Who Is Helping Your SEND Pupils Handle Their Primary/Secondary Transitions?
The move from primary school to secondary school is a daunting one for all children, but for children with special needs, the step can be a particularly anxious time for both the child and their parents. A good strategy can help make the transition for your more vulnerable children less traumatic and more exciting. By […]
- by Meriel Bull
The move from primary school to secondary school is a daunting one for all children, but for children with special needs, the step can be a particularly anxious time for both the child and their parents.
A good strategy can help make the transition for your more vulnerable children less traumatic and more exciting. By ensuring that your strategy includes the input and skills of TAs, parents and the secondary SENCo (or SENCos, depending on the number of schools your setting feeds to) it will be high in impact and less of a burden on you alone. Sharing tasks with other primary SENCos feeding to the same schools can ease the process yet further.
Pen portraits
While a SENCo’s main focus will always on children with SEND, there may be other children who will struggle with adapting to a new environment, so liaise with class teachers to get a clear list of children in need of extra transition activities. Working with class teachers and TAs, put together pen portraits that outline each child’s needs and personality. This will help you identify the factors of transition they will most need support with.
Good communication with parents is essential for maintaining an effective working relationship – something that will be especially appreciated when preparing for transition. Organise an event (no later than the end of the spring term) that all parents of those children identified will be invited to attend. If possible, secure the attendance of the secondary SENCo, or arrange for another member of their learning support team to attend on their behalf if needs be. Present to the assembled parents the planned activities for transition and additional strategies you have prepared, then invite questions that they can put to yourself and/or the secondary representative(s).
Secondary SENCos will likely welcome the chance to discuss the children they will be responsible for; the aforementioned pen portraits can form the basis of transitional activities you develop together to ensure that each child is appropriately supported.
Utilise the skills of your team by assigning a TA as a ‘transition coordinator’, and see if the secondary SENCo can link one of their TAs to your school in return. Visits by TAs between both schools will help to establish a sense of continuity and familiarity for the children. Try arranging a couple of informal tours of the secondary school before the main induction days, giving the children and parents a chance to look around when the school is quiet and start getting acquainted with the new school environment. This will also provide children and parents with an opportunity to ask questions of the secondary SENCo or their TAs and begin building a relationship with them.
A second tour during the day – maybe around lunchtime – will allow the children to have their new school’s routine explained to them in more detail, and perhaps even the chance to try it for themselves.
Join the club
A regular transition nurture group or lunchtime club will provide further opportunities for a TA from the secondary school to come in and chat to the children regarding any fears or excitement they might feel about changing school. Having the TA offer reassurance about issues relating to bullying and explain who will be there to help in the new school will help to calm the children’s worries.
You could also use these sessions to create transitional aids, such as a scrapbook containing photos taken from the children’s school tours. These could then provide discussion prompts regarding new lunchtime arrangements, the secondary’s key members of staff, what the toileting arrangements will involve, the location of recreational areas and other details.
Floorplans could be coloured in to reflect subject areas. Mock timetables combined with map reading games can help the children begin to understand how they will find their own way between lessons, and the responsibility they will have for preparing for the right lessons each day and bringing the correct equipment with them.
Pictorial prompts showing items such as science lab equipment can be exciting, but for children you might have identified as dependent or less organised, a pictorial ‘Things to pack in my bag’ poster they can keep at home may be invaluable.
Homework will be a worry too, so encourage good habits early on to minimise issues later. This might include using a homework diary or planner; completing work the day it’s set; a willingness to find out about homework clubs; and knowing who they need to speak to if there’s something they don’t understand.
Orientation activities
The children’s journeys to school can be looked at with the aid of local maps and the use of a storyboard template. An organised walk from the primary school to the secondary school will help to develop their awareness of location, as well as their road safety skills. Find out how each child plans to get to school and discuss travel training with their parents as appropriate. If they can make the journey safely themselves, this will build up both their independence and their selfesteem.
Before you know it, the summer term will have slipped away and your year 6 children will have become year 7 students. They will likely get lost a few times, perhaps get into trouble for forgetting a piece of homework and may well initially miss the smaller primary school setting.
Thanks to your prepared strategies, however, these sorts of issues will hopefully be kept to a minimum. By half term, chances are they’ll have firmly settled in to their new routines, made new friends and be enjoying the range of opportunities now available to them. This is a great time for reflecting on what worked well during their transition, what you would do differently and what could have been better
Finally, consider asking the secondary school whether your recently departed pupils might be able to send letters or posters to your incoming year 6 children based around the theme ‘What I wanted to know before I started secondary school’. Peer advice carries credibility, and presents a lovely opportunity for you to find out how they’re getting on.
Transition checklist
- Identify those children who will need extra transition support, and assemble pen portraits that can be shared with the SENCo at their new school
- Meet with parents to discuss their fears, thoughts and ideas for transition
- Arrange for additional secondary school visits during and outside working hours for the children, their parents and TAs so they can get start getting familiar with their new learning environment
- Appoint TAs as transition coordinators to provide familiarity and continuity for the children
- Create scrapbooks using photos from said visits to remind the children visually of key areas such as form rooms, toilet facilities, dining halls and recreation areas
- Use maps of the new school and the surrounding area for orientation activities
- Prepare independence aids such as ‘What goes in my bag?’ charts
- Arrange for your former pupils to send transition advice letters during their first autumn term
- Evaluate your transition activities each year, so as to improve the experience of the next intake
About the author
Meriel Bull is a qualified SENCo and has taught in the West Midlands and Norfolk for over 12 years.
