Transition Policy

TRULY SCRUMPTIOUS NURSERY Transition Policy

At Truly Scrumptious we understand that starting nursery, moving from one room to another, changing settings or starting school is an exciting time for children, but can also be a challenging and anxious time for both children and their parent/carers. We are committed to putting the needs of the child first whilst working with each other, parents/carers, and other professionals to make transitions as smooth as possible for all concerned.

Children experience many transitions in their early years, and we are sensitive to the difficulty’s children may have whilst going through these transitions.

“Transition should be seen as a process, not an event and should be planned for and discussed with children and parents” (EYFS)

Settling in

We realise having your child start nursery can be an anxious and scary time, so we aim to make the settling in process the most relaxed and smooth transition as possible.

We recommend doing as many “settling sessions” with your child before the child’s start date. A few sessions could be a “stay and play” session where you would stay in the room with you child, get to know the room routine and the members of staff.

This is also a good time to get to know your child’s key person and go over any specific needs of your child, basic home routines, sleep time, feed time, like/dislikes etc.

After a couple of these sessions, we would recommend you leave the child in the room and pop out for a cup of tea, so while staying on the premises should you feel you need to ask any more questions, we are allowing your child to grow confident and form a bond with their key person and other carers within the room.

We would also be happy to accommodate a couple of half day sessions before starting the child off on a full day if you wish.

The nature and personality of the child will dictate how many settling visits are needed- each child is different.

Transition between each room

Although children moving from room to room as they reach a new age group have usually been with us at Truly Scrumptious for some time, we still see this as an important transition for them and feel that it is important that this is planned and carried out in a way that meets the needs of each individual child.

An up-to-date progress report on the child and a “transition form” will be completed by the original key person and handed over to the room leader prior to the child moving over. This information will contain child’s individual routine, likes, dislikes, any additional needs, the child’s developmental goals and next steps etc.

The same process as “settling sessions” when children start nursery will occur when children move on to the next room, the child will have “hour” sessions leading up to the half day sessions in their new room. Once we feel the child is settled and confident in their new room and has formed lovely and strong relationships, we will arrange a parents meeting to introduce the parents to the new key person and show them around the room.

School Transitions

The move from nursery/pre-school to primary school is a huge, important step for both the children and their parent/carers.

On finding out from parents’ which school their child will be attending, either the pre-school room leader or individual key practitioners will contact the schools to arrange a meeting. This would involve the child’s new teacher coming into the setting and meeting the children in their nursery environment and getting to know them.

We also include the discussion of moving to primary school within our daily circle time and get the children involved in a variety of school related activities. We will have some uniform examples displayed to show the children, talk about different activties they may due, including p.e where they may have to change clothes, all of this builds their confidence and independance ready for the new chapter in their life.

Each child’s key practitioner will also complete a detailed transition form including all the areas in which the child has met and completed each area of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and ensure this form along with an up-to-date progress report of the child is sent off to the reception teacher.

Policy reviewed by Hayley Binion- August 2024