Preparing Children for School—Benefits and Privileges

Abstract

THE IMPORTANCE OF carefully planned transition programs for children commencing school has been advocated in the literature. These programs should be based on sound principles of transition and reflect the voices of parents, preschool and school staff, and children. A variety of practices exists, and children's participation in transition programs also varies. This paper reports a study about the participation of children and their parents in different transition activities, differences in this participation by child gender and family demographics, and the relationship between participation in different numbers of these activities and children's adjustment to the first year of school. Results indicate significant benefits of participation in high numbers of transition activities for teacher-rated social and academic competence for children. Children's adjustment to school also appeared to differ for particular cohorts of the population. The challenge is to take these findings and translate them into the public good to maximise benefits to all children rather than those already experiencing sociocultural privilege.

Validation of a Social Emotional School Readiness Scale in Iranian Children

“…To further explore the nature of Social-emotional school readiness with individual clients, we believe that the four subscales are good vehicles for further discussion. In the process of discussion and exploration, we agree with Blair and Raver (2015), Dockett and Perry (2005) and Margetts (2007) assumptions that successful transitions to school are based substantially on social skills and are facilitated by responsive relationships. Since the transition to school could be viewed as an individual's readiness to be involved in the process in children's lives (Denham, 2006), the impact of children's emotions and social relationships on later schooling and attainment, this is an important area to study and needs further examination.…”

“…This scale, which was developed in South Africa, incorporates four subscales (self-regulation, self-awareness, social relationships and coping). This concept is a relative term that is socially and culturally constructed, and perceptions of it differ from community to community (Grace & Brandt, 2005;Margetts, 2002Margetts, ,2007. The only assessment instruments created in Iran, have been developed to measure the construct of school readiness, including home to school transition inventory (Sadeghi, Motamedi, & Vkilizadeh, 2016) which contains subscales(anxiety and incompatibility).…”

Teachers’ Views on the Participation of Parents in the Transition of their Children from Kindergarten to Primary School

“…The level of parenting is believed to have a great impact on educational outcomes and is a determining factor in the child's future development and well-being. Furthermore, many studies have shown that there is a remarkable relationship between family's income and socio-economic situation, and the achievement of school literacy and thus the smooth transition of children to Primary school [37,[40][41][42].…”

“…Parents know their children well and can make a valuable contribution to a transition program. This could be done by inviting parents to participate in the program [42,46] to include their opinions on the design and operation of the program [47] and to share ideas and information about their children's transition.…”

“…Teachers believe that joint meetings of kindergarten teachers and primary school teachers with parents are extremely useful before the beginning of the school year. Mutual support between the parents in both Kindergarten and Primary School is also pointed out as a good practice of transition in this survey since parents expressing their own concerns, problems and expectations has much to offer [42,46,51].…”