Hi Alison,
We’ve done a huge amount of work on this over the past couple of years, particularly with our 5 year olds who are starting school for the first time. In New Zealand there is no cohort entry and these students start anytime in the year after their fifth birthday. This makes it challenging to run the same orientation/transition for these students as for the bulk of each year’s intake, as the majority of them don’t start at the beginning of the school year.
We now have a tailored transition programme for each child that works backwards from their start date. We run orientation sessions for parents twice a year and provide a printed booklet covering all the content. This is complemented by an onboarding micro-site for all families new to the school.
The students themselves have two school visits ahead of their first full day, and a week before the first of these, their teacher visits them at their kindergarten to get to know them in an environment the child is already comfortable in.
It is labour intensive running individual orientation schedules, but has proved hugely beneficial in establishing a connection with families before their children start. It also helps students feel positive about the move to ‘big’ school and gives our teachers much better knowledge of the new students about to join their classrooms as well.
For students joining us further up the school, we refer families to the onboarding micro-site and invite the student to join us for an ‘experience day’ so they get to know their teacher and classmates and can familiarise themselves with the campus.
I hope that’s useful?
Nicola Pentelow
Director of Enrolments
Hereworth School
