School transition days - cancelled

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

Have primary (reception or p1) transition sessions been cancelled where you live?

Our school says this has had to happen on guidance from the council. I just wondered if this is happening nationally or only in our area?

It's such a shame for the children, their needs are being placed at the lowest possible priority and it's just so unfair. Hospital admission rates are barely rising even with the recent rises in cases. It feels like every excuse is going to be made forever to prevent a return to normal for children.

We had one today with about 200 people outside

@Hellocatshome

At the moment my sons Y7 transition fortnight is still going ahead where their new tutor group will be their new bubble and they won't come into contact with the rest of the school allegedly.

Transition fortnight? What? Pandemic aside that’s nuts. Way to pike loads of pressure in exhausted secondary staff after doing all the exam assessment while primary staff do...what?

Transition fortnight? What? Pandemic aside that’s nuts. Way to pike loads of pressure in exhausted secondary staff after doing all the exam assessment while primary staff do...what?

As far as I can tell the yr6s are spending the two weeks with their new tutor, doing normal transition stuff but also identifying gaps in learning (deprived area with some kids having zero engagement with remote learning). The feeder primaries are taking the opportunity to move all their classes up 2 weeks early as well. Not my circus not my monkeys but thats apparently that is what is happening, wether it will or not is a different story.

Our year 6 transition has just been cancelled, but as per a PP the secondary is putting on a week-long summer school for incoming y7s. Same school maybe? Apparently it’s mostly outdoor forest school type stuff, sounds really good. Year 7 will also start a day earlier than the rest of the school in September.

I mind far more that the year 6 residential which was meant to be next week was cancelled this week 😭

In Scotland here and my dd has seen a video from her teacher and a pack of pictures of the lunch room, cloakroom , toilets and classroom. She went for a 10 minute visit last week to see the inside of her classroom and where the toilets are. Over the Easter holidays she was allowed to see the gym room. This is our first child so I have been left in the dark a lot She would normally have had a home visit. There is no slow transitioning here, she will be in full days from the start. Thankfully dd is very excited to go to school and I hope she will thrive. We still don't know if both of us will be allowed to drop her off on her first day.

We weren't allowed to attend her nursery graduation or sports day yet thousands of football supporters could go to Hampden.

So far ours is going ahead
As is school trip

And we are in a national high risk area

Our school has been very good at trying to keep things as normal as possible for the kids.

But I do worry that it does get cancelled as I will have been upset kids.

In the North West in an area of enhanced Covid support. Transition days are all going ahead as planned.

My DS started reception last September and the transition days didn't happen and no visit to his preschool from his teacher, but they have coped. They will be fine because kids are accepting. It would be better if they could have them.

Honestly, I think they will be fine

Ours (reception) have been postponed until September. We are in an area where they are doing surge testing.

DD will have a 2 hour stay and play with me on the Friday, a half day on the following Mon and Tues by herself then full time from the weds.

The reception teacher also visited DD in her preschool a few days ago.

I'm pretty happy with that. The teacher did a zoom call and said there's actually a bit of a benefit with delaying the transition visits because the kids names are on their pegs etc so it's all set up for them and they have a sense of ownership.

Lack of transition will not destroy their little psyches. We do not have "transition days" here in the USA. Parents fill out the paperwork and on the first day of school take their DC by the hand and walk into the school. Hand the completed paperwork to the secretary and are told which room to go to. On the FIRST DAY ONLY, parents can walk their DC to class. Every day afterward, the children are met at the entrance and taken to class by aides.

@Hellocatshome

Missing a transition day is not as bad as not being able to see your mum, even though her health is failing fast or watching your dad die on facetime because you're not allowed in the hospital.

Of course its not and I dont believe anyone has said it is. We arenallowednto be disappointed the children are missing out on yet another thing without it meaning we think its the worst thing to have happened during the pandemic.

That other OP said it was a "dramatic comparison". I don't think that's how I'd look at it. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

I hope it always stays fine for you.

My son started reception last year and all transition stuff was cancelled. We walked past the school a few times in the days leading up to the start so he knew where it was, read books about starting school etc. and that seemed to do the trick. He was absolutely fine, and so were the rest of his class - they don’t know any different at 4 so if the parents don’t make a big deal about it they won’t realise they’ve missed out.

I can see that for secondary school transition is more important but hopefully schools can make something work, even if it is only going back a couple of days before the rest of the school in September for a settling in period (my school did this 25 years ago, with sixth formers to help out, and it seemed to work well).

Honestly, my son was yr 6 last year, his transition day(s) were moved up to the beginning of the school year (a couple of days before the rest of the school came back) and it was kind of perfect that way.

In our school (Hampshire) year R transition is going ahead. They're outside, limited numbers (half the class at a time) and parents wearing masks but teachers aren't. The first session was a few weeks ago, another this week and a third in July. They aren't doing home visits but are doing zoom calls with each family

@Leshan

I'm sure the kids can survive nicely without transition days. Not really essential, are they?

Life isn't just about what is "essential" and what you can "survive" without. I'm sure you would agree if someone took away your car, phone, TV, central heating and carpets. You can "survive" without any of those things, they aren't "essential".

Cancelled here(SE) thankfully they are going to send someone to my child's current school to meet him(he has some sen)

I don't know about the ones coming into reception but what they have done locally for the comp is the day the year 6 go to the comp they have done an inset day for the other kids

So they still get to see the school etc but without the extra kids around

Ah so nobody else is allowed to be disappointed or upset about anything ever again because a stranger they have never met might have lost a parent. Got it.

I don't remember any transition days when mine (aged 10-20) started primary though

Dd is going from year 11 to a6th form in a new school. She’s never seen the inside of the school as all open days were cancelled, there was due to be a trial day next week but that’s been cancelled too.
Yes she’ll survive, no it’s not the end of the world but after the fuck up with the GCSE’s, cancelled school trip & cancelled leaving events it just all feels a bit crap for our poor kids.