Sacred Heart School (TLIF 1-059) - Petone basin transition to school project Publications
Publication Details
The project supported teachers to develop their classroom inquiry project, or innovation as part of a school or early childhood education (ECE) service review, with the focus of each based on the teacher’s reflections about their existing practices. They wanted to find ways to support ECE and primary teachers to collaborate in developing their priority learners and their readiness to learn, learning dispositions and social competencies to improve educational outcomes.
Author(s): (Project leader) Jacqui Pennington (Sacred Heart Petone)
Date Published: February 2019
Introduction
The project asked two key questions:
- How can we ensure that each and every child has a smooth and consistent pathway between ECE and school in the Petone Basin?
- How can current practices in ECE services and schools within the Petone Basin be developed, adapted and shared to ensure successful, coherent transition practices for all children?
The project did not measure student achievement or progress. The ‘space’ for this inquiry was in the borderland between early childhood education centre and school.
Teachers in the Petone Basin learning and change network had identified that approximately 25–35 per cent of the students entered school as priority learners (i.e. after one year their overall teacher judgements (OTJs) were ‘Below’ National Standards) and generally those children remained priority learners for the rest of their time at school. They wanted to change this pattern by improving the transition of priority learners, but knew they would have to overcome the existing barriers to collegial cross-sector communication and effective relationships. Research has identified that these barriers include mistrust, attitudes of superiority of the school sector, differences of pedagogies and notions of curriculums, movement of teachers and a lack of shared professional development.
A common theme underpinning most of the projects stemmed from a concern about supporting children’s continuity of learning. The importance of relationships and communication was confirmed throughout the project, as was an underlying perception that transitions to school were more usefully thought of as a journey and as an event.
This project, and especially the play-based approach, has completely changed how I think about young children’s learning. My whole approach has changed, and I feel more enthusiastic today than I felt when I started teaching.
Project teacher
Inquiry Team
The inquiry project team included people from six schools and early childhood centres:
- Jacqui Pennington — Sacred Heart Petone
- Georgina Frater — Korokoro School
- Shelley Robinson — Petone Beach Kindergarten
- Jane Cox — Alicetown Playcentre
- Nichola Kirkwood — Imagine Childcare
- Helen Kneebone — project administrator
Fifteen other primary schools and early childhood centres, and five home-based centres, also took part in the inquiry.
The project also had support from external advisors:
- Dr Sarah Te One — CORE Education
- Tara Fagan — CORE Education
- Associate Professor Sally Peters — University of Waikato
- Associate Professor Jenny Ritchie — Victoria University
- Maggie Haggerty — Victoria University
- Andrea Jamison — advocate for IHC.
The inquiry
The project used inquiry-based action research and investigated how to establish smooth, coherent and consistent transition to school pathways for all children, but especially priority learners, particularly Māori, Pacific, special education needs and low socio-economic students.
Goals of the inquiry
The purposes of the inquiry were to:
- develop successful and coherent cross-sector practices to best support all children transitioning from ECE services to school in the Petone Basin,
- understand the challenges that children, particularly priority learners, teachers, whānau and wider school communities face when transitioning to school, and
- develop shared professional understandings of curricula and how links between Te Whāriki and the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) can enhance children’s transition from ECE services to school.
Initiatives trialled in the inquiry
The project implemented eight innovations using inquiry-based action research methods.
School-based
- Te Kōhanga: A whānau-focused transition to school programme — five-week transition to school programme that introduced the children and whānau to the school, classroom and each other.
- The Puriri Club: A transition to school programme — sessions run one afternoon a week during school time to allow unhurried interactions between teacher, transitioning children and whānau.
- Moving to Learn: The physicality of learning to read and write — this innovation focused on children’s physical readiness to write (i.e. their core body strength) and questions whether sitting cross legged on the mat was conducive to learning.
- Kia Kaha: Learning through play at school — children spend several periods during the day in play-based learning, instead of the more formal, sitting on the mat, teacher-directed learning.
ECE-based
- The Farewell Letter: Links between Te Whāriki and the NZC — letter written by ECE teacher to new entrant teacher documenting children’s learning using the strands of Te Whāriki alongside the key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum.
- Planning for Success: Support for Priority Learners — the creation of a three-page document that captured the learner’s identity to accompany the profile book the child takes to their new school.
- The Korowai Project: Embedding a ritual for transition — an ECE centre leaving ritual in which the child wears a korowai is repeated in a welcome ritual when the child starts at school.
- How Visits Help: Finding the familiar at school — children have a longer transition to school with much more contact with the school before starting there to give them time to become familiar with it.
Assessment
The data collection tools used in the inquiry were:
- teacher observations,
- interviews with children, whānau, and teachers,
- focus group interviews with community service providers, experts, principals, BOT members, and ECE managers,
- reflective journals, and
- network hui.
The project included ten child case studies (five of whom were priority learners) to investigate the experience of transitioning to school in multiple settings and to evaluate the impact of the innovative practices.
Key findings
There were three overarching themes and three major findings.
Transition is a journey as well as an event
Socially and culturally, turning five is an event for most children and their whānau. Project participants came to understand transition to school as a journey as well as an event.
Relationships matter
The data reflected the fact that relationships matter in the transition process. Connections between the sectors through participating in the project revealed the benefits of working collaboratively to support children and their families during the transition.
Communication matters
Communication is essential, especially for priority learners. Starting the transition process early allows time for teachers in both sectors to clarify any concerns. Starting the process early also allows time for other professionals, for example, special needs teachers involved in the child’s care, to share strategies.
As well as these overarching themes, there were three main findings.
Testing the water
Testing the water is about starting the journey to school, knowing that ‘getting in the water’ is inevitable. The way in which transition to school was conceived, influenced the experience for children and their families.
Teachers working together
Attention to functional, systemic linkages as well as professional partnership and dialogic interactions facilitated transitions for children. Understanding Te Whāriki and the New Zealand Curriculum helped teachers in both sectors appreciate one another’s professional practices.
Finding the familiar
Finding the familiar at school was significant and emphasised the importance of developing a child’s sense of belonging and wellbeing. Routines and rituals associated with starting school were both journeys (several visits and visits between the sectors) and events.
Impacts on students
- Te Kōhanga: A whānau-focused transition to school programme — children developed relationships with others at school, became more relaxed about being there, and both children and adults learned about each other in an environment that fostered trust.
- The Puriri Club: A transition to school programme — children developed confidence and trust in the new learning environment, had a sense of belonging by the time they formally enrolled, and continued to see themselves as capable learners, which meant their learning journey was relatively uninterrupted.
- The Farewell Letter: links between Te Whāriki and the NZ Curriculum — children’s learning needs are more visible, and the primary teacher is able to better understand where the child is at in terms of being in a learning environment and how they might participate or what they might value.
- Planning for success: Support for priority learners — children learned that they were not making the transition alone. They were able to share their thoughts about the transition to school with the new entrant teachers.
- The Korowai Project: Embedding a ritual for transition — wearing a korowai at their ECE farewell and again at their welcome into school creates a connection between ECE centre and school for the child, and recognises that it is a journey they have already started and there are strong links between where they have come from and where they are going.
- How visits help: Finding the familiar at school — having a longer transition to school along with return visits to the ECE centre reinforced their transition as a journey, and was a shift from the child being ‘school ready’ to an approach that considered the children’s emotional wellbeing and a sense of belonging as important.
- Moving to learn: the physicality of learning to read and write — children developed their gross and fine motor skills and stamina, their pencil control improved, along with their ability to work across the midline of their body, to give them the stronger bilateral movement they need for fluent and efficient writing.
- Kia Kaha: Learning to play at school — new children, particularly priority learners, were more confident joining the class, their relationships developed in new ways, based on shared interests, and they became more confident as their diverse skills were celebrated and recognised by their peers.
Impacts on teachers
- Te Kōhanga: A whānau-focused transition to school programme — the relationships the teacher developed with whānau meant parents were more likely to ask questions, and their exchanges became more conversations about how to help their children make the transition.
- The Puriri Club: A transition to school programme — the teacher was able to observe the children during this transition phase and to empower and support the child in their learning.
- The Farewell Letter: links between Te Whāriki and the NZ Curriculum — this created far more opportunities for meaningful dialogue between the two settings that directly related to the child’s early learning and helped the new entrant teachers welcome the children to school in supportive and responsive ways.
- Planning for success: Support for priority learners — this new three-page document allowed the ECE teacher to make meaningful connections between curricula, which gave new entrant teachers a reference point for continuity between ways of learning and well as curriculum outcomes.
- The Korowai Project: Embedding a ritual for transition — this ritual had teachers working together to embed a practice that is a symbol of continuity that also enhanced connections with families, and resulted from the open and mutually respectful relationship between the teachers.
- How visits help: Finding the familiar at school — the teachers are now exploring alternative ways of thinking about preparing children for school than ‘school readiness’ involving literacy, numeracy and managing self.
- Moving to learn: the physicality of learning to read and write — the teacher can now better observe what the child needs to be able to do in order to learn, including options of different furniture that best suits them.
- Kia Kaha: Learning to play at school — the teacher now sees her role as more of a facilitator of the children’s learning during these play-based periods, and uses her observations as the basis for engaging children’s interests and extending them more effectively.
Key implications
During transitions to school, children tend to experience a dramatic change in status. The following guiding principles the project team developed, along with its recommendations for teachers, can facilitate the process for children, their parents and whānau, and for teachers.
- Transitions are a journey and an event — take a long-term view of transitions; start the process early, especially for priority learners; incorporate flexible approaches to transitions as a ‘to and fro’ process.
- Relationships matter — support relationships between all combinations of adult, ECE services, school, child and whānau during the extended time of transition; include community health and social service professionals in discussions about transitions.
- Communication matters — communicate in ways that allow everyone involved to express a point of view about their experience of transitioning.
- Traditions of learning / means of learning / means of assessment — acknowledge the different traditions and means of learning in ECE services and schools; recognise the influence of policy on assessment shared between ECE services and schools during transitions.
- Cultural context matters — respect the cultural contexts and values that the child and his or her whānau brings with them when entering school.
- Structural organisation matters — recognise that ECE services and schools are structured differently, which affects their social organisation and impacts on transition experiences.
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For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader Jacqui Pennington at jacqui@sacredheartpetone.school.nz.
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