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Transition Records


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A question for reception class teachers please......

 

At point of transfer from pre-school/nursery what information is most useful to you and in what format?

 

In my area - Kent - we have used a 'Record of Transfer' document - this has now been phased out - could still use a version of this but I'm interested to hear your views - I'm sure I am not alone in thinking that I don't want to spend a lot of time producing reams of paperwork that are of no interest/value to you!

 

Sunnyday

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Hear hear!

 

I've been told in the past, quite openly, that our local school didn't even look at what we sent, they just stuck it in the filing cabinet

Thanks Cait - I have asked our local reception teacher how she would like info. presented and she said ......... are you sitting down ......... "Oh I only looked at the colours anyway" - I have to laugh or I would certainly cry - in years gone by I have spent hours and hours trying to convey an accurate picture of the children that I am passing on to her!

 

Sunnyday

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sunnyday I am in Kent and I visit the pre schools before my new children start and we certainly do use the ROT and also when we do home visits we refer to these.

 

We want to see the whole child before they start school and cannot do this without looking at the ROT.

 

What a shame your reception teacher is so blinkered!

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sunnyday I am in Kent and I visit the pre schools before my new children start and we certainly do use the ROT and also when we do home visits we refer to these.

 

We want to see the whole child before they start school and cannot do this without looking at the ROT.

 

What a shame your reception teacher is so blinkered!

Emilia - thank you so much for your reply.

 

I hope that none of the teachers reading this feel that I am 'having a go' - that is certainly not my intention - I just really would like to know what would be helpful and what you would consider a 'waste of paper/time'!

 

Our reception teacher does visit pre-school and I think we have some useful discussions. She has commented in the past that she thinks I 'grade' too high (terrible grammar sorry) - I think that just shows that they are/were very comfortable with us and are/were performing/progressing well and that there is inevitably a period of 'settling in' needed when they start Primary and that they can't show what they can 'do' until they have gone through this process.

 

Sunnyday

Edited by sunnyday
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I'm going on a course

"The Unique child" on 18th May in Maidstone

It's all about what Kent are going to use instead of the Kent ROT

 

See if you can go....

Should give you some good ideas and a chance to talk to FS teachers to find out what they want in your local area.

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Reading these comments it has made me realise how fortunate I am to work in a Foundation Stage Unit- I have daily contact with the children who come to me in Reception- I do use the records that are sent to me with regards to where the children are in terms of ability and I also know about the progress that has been made previously and individual needs-if I wasnt part of a unit I would say send up your all of your records so they get a picture of 'the whole child'.

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I'm going on a course

"The Unique child" on 18th May in Maidstone

It's all about what Kent are going to use instead of the Kent ROT

 

See if you can go....

Should give you some good ideas and a chance to talk to FS teachers to find out what they want in your local area.

Hiya Riverview - have already been on that training - even the tutors were unhappy with the ideas given for records at point of transfer - wonder if it has been 'modified' at all - we were in the first group to be trained and the tutors had only received the training package the evening before!

 

Will be really interested to hear what you think of it.

 

Sunnyday

Edited by sunnyday
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Reading these comments it has made me realise how fortunate I am to work in a Foundation Stage Unit- I have daily contact with the children who come to me in Reception- I do use the records that are sent to me with regards to where the children are in terms of ability and I also know about the progress that has been made previously and individual needs-if I wasnt part of a unit I would say send up your all of your records so they get a picture of 'the whole child'.

Thanks heidiho - couldn't send all records - would be far too much.

 

Reception teacher has had a look through some of our 'Learning Journey' folders and said "these must take ages, do you really need to do so much work"?

 

I am thinking I may just send photocopies of 'Summative Assessments' (with parental permission, of course) - what do you think? Would that be helpful?

 

Sunnyday

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Hi

 

We had that discussion with our main feeder preschool a little while a go as the previous transfer sheet has been phased out. We didn't want to give them any extra work to do and felt that if we could borrow their scrap books that would give us a clear picture of where the children are and also where they have come from. We certainly value anything that our pre-schools tell us or give us. :o

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Generally, Reception Teachers visit us before they receive any new children in September or January. This is not always the case because we may only have one or two leaving and if teachers cannot get time off to visit they do not come.

 

We have always done an RoT which took quite some effort to do but were never sure if it was read or acted upon. At my training session with My Unique Story, we were told that Kent had dispensed with the RoT because we had all moaned about it so much and had replaced it with the bar graph to be sent to primary schools informing them about the age group we were planning activities for for each child, if we wanted to add in any way to this bar graph it had to be counter-signed by a parent/carer.

 

We all countered this remark with - of course we moaned, but we all felt that if needed to be done, it might not have been how we would individually choose to do it, given the chance, but as a pro forma it worked well enough.

 

Some practitioners were upset that we were doing all the work on scrap books and photos and observations etc. and it all ended up with a bar graph, and having to rely upon parent/carers to take in their childs scrapbook to the teacher to see - could they be trusted!!

 

We now propose to do the scrap book system - not too disimilar from what we had done in the past anyway, do the summative assessments every 12 weeks and discuss with parents, and keep these assessments together in the scrap book for Reception Teacher to see how an individual child progressed during their time at pre-school and the kinds of interests they had. I cannot possibily see how a Reception Teacher could be expected to read through 30 odd scrap books - all differently laid out because they come from a variety of settings - not very practical.

 

Regardless of what we pre-school practitioners do, Reception Teachers are quite able to make their own minds up about their new pupils needs pretty quickly, children with very specific needs should have a formal transition meeting with anyone who needs to give input.

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Anerspm if I have 30 children coming into my class that means 30 home visits, 30 sets of parents interivews and 30 Learning Journals to read! The EYFS now makes it clear to us that each child is unique, we have always treated each child as an individual, so therefore important for us to get to know the rounded child. during the first 4 or 5 weeks we make observations and begin slowly to see the child you had in pre school. Transition to school can be very easy for some and very difficult for others I see it as my role and that of my TA to enable each child to settle well into class even if that means reading 30 ROT.

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Hi Emilia, I am so pleased that you go to so much trouble to get the complete picture, I fear, however, not everyone is as dedicated as you and your TA obviously are - as we can read from posts numbered 2 and 3, some teachers only ever looked at the colour bands or filed the RoTs.

 

As Key Workers in a pre-school, we put in an enormous amount of time and effort outside of pre-school hours to keep records up to date to enable us to supply relevant information and it is rewarding to know that there are some teachers out there that appreciate that and use that information well. I hope that the parents do take their Childrens Development books to the schools and I for one will be encouraging them to do so as much as possible.

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