Talk to me about supporting my child with school year transitions

Whether it’s moving to a new school, or from class to class, a new school year or a new school type, school transitions can be an anxious time for our children and young people, and for us.  

There are so many factors to take into account, not least if your child has been struggling with EBSA (Emotionally Based School Avoidance).  

Whilst every child and young person will have their own unique needs, so their transition plans must be made bespoke for them, here are some strategies and support systems that will ensure this time is successful.  

Look at Section F of your EHCP.  

Support for transition must be here, if it’s not, and you are in draft, make sure that this is included, speak with your EP/OT/SALT about the importance of their including this information. 

If you are not in draft, make sure that this is included at your next Annual Review. You should discuss this with your SENDCo.  

What should transition support look like?  

Here’s some examples from EHCP, Section F provisions: 

• Transition will start in the middle of the Summer term, with <child> meeting new teaching and support staff in the current placement, supported by current Key Worker. Current Key Worker will introduce new 1:1 and will support <child> to engage in favoured activities with new 1:1 to build a trusted relationship with new Key Adult (LSA)  

  
  

• <child> will be supported by both Key Workers with transition visits to new school, minimum of 4 supported visits, at times when there are fewer children present.  

  
  

• Transition will be gradual and supported. <Child> will start by walking past placement with Key Workers and parent. When ready <child> will enter playground with new Key Worker and parent for maximum of 2 minutes. Once able to manage this, <child> will be supported to enter school by alternative (quieter) route. <Child> will have activities of choice available supported 1:1. Once able to complete an activity <child> will move into classroom with 1:1 supported access back to quiet area should this be required.  

  
  

Transitions can be highly detailed, specific and quantified, to ensure the best possible start to the next phase of education, the next school or the next class.  

If your child is moving between classes and has a Key Person at their placement – they deserve a holiday as much as anyone, but ask if you can jointly support your child being ‘held in mind’. This essentially means that your child feels that just because their Key Person isn’t with them, that they haven’t been forgotten. This can really help with ‘back to school’. Ask if you can send a postcard (you don’t need a home address, just to the school is enough) and for this to be reciprocated – for the Key Worker to send a postcard over the holidays to your house saying that they are looking forward to seeing you all again. It’s a small thing, but can be extremely effective.  

Now, we know that not every child has such a well-supported transition plan, or even a plan of any kind.  

Many EHCPs are lacking in this provision. So, what can you do to support your child?   

Here are our suggestions:  

Create your own child’s One Page Profile – an ‘All About Me’ – as they may also be called. For this you can include:  

• A photo of your child  

•  Photos of the people who matter most to your child 

• Your child’s strengths – ‘I love to paint’, ‘I’m very good at making people laugh’,  

• Who is going to be picking up and dropping off – is this parents, childminder/nanny or Grandparents, for example 

• Your child’s favourite toys, activities and food/drink preferences 

• The practical support that your child needs – such as ‘I need help to put my coat on’, or ‘I need help to go to the toilet’ 

• How your child prefers to be addressed, for example, the EHCP may state their name is Johanna, but they prefer to be called Jo 

• How to support me when I am upset 

  
  

A One-Page profile isn’t a list of EHCP needs and provisions, it’s a brief snapshot of your child, to include enough information to enable someone to provide support in the moment.  

If your school hasn’t provided a Transition Booklet, ask them to, if this isn’t forthcoming you can make a very basic one yourself.  

Go onto the school website, find photos of the staff, and screenshot. Do the same with any photos of the school building, classrooms, and outside areas. If you are able to, take some photos of the entrance of the school, the school sign and path/road outside.  

You can be creative and look online for photos of school coat pegs, school lunches, packed lunch boxes, toilets, desks etc.  

Put these together in a booklet – or if you are creative even a PowerPoint would work.  

Write or find a Social Story about school/starting a new school/a new class https://send.eani.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-07/My%20New%20School%20-%20Transition%20Social%20Story.pdf 

If you’re out and about walk past or drive past the school. No comment, just to get you child used to seeing the route.  

Once you’ve done this a few times, see if there’s a ‘stop off point’ nearby that may be helpful – a park or shop, that you can use as a reason for passing this way. It’s then that you can say ‘oh look that’s your new school’. Just in passing, the less of a thing you make it, the more ‘usual’ it will become. 

School year Facebook groups and school WhatsApp groups may not be everyone’s idea of fun – but they do provide a place for parents to organise meet ups with children who will be starting at the same time.  

Contact the school, ask to see the class teacher and SENDCo before school starts. This may be construed as a ‘big ask’ but it can be over Teams, and for just half an hour. A brief discussion on any anticipated difficulties, making sure that all key staff have seen the EHCP, and a start point for discussion on how communication can be made, moving forward.  

Communication is key, and keeping an open mind as a parent can be hard – but remember, our anxieties will be picked up by our children – if they hear you say that they won’t manage – they will believe this to be true. Try not to transfer your concerns to your child.  

Some children manage better with a ‘jump straight in’ – and it’s a misconception that this will not include those who have experienced school anxiety and attendance difficulties before. For some (not all) going into school for a full day, and keeping to a full day and full week is better than starting off on a shorter timetable. When do you make the decision to make that leap? How? Will your child be only too happy with this option – or push back, knowing that there is an alternative, and then that leads back to refusal to attend at all. 

Sometimes it can be better to start as you mean to carry on.  

Transitions to new classes, within the same school can be easier – but many schools will use the move from Year 1 to Year 2 to break up class dynamics and reassess helpful and not as successful personality mixes and friendship groups. Your child may not be back with their friends, and will now be in another class, with a new teacher and new peers to navigate. Again, this can cause us our own anxiety – and once our children hear ‘they won’t manage, they have been split up from all of their friends’ – they will have increased anticipatory anxiety too. Managing our own concerns can be vital.  

Moving to a new school year after that long summer holiday, this can be tough for many children – and more so for those who have had (or are having) a difficult time at school.  

Not having that Sunday night dread, for us, and our children is a holiday in itself.  

If things are not as they should be at school, and you have an EHCP,  take this time to look back the EHCP, what changes need to be made – back to our favourite equation – B + F = I. Check the EHCP and consider an Annual Review on return to school. Link to draft check video and AR webinar and blog. 

If you don’t have an EHCP – now is the time to apply – legally it’s a 20 week process (it can take longer – much longer, but the law is the law) – and you will be looking at having an EHCP by the New Year. Use the summer holidays to get all your ducks in a row for a successful application (we have all the resources you need to do this at any time of the year).  

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On those last weeks of any holiday, start to get back into a ‘school day’ routine again, with bedtimes and mornings. It can help when the holidays do stop, and school begins. 

Transition objects can help, and these can be a Section F provision. Sometimes these are kept with the child all day, others can be put into the safe keeping of the child’s Key Worker, and brought out at any trigger points during the day.  

For those with a new EHCP this is the fruition of so many months, and for some, years of hard work. We are so desperate for this to work now. This will take time, often years, but small steps and small amounts of progress grow into amazing outcomes over those years. Give your child/young person time to heal, to see how things are now different from before.  

There will undoubtedly be hiccups along the way, so take time, and give this process time. Planning for each transition will help this process over the many years an EHCP will be in place.  

We are, and always will be, Stronger Together.   

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