective transition to school is about the whole school engaging with children and families to make sure children are well supported through the process. It involves collaborative partnerships with early childhood services, families, and other professionals, including the transfer of information from one setting to another through open and honest conversations.

Talking about starting school in a positive way and encouraging your child to talk about going to school can help your child feel settled about the upcoming changes.

Examples of practice

Five schools share strategies they are using to support transition to school in unusual circumstances:

Professional learning and resources

The Early learning professional learning catalogue offers a range of professional learning for teachers and leaders to support a strong and successful transition to school for all children, including:

Resources

Other department resources

Transition to school literature review

The Transition to school literature review updates the 2016 Transition to school literature review by the NSW Department of Education’s Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE). It examines the existing literature on the transition to primary school from home and/ or ECEC settings, including:

  • What constitutes a successful transition to school.
  • How the concept of school readiness is defined and what school readiness incorporates.
  • The key factors which support a successful transition to school for children, their families and educators.

Transition to school case studies

The Transition to school case studies form part of a series to support the NSW Department of Education’s strategic goal of ‘All children make a strong start in life and learning and make a successful transition to school’. A successful transition to school is about laying strong foundations for year-on-year improvement by ensuring that our students are engaged and ready for challenge. The case studies refer to and draw on the department’s new Strong and successful start to school transition guidelines.

Note: Fieldwork for the case studies was undertaken after the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, but before the 2021 Delta outbreak.

External resources

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