WalesOnline, 7th June 2020
Professor Chris Taylor is quoted in the article:
“Much of the research on transitions says that it is the familiarisation with high school that is important – knowing where to go, who the teachers are, how work is organised, how much homework there will be, will they get their bags thrown down the toilets.
“Parents’ concerns about Year Six tend to on the social aspects of saying goodbye.
“Good transition arrangements week usually involve the sharing of lots of information about pupils from primary to their secondary schools.
“But this is only as good as the information the primary schools have about pupils. Much of this work will already be underway using remote methods.
“The second part of successful transition is getting children to attend the secondary schools before the summer holidays and delivering programmes of introductions and activities.
“This has the benefit of preventing anxiety from building over the summer ahead of the new academic year.
“I would hope that schools can still deliver some of these arrangements before the end of July. The challenges will be how to liaise with other schools on these arrangements and what to do with those children who do not return to primary school before the summer.
“Perhaps other arrangements will need to be out in place during the summer.
“My advice to parents will be to encourage them to take up any transition opportunities made available to them.
“There is little parents can do to compensate for this, other than to keep having conversations over the summer about the transition, helping to address any anxiety that might arise.
“The children themselves may not really start worrying about this until during the late summer. But my point is that it could be too late by then. Better to consider these issues now while there are systems and expertise in place to help.”