Year 6 transition support

[321pastamaker]

I have just left my secondary school where I have been a SENCO, I have been a teacher for nearly 30 years! I'm now venturing into the world of SEN consultancy and dyslexia specialist tutor. I really know how different primary is to secondary school, especially for our SEN students - it can be a hard transition. I have seen this from when I have visited primary schools for EHCP consultations. I am considering offering transition support. As a parent what would your year 6 child need? As a parent what do you need? I've got some ideas, but want to see what people would like.

I’m not sure what more they need you could provide physically but counselling and identifying their worries and liasing with feeder schools is always helpful but usually the junior sendco’s would facilitate this role.

one of my friends her son is autistic and she would have liked more transition days and they only tend to do one sports afternoon event then a morning and lunch to meet their tutor and so it’s not a lot for a child who struggles with a change of routine.

id say tutoring might be a better route as people always need that but I think the role of transition should be covered bY the schools themselves - unless you had a contract with a secondary to liase with feeder schools and families and meet with them to help with ILP’s perhaps?

@Besidemyselfwithworry thank you for your response I completely agree with you - school transition and handovers should be fully covered by the primary and secondary SENCOs.
Having spent 30 years in education and many as a secondary SENCO, I’ve sat in the yearly transition meetings. What I’ve seen time and again is that while SENCOs care deeply, school capacity and time pressures mean the handover may not be as detailed or tailored as parents hope for or as the child truly needs - especially for students without an EHCP. Secondary schools receive the consultation documentation (from LAs) for children with EHCPs in October/November, it is a thorough process. Schools will receive documentation from primary schools from June onwards and there is a lot to go through!
In my previous school, I made a point of organising extra transition visits and setup a small number of EP-facilitated meetings between the school, parents, and the young person to really dig into their specific worries and outline practical support. But the reality is that level of thoroughness just doesn't happen in every school and can't happen or for every handover.
I can help to support with bridging that gap for what is an anxious time for children and parents alike, as you say by identifying worries and helping to liaise with schools.

@321pastamaker
you sound like you did an amazing job.
I think tho parents won’t want to pay for this and so I’d be looking at potentially getting a contract with the LEA to be a self employed transition support officer perhaps??? If such roles and budgets are available with all the cut backs but sounds a great idea. I wish you all the very best.