IN THE CONTEXT OF LIMITED DISCUSSION on what globalisation means for families, this paper aims to foster discussion by exploring the cultural implications of globalisation for parenting in immigrant families. It argues that in a global context, the parenting practices of immigrant families are likely to be hybridised as they try to adapt to the cultural differences in parenting in their host country. The cultural perspectives of globalisation and cultural integration, and the published literature on immigrant parenting, are used in support of this discussion. The notion of hybridised parenting emerges with important consequences for children's development and early childhood practices.

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ThE STuDy on WhICh this paper is based explored Bangladeshi parents' perceptions of children's transition to school. The paper reports on the data obtained from interviews with 10 parents living in Sydney, Australia, on their children's experiences when beginning school. According to the parents, friendships with peers who share a similar cultural or linguistic background and support from school teachers facilitated their children's positive adjustments to school, whereas limited or lack of proficiency in English conversational skills hampered a few of their children's adjustments to school. Parents also outlined the role of families, school teachers, and educators in childcare settings in enabling Bangladeshi children's smooth transition to school.

PARENTAL CONCERNS FOR THE safety of their children with food allergy greatly increase once they reach ‘school age’, yet those concerns have not been investigated to date, despite the increasing attendance of children with food allergy in schools in Australia and globally. This pilot study explored 10 affected Australian mothers' feelings and perspectives of their children's transition to school. The results from Photo Elicitation Interviews revealed that mothers were anxious, concerned about their children's safety, and they perceived food allergy risks to be comparatively greater in schools than in prior-to-school settings, especially in the school playground. Mothers had a myriad of concerns relating to trusting and transferring the responsibility for their children's safety to school staff, as well as to the children themselves. Additionally, they were concerned about other parents' negative attitudes towards food allergy or affected children and families, and normalising children's school life with food allergy. Although based on a small sample, the findings have important implications for educators to ease parental anxiety and facilitate their child's positive start to school.

This study aimed to examine views, concerns and expectations of immigrant Bangladeshi parents and children in Sydney concerning transition to kindergarten (the first year of school). This study builds on the previous work of the Starting School Research Project at the University of Western Sydney by: • deriving data from families and children for whom English is not the first language; and • exploring the transitional experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children from prior-to-school to school settings. Ten parents and four children were interviewed on the topic of transition to school. In particular, parents were asked to indicate their concerns and expectations that would assist schools in meeting the needs of Bangladeshi children and would make transition to school a positive experience for all concerned. The results revealed issues specific to families and children of non-English-speaking background regarding transition to school.