Improving transition strategies - nursery to reception
After a recent period of high staff turnover, which affected relations with pre-school providers, Thomas A Becket First School has taken action to ensure children have the smoothest possible transition to its five reception classes.
- Organisation Name:
- Thomas A Becket First School
- Region:
- South East
- Topic:
- Early Years
- Type of Organisation:
- Primary school
- Size of Organisation:
- 501 to 1,000
Brief description of the project
Staff at Thomas A Becket First School in Worthing, West Sussex, have been working tirelessly to improve their school starter strategies by focusing specifically on key ideas that would give the school’s youngest classes the best possible start.
Starting in 2003 and consolidated in 2004, two of the approaches focused on by staff were the development of visual timetables and the use of a staggered start for pupils in September.
The visual timetables and prompts that the school created were inspired, in part, by the learning environment and observation work completed with a Local Foundation Stage consultant. She explored the way in which the learning environment was organised in reception with the objective of bringing it far more in line with the Foundation Stage settings feeding into the school.
One way that this was achieved was through the mirroring of indoor and outdoor activities. The set-up of the learning environment is extremely important to how easily children settle in school.
Staff at the school say that creating the visual timetables for the pupils is relatively straightforward. The first step is to take digital photographs of the children carrying out certain tasks, for example pictures of them being read a story by a teacher, doing PE or playing outside. The photos are then mounted on a timetable display that teachers and children can refer to throughout the day.
The staggered intake at the start of the autumn term is also relatively simple to adopt, though it depends on teachers not having to do formal planning during the first half-term. The staff are also eager to point out that what the children do during this time is still enormously important, as it involves the pupils’ emotional and social readiness for life at school.
The planning that the school does during this period centres on the children‘s development, whereby the staff get to know the pupils and encourage them to get to know each other, all the time building relationships. This period is also the time for setting ground rules too.
As the children are starting school in relatively small groups in each of the five reception classes over the first three weeks of term, teachers have noticed that they tend to settle far more quickly than when the classes all start at the same time and are full.
Replicating the success of Thomas A Becket with visual timetables and staggered intake would be relatively easy for other schools. The main point is to make sure that your visual timetables are as relevant for the children as possible, using current photos with every picture relating specifically to a timetabled event. The timetable also needs to be located where all the children can have access to it.
Ensuring that a staggered intake is relevant to your setting is also a point worth considering. Staff should work as a team in order to make sure that ideas are pooled and are right for both the teacher and the children. It is also useful to gather as much information as possible by talking to parents and pre-school settings so that you can be certain that they are all on board with your plans. It is imperative not to just leave things to happen.
Outcomes of the project
It is too early to measure outcomes in terms of academic attainment (the focus on the transition strategies began in 2003), though outcomes noted and analysed to date indicate that the children are far more settled in the school during the first half-term of the year. They have also been able to launch into their learning with confidence and positivity, which is mainly down to the time they have spent building relationships and getting used to new routines.
By centring their activities on play-based learning, the children have fun and gain self-esteem and self-reliance through a seamless shift into formal education. Both the children and their parents are happy with the way in which the school nurtures them through this potentially problematic time.
The reception teaching team is also better able to engage the children in high quality learning as a result of the work they do settling them in when they first join the school. The focus on personal, social and emotional education that the staff evidently pursue also provides the perfect grounding for each child that is new to the school.
Overall, staff at the school feel that the outcomes have matched, and even exceeded, their original targets. Making improvements throughout the school is an on-going goal at Thomas A Becket, and the success achieved so far continues to be consolidated here.
Resources and staffing
The strategies employed at Thomas A Becket have not required additional budgeting. Staff in the reception team, which includes five teachers and five teaching assistants, have been able to cover each other for visits to pre-school providers. Finance for digital cameras and printers, which are used for the visual timetables and record keeping, were provided by the school’s Parent Teacher Association.
There is a natural intensity of work during the summer term in preparation for the September intake, but beyond that, the teachers’ workload has not been adversely affected, whilst head teacher Maggie Brackley was responsible for organising the logistics of the staggered intake at the start of the autumn term.
Challenges
No major difficulties were encountered by the school’s staff beyond maintaining the courage of their convictions; that approaching the issue of transition from pre-school to reception should be handled in this way and resisting the temptation to revert to the old ways.
Lessons learnt
One of the crucial lessons learnt by staff at Thomas A Becket, through their experience of developing such an effective transition from nursery to reception, is that any efforts to improve this critical stage in a child’s formal education are worthwhile. It also became clear that it is of fundamental importance that before children attempt any formal academic work the best results can be observed once the children are happy and settled in their new environment.
What's next?
Staff at the school are keen to consolidate the good results achieved so far and have their sights set on the transition from reception to Year 1 and the introduction of a two week induction period for new year groups.
Context
Thomas A Becket First School is one of the largest first schools in the country with an admission number of 600 pupils aged four to eight years of age. It is a popular school that is highly regarded in the locality and has very few vacant spaces. The majority of the children come from the local area when spaces permit their admission. The school serves an area that is densely populated on the western side of Worthing.
On entry, the children’s achievements are in line with the West Sussex average for schools, with pupils making appropriate progress by the end of Key Stage 1. The number of children on the SEN register is average, but the number of children with statements is generally higher than average, as is the number with English as an additional language.