The purpose of this professional learning is for teachers to view and reflect on a video of a Kindergarten teacher, Director and Prep teachers discussing transitions for continuity of learning.
Download video
Video transcript
[Four staff are sitting talking: (left to right) kindergarten teacher, kindergarten Director, Prep teacher 1, Prep teacher 2.]
Kindergarten teacher
As the kindergarten teacher we talk to our parents a lot through the orientation process. We have parent education evenings, probably through our newsletters and lots of informal conversations just in the playground or in the classroom about these transition statements and the benefits of handing them on to schools and … how it provides a nice clear picture of where the child has come from and what their strengths are, what helps them to feel comfortable, what kind of things they need to do if they need to settle down.
And so we talk to the parents about handing those on to schools, and to Preps just to inform the teachers. So I was just wondering, do you receive many of these transition statements …?
Prep teacher 1
Yeah we do actually. We have a process where we have an interview with the parents and the students come in as well, and parents often bring in transition statements and say that their kindergarten teacher has asked them to — said it was a good idea to pass them on. Or they will say, “Oh, our kindergarten teacher said this was a good idea,” so they bring them in without even being asked, so I can see that kindergarten teachers are promoting … handing them on, which is really fantastic.
Prep teacher 2
It's a really lovely opportunity to value what you've already done as well. You know, children are on this life-long journey and I think that we're not starting with them, it’s not “we're starting at Prep and they've done nothing before”. The transition statements give us an idea and an understanding about what is happening in kindergartens so that we can build on and continue on their journey.
Prep teacher 1
Yeah, they're wonderful. They’re really valued. With all our Prep teachers at school, we get together and we talk about the transition statements and we actually have a conversation about what we've found useful or what we could see in the transition statements that might be useful as a team. So it's not just me sitting down and reading just my own transitions. Sometimes we sit down and we look at all the transitions so we really value those.
I really liked … actually one of my students had a comment from a kindergarten teacher about how they like settling. They liked having quiet time to themselves and sitting down and reading, so it was something that I already had read about, so when I witnessed it in my classroom that he's just taking a book over there and he's reading by himself, I knew that that was something that worked for him to settle himself down…so I left him over there…and he could…
Director
Yeah, because if you know all that, you want the child to have a positive experience and enjoy it and feel right at home, because that's what they would have done back when they were with us.
Prep teacher 2
One section of the transition statement that I really liked on the ones that I've received was the page where the child had actually been involved in sharing his thoughts and in his ideas and his pictures. Would you — Could you tell me a little bit more about that?
Kindergarten teacher
Yeah, it was a really nice kind of experience that we had. We got to sit down, maybe in a small bunch of children, and just talk about the things that they think they're really good at, the things that they think they might need a little bit of help with …the things that they're really looking forward to do when they go to school, and also just…
Director
What they like doing at kindy as well, so that you've got to build up a picture of their strengths, as well as the things that they don't feel quite so confident about.
Prep teacher 1
Yeah, I really love receiving those. And there's two parts that I really like: the one that the student gets to write about “things that I'm good at,” because sometimes they're very different to what the parent says or what the teacher says.
Director
We notice that as well.
Prep teacher 1
Yeah, and it's just something that they say they're really interested in. We take that on board. Like they might say that they really like dressing up as princesses and we make sure the princess dress-ups are out when they first come.
Kindergarten teacher
Yeah, that is really nice. We had one of the little boys and he drew his whole family and put the ages of everybody in his family above the bodies and I was like, that's giving a nice snapshot of what…
Prep teacher 1
Yeah, so they're just drawing a picture which they're telling us about their interests. You can see stuff about their family and it gives you a bit more of an insight into other areas
Prep teacher 2
I think it’s just … yeah, you're right … but I think it's just too — it's a lovely document because the child has ownership of it as well. So I think that it feels like when we receive a transition statement that there's a lot of input. There's a lot of input from you and your knowledge about the children and their development, but there's the input from the families and there's input from the kids as well.
Prep teacher 1
Yeah, and the students really like it when we have interviews with their parents and then when you say, “I bet you like fairies”, or something because you've already read it on the snapshot, and they're like, “How did you know?” So they really enjoy that too and it starts building up that relationship.
- Last updated:
- 25 August 2023
