TRANSITION at Wrenbury Primary School

B Cador: December 2017

TRANSITION at Wrenbury Primary School

At Wrenbury Primary school, we see our school being part of a child's whole educational journey.
Before a child arrives at Wrenbury, the EYFS lead works closely with Wrenbury Pre-school, a charity run early years setting on the school site.

All our new starters in EYFS in the past two years have come through this external provider.

Transition into EYFS 2 involves:

EYFS school staff visiting Pre-school to share stories, initially, to become a familiar face.

Pre-schoolers visit our EYFS setting in the summer term for a series of organised visits. The visits allow the pre-schoolers the opportunity to 'get to know' the school's EYFS teacher and TA better and the EYFS area within the school. Each visit has a particular focus: communication, literacy, maths, creative or knowledge of the world.

Two additional extended visits which take place in the second half of the summer term; a morning visit and an afternoon visit. The latter includes all pre-schoolers experiencing lunchtime in the school hall with the rest of the school.

Observations made during the visits and professional dialogue between the staff of both the pre-school setting and the school's EYFS team assists a smooth transition for their starting points and supported by the NFER baseline.

Buddying up Y5 children with the pre-schoolers. Both the EYFS teacher and Y5 teacher are involved in choosing the right buddy for each pre-schooler. They meet to read/play with their pre-schooler buddy during the visits.Parents are invited to school in the summer term and given an insight into the EYFS child's experience at school. The presentation involves current EYFS children who model for parents how children in EYFS come into school, put away their belongings, register, choose their lunch, prepare for lunch including the routine for going into the hall and eating lunch and a tour of the setting.

Parents being invited to observe a phonics lesson in the second week of children starting school (September) followed by their new starters pastoral meeting at the end of September.

Transition into Y1 involves:
Meetings between the EYFS teacher and the Y1 teacher (where there is a change of teacher) to share information on the whole child: academic and wellbeing. Where the GLD has not been met or a child is at exceeding at the end of EYFS this is used to inform next steps into Y1.

Transition from KS1 into KS2 involves:
Meetings between the Y2 teacher and the Y3 teacher to share information on the whole child: academic and wellbeing. Where a child has not met the expected or has achieved greater depth at the end of Y2, discussion focusses on what the child can do and the child's next steps.

Transition from KS2 into KS3 involves:
. -Meetings between the high schools (Malbank / Brine Leas) and school taking place in the Spring term to discuss SEND children and children who may find transition to high school emotionally challenging. Arrangements are put in place to offer extended transition opportunities; these are during the summer term for morning sessions.

High school teachers coming into school to discuss individual Y6 children's projected attainment and background information around the child to provide support at high school as necessary.

Feeder high school literacy teachers teaching a lesson of literacy and looking at children's written work prior to starting at the high school.

Feeder high school science teachers teaching a lesson of science to Y6 to engage the children with KS3 science.

One or two transition days to high school (depending on high school) in summer term once a place has been allocated.

Brine Leas high school invite parents and Y6 children to an evening meeting to meet with their form tutor and their progress group.

A 'new family to school evening' during the summer term to allow an opportunity for parents, pupil and staff to meet and questions to be raised to secure transition

This allows children at Wrenbury to be 'high school ready' by the time they leave the school at end of 6.

The learning journey through Wrenbury:

Once a child has started their learning journey at Wrenbury and being part of a small school, they are given many opportunities to engage with and get to know all the staff. Weekly well-being lunch clubs for all our children from YR-Y6 enable staff to get to know children beyond their teaching and learning year group. Transition meetings take place at the end of each year as the children move through school. Focus is based on the progress of the child during the year, their strengths and areas that may need support in the forthcoming year. In some cases, children are taught by the same teacher for more than one year or the teaching assistant moves up with the children for a consecutive year to provide continuity for the children and to secure their well-being. Alongside this, regular work moderations at the start of staff meetings allows all teachers to have clarity of where a child is academically and what the expectations are for that child as they move through school (continuity and progression) allowing for a seamless transition year on year.