Transition to Primary and Secondary School
The move from kindergarten to primary school and then primary to secondary school create big changes in your child’s life, development and education.
The following provides useful information to help with these transitions and to make the time as stress free as possible for you and your child:
Transition to primary school
To help share information about your child’s development, a Transition Learning and Development Statement will be given to you and your child’s new school by your child’s kindergarten teacher.
Transition Learning and Development Statement
The transition statement will be developed by your child’s early childhood educator and will summarise your child’s learning and development before they start school, as well as his or her strengths and interests. You will be asked to tell the school more about your child and give your perspective by completing Part 1, the family section of the Statement.
For more information, see: Transition Learning Statement
Transition-to-School programs
Transition-to-school activities help you and your child get a better understanding of what school will be like. Most importantly, they allow families to familiarise themselves with school staff, other families and children.
Within your local area, links between schools and child care centres or kindergartens may be organised through:
- visits by children between early childhood services and schools
- family information sessions
- visits by teachers to early childhood services
- exchanging information about a child’s learning and development
- early childhood educators, school teachers and other professionals participating in local transition networks
- an orientation day at the new school
- a ‘buddy’ system with older school children to help Prep children have a welcoming experience from the very beginning.
For further information about transition-to-school programs, contact the school your child is enrolled in or your child’s child care centre or kindergarten.
More information
For information on preparing your child for primary school, see: Welcome to Primary School
For information on your child’s orientation day, contact your child’s new school.
Transition to Secondary School
After the familiar surroundings of primary school, the move to secondary school will be both an exciting and perhaps daunting time for both you and your child.
Secondary school is the next stage in your child’s educational journey. Your child will be challenged to learn to their full potential and build pathways for their future careers. They will be in bigger classrooms and will be learning a variety of new subjects from multiple teachers.
To help students adjust, primary and secondary schools work together to ease students through the transition period. Often, secondary students revisit their old primary school to tell Year 6 students what secondary school is like. This can also be taken a step further with the buddy system, where secondary students are teamed up with primary school students and regularly meet face-to-face or communicate by email.
Steps are also taken to prepare children for the different teaching methods of secondary schools. Many primary schools have a team of teachers working with Year 5 and 6 students, so students become familiar with working with a range of teachers rather than just one. Teachers from secondary schools also often visit local primary schools to take small groups for lessons or to talk about secondary school.
To ensure a smooth transition some secondary schools offer learning environments similar to primary schools. These secondary schools often have a designated area for Year 7 students including one large multipurpose classroom. A team of teachers will work with the students rather than individual subject teachers. This allows the students and teachers to become familiar with each other.
Thanks to these transition arrangements between primary and secondary schools, most students settle very quickly into secondary school life.
Orientation days at secondary schools
As part of the transition from Year 6 to Year 7, students in government secondary schools participate in an orientation day. All government schools hold this orientation day on the same day (often the second Tuesday of December). It may include a school tour, meeting fellow students and teachers, and taking part in special lessons and activities.
More information
For information on preparing your child for secondary school, see: Welcome to Secondary School
For information on your child’s orientation day, contact your child’s new school.