Children Starting School

A Guide to Successful Transitions and Transfers for Teachers and Assistants

Hilary Fabian

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134137855
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Drawing on research, theory and practice, this book presents ways in which practitioners, working in partnership with parents, can give children a successful start to school.

Written in an accessible style, the book helps early years practitioners planning transition programs for new children and offers ideas for developing their professional practice when working with families.

Starting school at the age of four or five is recognized as a major adjustment in a child's life that can determine his or her future success in education. This book highlights the factors that influence children's early adjustment, including their social and emotional wellbeing, so that schools can learn the best way to offer support.

Practitioners, managers and those studying on early childhood courses will gain an understanding of the complexity and diversity of transition and will learn how they can make this a stress-free time for the children, families and professionals involved.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Children, like adults, enjoy and are stimulated by novelty and change. The first day of school, the transfer to ‘big school’, are landmarks in the process of growing up. Even when children are apprehensive, they look forward to change … But if change is to stimulate and not to dishearten, it must be carefully prepared and not too sudden. (DES 1967, para. 427)

The start of school is recognised as a major transition in a child’s life but it is not a standardised process with a prescribed set of practices to be followed, as there is a wide range of contextual and socio-cultural variability. Children approach school with a diversity of individual experiences, attitudes, expectations and developmental differences. Children at this stage are facing developmental challenges as well as having to adapt to a new environment, routine and people. The start of school also has an impact on parents and family life. Early years practitioners planning transition programmes for new children who are commencing school need to be aware of factors that influence children’s early adjustment to school and ways in which they can make a stress-free bridge from preschool to school. Although this may not be the first transition for many children, its importance is acknowledged as being a critical factor, in determining not only children’s success at school but also their response to future transitions (Rutter and Rutter 1992). It is important, therefore, that the start of school is a healthy life-transition, based on best practice. To get it right requires an understanding of the complexity and diversity of the start of preschool and school, and knowledge about ways in which the transition can be supported. The process is about having structures ready for children as well as giving children the tools to cope with change.

The importance of achieving an untroubled and successful start to school is essential because of the long-term benefits this has on future learning. A study by Tizard et al. (1988) found that initial success during the Reception class led to a virtuous cycle whereby those pupils who made the greatest progress remained high achievers throughout their primary schooling. Not only is a smooth start seen as being influential in helping children to learn, but also, because childhood is regarded as having the potential antecedent for adult neurosis (James and Prout 1997), each new start becomes important for the future. The first impressions that children have of school may affect subsequent attitudes as ‘memories remain with us and may still affect our behaviour many years later’ (Pascal 1990:1).

Starting school is taking place at an increasingly younger age. The compulsory school starting age in England, introduced in the 1944 Education Act, is the term after a child’s fifth birthday. However, this is, in effect, being reduced through a number of government education initiatives. The Nursery Education Voucher Scheme that was introduced nationally in April 1997 and ended on 31 August 1997 (DfEE 1997a) brought early entry to school for many children. The introduction of the Nursery Education Grant and Early Years Development Plans (DfEE 1997b) continued the emphasis on nursery education. Since September 1998 there is a nursery place for all four-year-olds whose parents want it, many of which are in the Reception class of a school. Furthermore, places are now being offered to three-year-olds in some schools. Coupled with this is the socio-political context that has brought about changes in family and work structures, creating further pressure for early admission. These frequent initiatives have led parents to scrutinise the effects on their children’s transition to full-time education (Campbell 2000) and have raised a growing awareness among educators of the need to attend to transitional entitlements (Lawrence 1994: 162). The integration, coordination and collaboration of childcare and education is also leading authorities to re-evaluate their organisational model for the care and education of young children in an attempt to meet the needs of parents and children (Osgood and Sharp 2000).

The 1988 Education Reform Act brought greater emphasis on partnership between schools and parents, and on parental choice of school (DES 1991; DFE 1994). Formula funding under the Local Management of Schools directly links school income to pupil numbers and has led to marketing to attract customers (Tomlinson 1993; Foskett 1998). This, in turn, encourages schools to compete for pupils.

Policy changes to raise standards have led to the introduction of Early Learning Goals for three-to five-year-olds (QCA 2000); the introduction, under section 9 of the Education (Schools) Act 1992, of inspection of schools (Ofsted 1995); and the introduction of inspection of publicly funded nursery education under section 5 of the Nursery Education and Grant Maintained Schools Act 1996 (Ofsted 1998). There is a high expectation on pupils to succeed. The introduction of an accredited baseline assessment scheme in September 1998 for all maintained schools (SCAA 1997), to help teachers plan and check rates of pupil progress, added to this expectation. As a result of these initiatives and the emphasis on performance, starting school makes ‘a range of potentially stressful demands’ (Ghaye and Pascal 1988: 3) on practitioners, pupils and their parents.

Managing change

Change is welcomed by many and does not necessarily cause any problems, but school entry and transfer can pose major difficulties for some children. The change from home and preschool to school involves coping with physical, social and philosophical differences. Marked discontinuities between home and school can impede learning (Cleave et al. 1982). Factors such as speaking a language other than English at home, being a boy and being young can also disadvantage some children at the start of school (Margetts 2000). Hughes et al. (1979), in their research into the process of adjustment to school, found that 13 per cent of children were found to be having difficulties coping with school after half a term and suggest that some kind of emotional disturbance was involved, although for the majority the difficulties of starting school were relatively short-lived. Children must make sense of the differences between home and school, and overcome any obstacles if they are to succeed. Managing the induction programme and supporting children through discontinuities is the central theme of this book.

Physical discontinuities

One of the most significant influences on learning is the setting in which it occurs. Our physical surroundings have an impact on the way we behave because every aspect of our surroundings sends out subtle psychological messages (McGavin 2001). The style of decoration, the lighting and the physical aspects, such as the furniture, affect performance. The physical conditions in which children work are often translated into their attitudes to learning. Some children face substantial changes in their physical environment at the start of school. These include the condition and size of the building, the amount of classroom resources and equipment, the location of facilities such as the cloakroom and toilets, and the availability of outdoor areas. Cleave et al. (1982: 39) identified three features of the environment that are critical at this time: ‘the scale of the child’s setting, the range of his territory, and the limitations on his movements within it’.

Children coming straight from home may be overwhelmed by the size of the building (Marshall 1988). Some children attend a nursery class in the same building as the school; others attend a nursery school or preschool close by or on the same site. Indeed, many children will have experienced a number of transitions prior to visiting school (DES 1990, para. 104). Some children ‘may be attending a confusing multiplicity of forms of provision, in some cases concurrently, in others serially, as parents move area, jobs, or because each type of provision offers different facilities’ (David 1990: 52).

Nevertheless, it should not be assumed that starting school is any easier for children who have experienced a number of settings than for those for whom this is their first transition (Dowling 1995).

Social discontinuities

Responding positively to the demands of the new environment and to different working practices depends to a large extent upon children’s social and emotional well-being. The start of school involves children coping with a reorganisation of their identity and status from preschool child to school pupil. During this time they might find a social and cultural gap between preschool and school, there will be the challenge of becoming part of a new group, making new friends and, for some, the loss of friendships. Social interactions will be affected by:

• the physical layout of the classroom;
• having to relate to older pupils as well as children of a similar age;
• staffing ratios;
• the words and language of school that might be unfamiliar.

Philosophical discontinuities

Children bring their own experiences, skills, developmental differences, expectations and culture to school, therefore each transition is unique to the individual. For some children it may be the first time that they have been parted from the informal world of home, or had to leave their parents for any length of time to ‘share’ a strange adult with a number of other children. Others have experienced a range of different settings and encountered different people with different values in each. At school there may be:

• different approaches to teaching methods;
• a different balance of independent and group work;
• a different emphasis on work and play;
• more oral instruction;
• more emphasis on formal numeracy and literacy;
• restrictions on time;
• the need to use pencils and other small utensils, such as cutlery at lunchtime;
• a more structured timetable;
• more formal rules and classroom and institutional routines.

Not only do staff and children bring their own expectations to the induction, but there are also parental expectations of their children’s learning and behaviour. This diversity of expectation may result in confusion for some children.

Acculturation

When children start school they are expected to modify their behaviour to fit the school culture. Some children find this difficult, others adjust quickly and others are passive recipients (Dowling 1995). Learning about learning at school, understanding the routines and language of school, and acquiring the culture take time. Helping children and their parents make sense of school and developing early home-school partnerships are seen as important factors in helping children to settle into school. Attitudes to learning are often dependent on children’s social and emotional well-being. These two themes run throughout this book and are introduced briefly here.

Emotional well-being

Learning is dependent on the child’s emotional state. ‘Children need to feel secure and happy in order to deploy all their faculties fully to meet the challenges presented to them through the school curriculum’ (Burrell and Bubb 2000). They also need to feel emotionally ready for school in order to meet new challenges with confidence (Goleman 1996). Self-esteem is a significant factor in being a successful learner and will affect the way in which children perceive their level of success (Ball 1994). If there is a lack of well-being, the child’s development is likely to be threatened (Vandenbussche et al. 1994). Research has shown the correlation between high self-esteem and high academic achievement but even the most confident children can find the move to school intimidating, not feel in control and fear being wrong (Dowling 1995: 40). Some children are ‘at risk’ of not transferring well and develop problems caused by the stress of not settling in to school. If children cannot cope with the change of circumstances then they are unlikely to engage fully in the life of the class, may underperform academically and perhaps express frustration by demonstrating poor behaviour. Children need to be empowered at the start of their journey through school to overcome these anxieties and develop resilience which will give them a sense of mastery of their own lives.

Parents have a powerful effect on their child’s sense of self-esteem, but when children start school it is the Reception class teacher who also influences that sense of identity. The first teacher has a role to play in developing children’s self-esteem, with its resulting confidence, through giving them a feeling of belonging, self-worth and helping others accept them as competent and worthwhile. However, to attend to and value children fully puts a heavy responsibility on the Reception class teacher in a large class where there are few adults (Klein 1993).

Social well-being

Harmonious adaptation results from the child’s ability to satisfy his or her own needs within the environment (Kienig 1997). One of these is the child’s ability to establish social relations with other children and adults. However, differences in social skills may lead to differences in participation and opportunities to be actively involved. If children are socially skilled, they are more likely to have a succession of positive experiences with other children (Goleman 1996: 223) which, in turn, often brings a sense of well-being. Rutter (1997) suggests that it is the quality of the parents’ relationship with each other that may influence the child’s level of success in relationships with others.

There is a constantly shifting nature in children’s relationships where opposing categories are common such as big and small, younger and older and where ‘sometimes they are in a subordinate role, at other times they are superior or see themselves as equals’ (Gura 1996: 36). Thus, children grow up and form their identities and define themselves in relation to the people with whom they are involved. Pollard states that their social development should, therefore, ‘be seen as being symbiotic rather than just sequential, for each provides a vital element of the social context for the other’ (Pollard 1996: 269).

A further aspect explored in this book is parents’ involvement in their child’s education to aid continuity. Nursery and Reception classes are well placed to encourage collaboration at the start of school which can continue throughout formal schooling. Having systems of induction for new children that aim to help them and their families become familiar with school, while helping teachers understand the children’s background, is likely to motivate and encourage early learning and partnership. Important elements in establishing partnership are good communication skills and the frequency, amount, style and format of information given.

The start of school is only one transition that children make. Children experience a number of transitions during their school years, moving from one class to another, sometimes with different children, to a different teacher and to a different room. They also transfer between phases of education, for example from infants to juniors, and from primary to secondary. There are some who change schools with little notice and arrive mid-term. These transfers between schools are also looked at in this book. The negative effect of pupil mobility on confidence and learning highlights the need to help children develop skills of resilience to face uncertainty and reduce the impact of social and emotional turbulence.

The book concludes by looking at systems for monitoring and evaluating induction programmes. Evaluating the purposes, procedures and principles of induction helps to establish criteria for induction and systems for managing a programme of unhindered beginnings.

Part 1
Planning for the Start of School

Chapter 2
Admission

Children in the United Kingdom start their compulsory schooling earlier than their counterparts in the rest of Europe (Pugh 1996). The international norm is to start between the ages of five and seven, with the most common compulsory school starting age in Europe being six (European Commission 2000; Moss 2000). In England and Wales children are legally required to start ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Part 1 Planning for the Start of School
• Part 2 Preparing Schools for Children
• Part 3 Preschools, Schools and Families Working Together
• Part 4 Settling in to School
• Part 5 Continuity during Transitions and Transfers
• References
• Name Index
• Subject Index