Training Talk - Transitions

As the school year closes, the eldest children attending The Old School House Nursery in Liverpool are practising using lunch boxes, carrying dinner trays and self-registering. These are just a few examples of practices that pre-school room leader Lori Curlett has introduced to help children transition to Reception class, following training delivered by provider School Improvement Liverpool.

Ms Curlett has attended its school-readiness course three times. ‘Every time I’ve come back from it, I’ve had a new idea,’ she says.

One trainer delivers the half-day course to a group of up to 28 at a local conference centre. The first half covers what aims early years providers should have to help children transition, and what paperwork they must provide to schools. After a break, the trainer facilitates a discussion to encourage practitioners to share best practice.

Helping children get used to eating lunch from lunch boxes was an idea Ms Curlett learned from another nursery attending the course. She sets up a table where children choose items to pack. ‘Lunch boxes are all different – if you’ve never seen one before, you might not even know how to open it when you get to school,’ she suggests. The nursery also helps children prepare for self-service school dinners by practising with trays and cutlery.

But the training has made Ms Curlett realise that transitioning is more about preparing children emotionally than helping them hold a pencil. ‘It’s about looking at all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage,’ she says. ‘People tend to focus on getting school-ready as sitting at a desk.’ She and her colleagues address this by encouraging children to read books about going to school and discussing their feelings.

Schools have commented on how smoothly children have transitioned. ‘We had a boy, who was quite shy, go on a school day visit,’ Ms Curlett says. ‘The teachers were blown away by him.’

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