Well the end of the year is already fast approaching… Christmas parties, end of year concerts, packing up, getting the children ready for school, parent teacher interviews and someone where in all of that – we are expected to write a personalised transition statement for each child!
But, can you really write transition statements that matter without the stress each year?
What can we do to make this season easier? Run away to Europe? Nice idea but probably not practical. So, let’s think about transition statements – be prepared, take time to think about why we do this, what you want to say and consider the use a tool to support you.
Before we get to the practicalities of writing transition statements, let’s take a moment to pause, step back and think.
Why do we do this? Why spend hours of our time (both at work and at home) writing about each child? Who are we writing for? Does anyone even read our statements?
Everyone will have their own answers to these questions but there are some common ideas that we can all share:
Preparing to write a good transition statement starts at the beginning of the year and continues throughout. As we work with each child we will be noting their progress across the learning and developmental areas using observations, learning stories, assessments etc. By this time of year we will have a clear idea of how each child is progressing and developing in each learning area.
Term 3 is a good time to step back and look at each child’s overall development using a tool such as the one from ACECQA (https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/DevelopmentalMilestonesEYLFandNQS.pdf).
This gives a clear picture of each child’s development in relation to the milestones for their age. You may want to adapt this to suit your centre so it more accurately reflects the children in your group. This tool also gives us a pretty good idea of the school readiness of each child.
You can highlight the milestones in different colours to make it easy to see the child’s development. For example, things they can do well are highlighted in green, things they are still developing in yellow and things you have not seen developing in pink.
The Transition Statement will contain 3 parts, the child contribution, family contribution and teacher contribution. Take some time to consider the families and children that you work with and how you can best get their input.
Ideas for child contribution
Ideas for family contribution
Everyone will have their own way of actually getting the teacher contribution of transition statement complete. I find the biggest table I can and sit down with all of my paperwork.
I will have:
I start by writing a few sentences about each child, capturing their personality and favourite activities at Kindergarten / Preschool. I also make a few suggestions about how to help the child settle into school.
At the end I print two copies of my teacher contribution, photocopy the family and child contribution and compile them and distribute to the family and school (with permission). I also scan a copy of the child and family contribution for my records.
I find that while writing transition statements can seem like ‘just another job’ that I have to squeeze in at a busy time of year, however if I pause and reflect, I can see there is real value in them. Transition statements help facilitate a positive transition for children, they inform families and teachers and they help me to reflect and develop as a teacher.
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If you need help writing transition statements or developing your transition to school program, reach out to us, we are happy to help.
Contact us today and let our team of early years specialists work their magic.
