Lisa Almeida

Lisa Almeida has been involved in a transition to school programme for the past 5 years in her early childhood centre. 

In this article she shares her learning, discoveries and ideas for teachers who are supporting children to transition to school.

My experience has taught me that if the child’s transition to school is to be a success the importance of a reciprocal inter-relationship between parents, early childhood teachers, the primary school, and the child cannot be emphasised enough.  

Transition to school is an important emotional time for children and their families. Many research studies have pointed to the success of this transition time as a critical influence on how well the child does in their school career.

The difficulty for the child is that in making the transition there is much to deal with.  A change in a social context, a shift of expectations, the need to adapt to change and the stress of sudden accelerated development or ‘growing up’.

The strands in the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki  underpin the objective of providing a base for children to be able to build on their learning and become confident and competent in school. The New Zealand Curriculum explains that supporting of the transition process from early childhood requires fostering of a child’s relationships within their social environment, building and recognising all their experiences and collaborating with family and whanau.

Multiple factors affect a child’s transition from early childhood to school, and some of the main factors are:

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