Page 58 - PSPS: A Training guide

This means that children will:

Make strong attachments and develop warm and supportive relationships with
family, peers and adults in out-of-home settings and in their community

Be aware of and name their own feelings, and understand that others may
have different feelings

Handle transitions and changes well
Be confident and self-reliant

Respect themselves, others and the environment

Make decisions and choices about their own learning and development.

Each child making this transition will be at their own level of emotional maturity and
ability to manage in a new social environment. Children may or may not have
unresolved attachment issues which will influence this transition: Some may be
confident and excited about the change while some, who may have seemed ready,
might display some uncertainty and perhaps anxiety as the time approaches to start
school. Any special needs or challenging circumstances need to be accommodated
(see Units 3 and 4). These varied reactions and vulnerabilities need to be
acknowledged and supports provided.

The school needs to consider these factors and ensure that any possible issue is
anticipated. These will vary from child to child and family to family and may include
children with special educational needs (SEN) that have not yet been adequately
identified or supported; immigrant children and children with English as a second or
other language who are already going through a transition process, in addition to
moving to school; children from the Traveller community or a minority group who may
have had a narrower social circle with different cultural practices and norms; school
entrants such as summer-born children, or from countries which start school earlier
than others, may be a lot younger than the other children in the class and therefore at
a different emotional and social stage of development.

Unit 5 Social and Emotional Development: Addressing those Needs

It is crucial in supporting transitions to pay especial attention to the social and
emotional aspects of each child’s journey through the transition. To achieve successful
transitions for all children will require a certain amount of individual attention and
support, as each child will respond in their own way to the changes being asked of
them.

In order to support a successful transition, the monitoring and observation of all
children needs to be conducted. Many children will manage well, and the forming of
the new group in the primary classroom, with good preparation, will proceed as
planned.