Transitions are rarely easy for children, which is where ‘school readiness’ comes in! Transitions are notoriously difficult because they usually involve an element of change and change is difficult. Children experience many different transitions and changes often on a daily basis. Some are common, some less common, some are big whilst others are small.
Transitions can be categorised into vertical or horizontal transitions. Vertical transitions usually refer to a major change to the child’s everyday routine, for example, moving house or starting school for the first time. These can understandably have a big impact on our children and their wellbeing, however, we mustn’t underestimate the impact that smaller transitions, sometimes referred to as horizontal transitions, have. They can include changes in the routine which occur regularly, for example, arrival at the setting, moving between rooms or going from the classroom to the playground.
When supporting children with transitions, we are not just looking at supporting children who are moving to a new phase of life, but also children who are experiencing smaller changes. This could mean they are settling in or leaving a familiar setting, going from home to grandparents and then school everyday or being dropped off and picked up by a nanny or childminder. Or the change could be about them experiencing new things, moving from one part of the day to another or having an unexpected change at home or a sudden change in routine at nursery.
In a recent training course I delivered on transitions, a colleague shared how a child had arrived at her setting really upset because she usually has a vitamin on the way to school and it had fallen on the floor. Her mother said she couldn’t have it and all morning this little girl was out of sorts. This sudden change in her routine was enough to make her dysregulated and upset. One of my favourite quotes is by Daly, Byers and Taylor (2004: 111) who remind us that, “‘Something adults may consider to be a small or insignificant event can be quite traumatic for children.” We need to see our settings and schools through our children’s eyes to see what really matters to them.
School Readiness
One vertical transition children experience is going to school for the first time and whether or not children are ready for school is one of the most talked about issues at this time of year! School readiness also continually hits the headlines and not always for good reasons! We are often bombarded with reports about how a certain percentage of children are not ready for school and it adds lots of pressure to families who are often already feeling stressed!
I personally do not like the term “school readiness” despite having written a book with that phrase in the title! In fact it was my negative response to this term that encouraged me to use it – this is because I wanted to spark a debate about what school readiness means and claim the phrase in a more appropriate way, keeping children central to the transition.
There is no nationally-recognised definition of school readiness in England even though it is stated as the purpose of the EYFS (DfE, 2024) and school readiness means different things to different people, for example, if you teach in a reception class, being school ready may be a child who can independently take themselves to the toilet or select resources, whereas if you are a parent, you may want your child to be emotionally resilient enough to leave you for the whole day prior to starting school.
