Recommendations to Schools and Teachers
Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa
Let us keep close together, not wide apart.
This Māori proverb stresses the importance of building and maintaining strong relationships. Relationships between early childhood centres and primary school, relationships with families, relationships between children and their teachers, and relationships for new children with peers. Indeed, a MoE review to examine the research evidence regarding successful transitions identifies, "Responsive, reciprocal relationships between all concerned is a key feature of a successful relationship" (Peters, 2010, p.73). Many efforts to build and maintain relationships are already being made in New Zealand—in fact this was one area where I felt New Zealand was ahead of the game.
Relationships between ECE and school
I connected with two kāhui ako in New Zealand who were making great strides in straddling the ECE-primary school divide. Both were making deliberate efforts to learn from one another and with one another via regular cross-sector meetings and professional development for leaders and teachers from both ECE centres and primary schools. I joined the Oneroa kāhui ako (Auckland) one day as teachers from both sectors visited and toured one another's educational environments to gain a better perspective of what teaching and learning entails and then regrouped in the afternoon to debrief, reflect, share their learning and work on next steps to smooth the transitionary experiences for their learners. The positivity was buzzing and their connectedness and shared vision to improve transitions for their learners was evident.
Relationships with families
Remembering that moving from ECE to school is a transition for not just the child but the family too is key. Consider how adequate is your provision of information and how open are the lines of communication between school and families. It can be trickier when children come from many different ECE centres and backgrounds rather than one or two main ones. Planning for several purposeful orientation days for both the parents and children during the term before school starts for the child can help all parties gradually become familiar with the school, the buildings, the routines and expectations. One New Zealand school I came across focussed on improving their online information through QR codes to ensure that information could be updated for parents in real-time, others had transition books and posters to help the process (see my "Transborder Experiences: A Traveller's Guidebook!" page).
Relationships for new children with peers
See the “Big Buddy” 'Tuakana-teina' programme on my "Transborder Experiences: A Traveller's Guidebook" as an incredibly effective way to support children in establishing positive relationships with other children within the school. Consider "cohort entry" as research shows that staring school with a friend, children from the same ECE centre or others at the same time can make the start to school a much easier one than being the only new child in class—see on my "Transborder Experiences: Travelling Alone" page.
Recommendations to the government and Ministry of Education: Systemic Changes
Having visited Australia, Japan, Singapore and Canada and seeing the benefits that year cohort and an intentional full year to transition students to school can have, I believe that New Zealand's current rolling enrolment into school should change to enable all students to start together at the beginning of the year so that they can have a full New Entrant year at school.
•Instead of our current rolling and continuous “start upon turning 5” disruptive enrolment, children would start at the beginning of school year, e.g., for children who turns 5 from 1 July of the previous year to 30 June of the current year.
•A New Entrant full year would provide an opportunity to gradually blend the play-based learning of ECE with the increased structure and explicit teaching required at school.
•The New Entrant year can work towards the “6 months” expectations of the new 2024 curriculum in a playful way.
This enrolment change would benefit children, teachers and schools alike. Schools would be able to employ New Entrant teachers for a full year without having to continually recruit teachers each year on an ad hoc basis. Teachers would benefit from not having to prepare for continuous individual school entries and would experience less disruption to their learning programmes. Students would have the support of their peers as they start together and feel "we are all in this together" rather than feeling like all eyes are on them as they begin school alone.Students would be more likely to experience a “soft landing” into school: they would begin to have the opportunity to become familiar with the school grounds and facilities, teachers, students, expectations without experiencing a “sudden change” in pedagogy. Ultimately, moving to a year cohort entry would be a more equitable start to school for all students and achievement is likely to improve for our youngest learners in each year.