Reception to Year 1 Transition: The Child's Experience

Summary

Mount Pleasant Primary School in Dudley decided to tackle this problem by introducing some new ideas into the School and then by collaborating with other like-minded schools to share ideas on how to improve the transition from the Foundation Stage into the National Curriculum.

• Background
• Mount Pleasant Primary - An Innovative Culture
• The Idea - Overcoming the Problems of Transition
• What They Hoped to Achieve
• Update: A Guide for Schools and Parents - Summer 2006
• Links and Contacts

Background

Early school life should be enjoyable and exciting, but the reality is that it can also be daunting for children moving into Year 1 who are used to a Pre-School environment in Reception Year.

Mount Pleasant Primary School in Dudley, West Midlands decided to tackle this problem by engaging in Action Research and collaborative work with other colleagues nationally, to identify how children feel moving from the Foundation Stage at Reception Year into the National Curriculum at Year 1, and what we can do to make that 'transition' experience even more successful for all children.

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Mount Pleasant Primary - An Innovative Culture

Mount Pleasant Primary School has 8 teaching areas - Nursery, Reception and Years 1 to 6, supporting a team teaching approach. Attached is a children's centre which opened in 2000.

Its catchment area is characterised by high levels of unemployment, due largely to the closure of all heavy industry in the area, a trend only recently being combated by a rise in service industry jobs. The school serves mainly white children with a high proportion from single parent families.

Central to the school's attitude to learning is making the experience exciting for children. It's a culture where every voice is encouraged and all ideas heard.

Gail Bedford, who was Headteacher at the school for nearly 20 years until she retired from her post in 2006, believes the School's success is attributable to the teamwork culture she has helped foster. They work closely with parents to ensure all children are supported at home and that parents understand new policies and practices in school.

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The Idea - Overcoming the Problems of Transition

Mount Pleasant Primary School had concerns about the lack of social and communication skills of children entering Nursery. To combat this, staff started to work with parents to ensure children were supported and prepared prior to starting school.

This difficulty faced by children in transition seemed also to occur when children moved from Reception Year into a National Curriculum framework in Year 1.

The School looked at various ways of trying to overcome these difficulties by examining the teaching practices and the learning environment of both Reception Year and Year 1.

A member of staff co-ordinated the work on transition working with Professor Christine Pascal on AcE (Accounting Early for Life Long Learning) and EEL (Early Effected Learning) around the very early years' child and developing an understanding for the disposition for learning.

Parents were asked to complete questionnaires on their perception of their child's experience of moving into Year 1. Gail Bedford has written a paper on the results they found, which you
can download here (Word - 94 Kb).

In 2003, working alongside the DfES Innovation Unit, Gail drew together 10 headteachers nationally with similar interests. She recalls being very excited from the outset about the project's collaborative potential:

"I was so pleased to have been given the opportunity to work with a group of like-minded colleagues and was hopeful that the work at Mount Pleasant may influence and support others to make the child's emotional and educational needs their main priority, including a re-examination of the indoor and outdoor learning environments offered."

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What They Hoped to Achieve

The stated outcomes were to tailor the teaching and learning environment to encourage all children to be creative learners, to be able to successfully solve problems, have enquiring minds, interact successfully with their peers, be confidently literate and numerate.

Read Gail Bedford's article Child's Play which featured in the September 2003 edition of Literacy Today.

Download the article here (Word - 28 Kb)

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Update: A Guide for Schools and Parents - Summer 2006

The project group has now met on several occasions and identified key areas of teaching, learning and leadership to focus on. This forms their 'Key Issues' document, and in 2005 Gail invited the group members to work with members of their staff or interested colleagues from within their LAs to consider a response to it.

We have incorporated the Key Issues into our guide "Reception to Year 1 Transition - The Child's Experience". This is intended as a resource for teachers, staff and parents alike, containing examples of real practice from the group.

Download a copy here (PDF - 223 Kb)

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Links and Contacts

Gail Bedford is currently working as an Education Consultant around Supporting the Primary Learning Community. The Reception-Year 1 Transition Group of Heads continues to meet. Find out further information on Gail's work on transition on her website.

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