Settling In
Home Visits/ 1:1 Transition meetings are complete, and the children are starting tomorrow!
What now?!
This blog will offer some tips and ideas for a smooth and inclusive positive transition.
Our exact transition timetables will all be different as they are designed for our individual communities. However, they all include the children attending our settings and gradually building up their time with us until they are attending full-time.
Here are the sorts of things I will be doing.
Easy Wins
I will use all the information I have collated around the children’s interests and strengths. If a child loves dinosaurs, I will set up a small world dinosaur land for them. If they also love playing in the sand, for example, I will combine the two! Now is not the time to have empty, ‘workshop’-style classrooms - this is far too overwhelming and unfamiliar to the children. They need familiarity and favourites which will instantly make them feel calm and in control.
Tour of the School
Find some time in the first day or two to give the children a small tour of important places in the school. These include the toilets, welfare/ medical room, and the lunch hall. These three places are really important. Ensure you talk through each space and introduce the children to key people they will see there. Explain to the children things that we may take for granted. For example, that the lights in the toilet are magic and will automatically turn on when they walk into the room - they may be reluctant to go in if they see it is dark in there! Introduce the class to the welfare person and role play what happens when you need medical attention; from wiping the wound to writing the note home, it is important the children know exactly what will happen. Lastly, the lunch hall. Start preparing the children for eating in the lunch hall by explaining to them what will happen. Again, set aside a time where the class role play sitting at the tables, queuing with empty trays, and then sitting down again. Every little helps!
Start Routines straight away
It is never too early to start embedding routines! I plan out my sessions in almost the exact same format as a usual full-time day, just more compact. I will start with taking the register following into free-flow play. We will stop for fruit and story (another covid-measure I have decided to keep), and then home-time routine - bags, coats, and water bottles, finished with our goodbye song. As the sessions get longer, the routines stay the same, but each bit will just be a bit longer. I will use the whole-class visual timetable from day one too, taking off each item when it is finished.
Keep it Short
Remember that although it is important to start your routines from day one, you will want to keep ‘paused play’ to a minimum. A ‘good morning’ song followed by the register is long enough a carpet session for the morning. A quick, familiar story before home time is all it needs too. Do not keep the children from play for longer than necessary.
Interact but do not Overwhelm
It may feel like you should be doing something the whole time the children are with you but do not fall into the trap of interacting with the children just because it may feel a little uncomfortable or because you feel like you should be ‘doing’ something. Think about Julie Fisher’s ‘Interacting or Interfering’! You want to interact with the children and build relationships, but keep it balanced - do not bombard the children with too many questions and let them explore and play without you.
Example session timings for Day 1 - two hours
These are very approximate times, and will depend on many factors - did the children arrive on time, did they separate from their main caregiver quickly, are they settled/ unsettled etc
9am - children arrive at school, and are shown where to put their water bottles, book bags, and coats
9.15 - children to sit for the ‘good morning’ song and register
9.20 - children go to free flow play
10 - pause play for fruit and story time
10.15 - children go back to play
10.45 - stop for tidy up time
10.50/55 - home-time routine - personal belongings and ‘goodbye’ song
11am - children are dismissed to their grown-up
Remember - there may be children who are not quite ready to engage in the routine straight away and may feel more comfortable observing from afar. They may prefer to watch from the other side of the room or continue playing while watching from the corner of their eye. This is okay. Once they know what the routine looks like and what is expected from them, knowing it is the same every time, they will soon join the rest of the class.
Main take-aways
Set up their favourite activities
Start routines from day 1
Keep it short and simple
Remember
You are a fantastic practitioner, you’ve got this.
Keep Calm and Early Years on!
*I use the term ‘parents’ and ‘family’ to include all caregivers and all types of families