Frequently Asked Questions

What is Transition: A Positive Start to School?

Transition: A Positive Start to School is a Victorian Government initiative.

To support a positive start to school for all children, a common Victorian approach has been developed to guide families, early childhood services and schools. It outlines what they can expect when participating in local transition-to-school programs and provides a shared understanding between early childhood services and schools about what is important for children and their families during this pivotal time.

The initiative also introduces a tool for families and educators to share information about a child’s learning and development in the form of a Transition Learning and Development Statement.

What is a Transition Learning and Development Statement?

The Transition Learning and Development Statement (the Statement) supports the consistent transfer of information, irrespective of the school a child is going to. It provides an opportunity for children, their families and the professionals working with them to contribute and have their views reflected in it.

The information in the Statement:

• summarises the strengths of a child’s learning and development
• identifies their individual approaches to learning and their interests
• indicates how the child can be supported to continue learning.

The Statement provides, for the first time, a common format for providing information to families about children’s learning and development in early childhood.

The information in the Statement helps Prep teachers to get to know the children entering their classes before they start and to plan curriculum to support each child’s learning and development when they start school.

The Statement also links to other initiatives that support transitions - such as the Sharing Our Journey process for children with additional needs - to provide a cohesive approach to transition for all children moving into the first year of school.

Why are we documenting children’s learning and development in this new way?

Early childhood educators and teachers already document children’s learning in many ways. The introduction of the Transition Learning and Development Statement may be the first time they share this information more formally and consistently with families and other educators. The Statement makes children’s learning and development visible at the point of entry to school to both families and professionals working with them in the school environment.

The common format of the Statement supports the consistent transfer of information, irrespective of the school a child is going to, or where a child has come from.

The Statement reflects the five learning outcomes of the Victorian Framework, which underpin all early childhood professionals’ approaches to planning for children’s learning and development and help to build a common language for families and educators.

Will all children get a Transition Learning and Development Statement?

In February 2008, the Premier stated that “End of Year Transition Statements will be introduced for all kinder students by the end of 2009”. Consequently, since 2009 early childhood services offering a funded kindergarten program (whether this is in a long day care setting or stand-alone kindergarten) have been required to provide Transition Learning and Development Statements for all children commencing school the following year.

It is important that all Victorian children are supported to make a successful transition to school, whether they are making the transition directly from home or via early years services. Consequently, the new transition resources are available to all early childhood services, early childhood intervention services, outside school hours care services, schools (government, independent and catholic) and families.

Educators working in early childhood services are encouraged and supported to offer a Statement for any child in their care as they make the transition to school the following year.

Educators working with children attending a funded kindergarten program in another service are encouraged to contribute to this process. These educators should work with individual families to identify the best way to do this. This may involve:

•         the preparation of additional material, or

•         an additional Statement (i.e. the child could have a Statement from each educator)

that could be attached to/incorporated into the Statement prepared by the early childhood educator in the funded kindergarten program.

School staff are also encouraged to work with families to complete Part 1: the family of the Statement for their child if they are enrolled without one.

Who coordinates the Transition Statement with long day care, family day care, etc?

Early childhood educators in funded kindergarten programs are best placed to coordinate the Statement. Children may also be attending other early childhood services that will want to contribute to this process, such as long day care, family day care or occasional care services.

Many early childhood educators have great relationships with other services involved with a child (which may include early intervention, educators in long day care services, family day care services, occasional case services, kindergarten preschool field officers and other support workers). Where these arrangements are in place, professionals are encouraged to work together to complete the Statement.

Services that don’t have these arrangements in place are encouraged to work with families to discuss the inclusion of any additional information. This may involve educators in other services preparing additional information or an additional Statement being attached and forwarded to the school.

Who fills out the document for a child attending special school or early intervention program?

Early childhood educators in funded kindergarten programs are best placed to coordinate the statement.

However, in some cases it may be more appropriate for another early childhood professional to coordinate the Statement (e.g. when a child is spending a significant amount of time in an early intervention service or with an identified support worker). In these circumstances a discussion should be held with the family and an agreement reached between all parties about who should coordinate the Statement.

If the person who is nominated to coordinate the statement is not the educator in the funded kindergarten program, that individual is still encouraged to provide information for inclusion in the Statement.

Is the Transition Learning and Development Statement the same thing as a kindergarten report card?

The Transition Learning and Development Statement is not a report card. It is designed to be a descriptive document written about a child’s individual strengths and achievements. The Statement has been developed to provide valuable information for families and schools, particularly Prep teachers, to help them build relationships, identify how children can best be supported as they transition into school and plan appropriate learning programs.

The information provided in the Statements will not be used to grade children or compare them to a ‘benchmark’, ‘norm’ or ‘standard’.

How does the Transition Learning and Development Statement link to all the other information collected about a child?

It is important to recognise that while the Transition Learning and Development Statement will contain a significant amount of information about a child, there are a number of services and settings that collect information about a child’s learning and development throughout the first eight years of their life.

Prior to school assessments are undertaken by services that include, but are not limited to, Maternal and Child Health services and Early Childhood Intervention services. These assessments address the specific needs of the child and their family at various points throughout early childhood.

In addition, a number of assessments take place when children enter school. These include, but are not limited to, the School Entrant Health Questionnaire and the English and Mathematics Online Interviews. These assessments provide the opportunity for teachers to find out more about each child, their abilities and interests and play a role in assisting the school and Prep teachers to understand the learning and development needs of each child.

The Statement provides relevant, timely information from early childhood educators and families to schools. The timing of the Statement – in most cases provided to schools at the end of the year prior to the child starting school – means that the information contained in it gives schools insights into the child’s learning and development before they have entered Prep.

Together, the Statement and all the other information collected about an individual child, provides a strong foundation from which the Prep teacher can plan effectively to support the continuity of each child’s learning and development.

Can I ask a parent/guardian to sign the consent section before I provide them with a copy of the completed Transition Learning and Development Statement?

No. The Transition Learning and Development Statement has been designed to align with the requirements of privacy legislation. In order for the parent/guardian to provide consent they need to review the completed Transition Learning and Development Statement.

How can a Prep teacher gain permission to contact the Early Childhood Educator who prepared the document? Is this is a matter of consent between parents and school?

If the early childhood educator has selected ‘yes’ to the statement ‘Early childhood educator requests opportunity to discuss this information further with prep teacher’ on the consent page of the Statement—and the family has provided consent—this indicates they would like to discuss the child further with the Prep teacher. If consent is given on the statement, the Prep teacher does not need to seek additional consent from the parent/guardian before contacting the early childhood educator.

Where this has not occurred, or where the child has no Statement, the school needs to gain permission from the parent or legal guardian to discuss any additional personal information about the child. It is preferable that this permission is provided in a written format and kept with the child’s record at the school.

If a child leaves the kinder during the year do we have to prepare a Transition Statement when they leave?

Services offering a funded kindergarten program are expected to provide Statements for children as they transition into school. If a child leaves the kindergarten program prior to the period in which the Statements are being prepared, early childhood educators are encouraged to discuss the child’s learning and development with the family before they leave. The Statement may provide a useful tool to frame these discussions and provide written information to the family about their child’s learning and development, or to the service the child may attend in the future.

Can I change the format of the Transition Learning and Development Statement?

No. The Transition Learning and Development Statement has been designed to align with the requirements of privacy legislation and therefore the style and format cannot be altered or locally adapted.

I was not able to attend the training for writing and interpreting the Transition Learning and Development Statement – what should I do?

The training has been converted to an online video that is available for view or download free of charge on the FUSE website. See: Professional Development

Is there an exemption policy for Transition Statements?

All services with a funded four-year-old kindergarten program are required to provide a Transition Statement for all children starting Prep the following year.

At times, services may encounter the following circumstance with respect to staffing that may impinge on completing Transition Statements:

• Recent resignation of a qualified staff member.
• Qualified staff member away on leave (sick, maternity, etc).
• Having difficulty recruiting to a position or multiple staff members in the role over a period of time.

In the ‘context of the early years setting’ section of Part 2: the early childhood educator of the Transition Statement, the:

• staffing circumstance should be noted
• period of time the relief/temporary/new staff person has worked at the service specified, and that the
• information contained in the Transition Statement has been prepared on the basis of existing records and observations recently made, highlighted.

In the case of multiple staff members over a period of time (i.e. no clear person responsible), or where a staff member has, for whatever reason, been unable to access previous records for the children, the service still needs to provide a Transition Statement for each eligible child and should consider how best to manage this given their specific circumstance.  Possible approaches could be to:

• seek the assistance of another staff member who has spent a longer time with the children (e.g. an assistant) in writing and/or coordinating the Transition Statements, under the guidance of a qualified educator.
• discuss with the local schools, a later date for forwarding the Transition Statements as there is no ‘deadline’ for writing and forwarding Transition Statements, so local arrangements can be tailored to meet local circumstances.

The result may be that a shorter than usual Transition Statement is prepared.  However, this may not always be the case if observations and good records have been kept regularly and over time.