With evidence showing that poor transitions at this early stage can continue to affect children throughout their education, the research team aims to find out what support parents feel they need along with how primary school teachers and early years educators can help them.
They then plan to develop a bank of resources for parents accompanied by training materials for practitioners.
The team is led by the Prevention and Early Intervention Network (PEIN) in the Republic of Ireland, with Leeds Beckett University in England, the Marie Curie Association in Bulgaria and the European Parents’ Association based in Belgium.
Dr Susan Atkinson, senior lecturer in the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University, said that there are currently significant differences in approaches to transition taken by pre-schools and primary schools.
‘This project seeks to improve transitions by enhancing the awareness and skills of practitioners, while supporting parents to support children during this stage - and to do this in a pan-European context,’ she said.
The Leeds Beckett team will lead on the first stage of the project, investigating current transition practices across Europe to establish what support is currently available and examples of best practice.
The partners will then explore parents’ awareness and experiences of the support currently available to them and their children, with a focus on the parents of children living in disadvantaged and vulnerable circumstances.
