Infants to Juniors - help smooth the journey

[ClaireyFairy82]

I am going to be teaching Y3 in a large junior school from September (I have previously only ever taught yr 4/5/6 children but I?m really looking forward to teaching the younger ones). I am keen to make the transition from infant school as easy as possible for my new little pickles, as it can be a difficult experience for many children. Is there anything you wish your school had done or anything they did do to help your children settle in. Any ideas most appreciated.

I have a y2 daughter (and a son in Y6) and for my daughter they are having a few transition events

In a couple of weeks a group of current Y3 children are coming to see them and to talk to them about how they found moving up then in a few weeks the Y2 children are visiting the Y3s in their classrooms and the Y3s are showing them around. In a few more weeks the Y2 children are going back to the junior school and will be having a picnic lunch there then spending the afternoon doing "fun activities" with their teacher for Y3.

When they actually start the juniors they will be using the same exercise books that they had been using in the infant school and there will be a wall display containing some of the work they did in infant school too.

My dds had a year 6 'mentor' to look after them. When they did their visits they spent some time with their mentor and before & after the visit they wrote to them.

One thing our local schools are trying this year is a shared/crossover project - so something they're starting this term in Year 2, and will be finishing in Year 3 at the new school. It's something about who they are, their families, their pets etc - so when they get to the new school there will be a familiar piece of work waiting for them, and they'll already have discussed it with the new teacher, who'll be able to use the project to get to know the children.

My DS3 really struggled with the change last September - but in case there wasn't really anything that could be done about the reasons, which were a bigger class size and fairly grim and dark classrooms (Victorian building as opposed to the more modern and light place he'd left). It just felt different.