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Independent education consultant Sejal Payne shares ways to ensure children and families with EAL experience high quality transition to the next stage of development

by Sejal Payne on June 28

7 min read

In this article, Sejal Payne reflects on the importance of positive transitions for young children and families with EAL, and provides strategies settings can use to support them.

 

Supporting young children and families with EAL with transitions

By school age, children will have experienced various emotional and environmental transitions in family life as well as in education settings.  Research indicates that ‘transition is stressful for children, just as it is for adults, and the resulting stress can have a far-reaching impact on children’s emotional well-being and academic achievements.’ (All about Transitions, The Early Years Foundation Stage, Primary National Strategy, 2007)

Whether it is babies experiencing transition in feeding, or toddlers adjusting to a new baby, or starting nursery, or moves within a setting, to starting school – all these processes bring a sense of unfamiliarity , instability, and uncertainty.

Providing a high-quality transition ensures that the children and families experience smooth, positive, and successful moves onto the next stage of development.

‘Children who are settling (at any age) do best when transition is made a priority.’ (Ros Bayley and Sally Featherstone, Smooth Transitions, 2005)

Our approaches and attitudes towards transition inform our policies and practice. Viewing transition as a process rather than an event ensures a continuous approach to transition. The earlier we support children with positive ways of coping with change, the better they will be at making stronger attachments, embracing new experiences, and growing into strong, confident, and resilient learners.

All stakeholders (practitioners, parents and supporting agencies) must be on the same page, have the same ethos and understanding of the relevant areas of transitions and what the children need to move on.

 

For children and families with EAL, these transitional points can be areas of vulnerability, causing miscommunication, parental dissatisfaction, and mismatch of expectations. Families may feel invisible and be lost in the process, whilst experiencing additional challenges, such as high mobility; settling into an unfamiliar country; negotiating new cultures; becoming financially stable; dealing with trauma (two in particular, Refugee and Asylum-Seeking families); change in lifestyle; lack of family support; isolated from the wider community and language barriers.

Our diverse childcare system may be unfamiliar and confusing for families, as they try to make sense of different choices and understand what is expected of them.

There may be separation issues, especially if the children have had limited social interactions and are unprepared for their first venture into a setting. For many young children with EAL, their first transition from home to a setting may also be their very first experience of being cared for by adults who are not from their cultural background or speak their language. It may be the first time they are exposed to mainly English.

 

Strategies to support children and families with EAL

 

Transitioning into settings:

  • Home visits are vital for those early connections and create natural opportunities to get to really ‘know’ the children and families. In their own environment, where they are comfortable and relaxed, we can gather accurate background information on the children’s ethnic, faith, linguistic and cultural heritage. We can capture their prior knowledge and adapt our pedagogy, environment, and resources to provide a smooth transition and an inclusive ongoing provision. Practitioners can learn about the significant people or events in the children’s life, including issues around transition and give parents an opportunity to discover information about the setting/school, voice concerns and ask questions. These initial cultural exchanges between home and setting are key to successful transition and set the tone for a warm welcome, effective communication and positive relationship building.

 

  • Children and families may need extra time to process and understand the new changes. Factoring in this time investment, and offering additional ‘visiting’ sessions prior to starting for the children and families to get to know the environment and meet the practitioners, will reduce ‘settling in’ anxieties. Visual prompts or translation support for explaining routines and curriculum information will help parents build their knowledge of early years and have confidence in the setting.

 

  • The role of the key person is crucial and starts from the home visit. They will be the bridge between home and the setting, creating the stability and attachment for the children and the families. So, be mindful of the impact of staff changes – those trustful relationships can be easily damaged by a change in the key person, and impact on home/setting communication.

 

  • A warm and safe welcome – can the children and parents see themselves, linguistically and culturally in the environment? Are there bilingual signs, displays, toys and books which reflect the children and families? Learning a greeting in someone’s home language can be a small way of making them feel included.

 

Transition within settings such as drop off and picking up times, settling in, changes within the activities through the day, and room moves – can all be daunting.

  • Ensure that parents are fully involved and kept informed of any in-house transitions and understand what that entails for the children and themselves. Plan for extra visits to the new room and for the new key person to spend time with the children prior to the move, to observe them in their familiar surroundings and to establish the relationship.

 

  • Transition between activities may be difficult for children with EAL. They may not understand the language of the activities, task instructions, or general interactions. Simple visual prompts such as key fans can provide the support for timetable, areas of learning, emotional language and asking for basic needs. Allow time for adjustment. Support the parents to try out the play-based activities with their children at home, so they all become more familiar with these activities. Utilising children’s personal interests to introduce new activities and using something familiar and loved will develop a sense of security.

 

‘School readiness’

Leaving their early years setting to start school is a significant change for young children.

  • ‘Ready children, Ready schools, Ready Families’, (School Readiness: A conceptual framework UNICEF, 2012) recommend high-quality transition systems that build on these three dimensions to ‘school readiness’. They consider the diversity of newcomers and nurture good working relationships between settings and school for a joint responsibility.

 

  • Effective information sharing between the setting and school, through staff liaison meetings, allows for focused discussions on children’s backgrounds, individual needs, levels of English acquisition, support plans and friendship groups.

 

  • Setting practitioners accompanying parents and children to visit the new school and introduce the change may help parents feel more comfortable and confident to ask questions.

 

  • The Reception teacher can visit to meet and observe the transferring children in the setting and establish early connections. Follow up with home visits to meet the family and extra visits for the children in the summer term to become familiar with their new class and meet their new friends.

 

  • Create a book of photographs for easy access to information and use videos of the new environment to familiarise children and families with the changes. Photographs of key staff, areas, and activities of interest to the child can ease anxiety and stimulate discussion back in the setting/home. Allow the parents to take the photographs home so that they can talk to their child at home about the changes.

 

  • Use social stories and persona dolls to explore change and new beginnings with children – where home language and role play can be used to try out new experiences.

 

Supporting parents and carers

Parents and carers are the most significant adults in the children’s life.  We must work in mutual respect and close partnership to plan and support transition. In many other countries, children start school much later and thus some parents with EAL may not comprehend what being ready for school looks like and how to prepare themselves or their children.

 

Additional useful strategies:

  • Keep parents informed and involved at all stages of transition. Involve other carers such as grandparents and childminders.
  • Welcome packs – consider translation needs.
  • Additional parents’ information evenings and transition workshops such as ones offered by https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/moving-supporting-families-transition-school
  • Support with admission processes – choosing schools and filling in forms.
  • Signpost to extended services such as EOSL.
  • Connect with wider community to bridge the gap between home and setting.
  • Offer bespoke curriculum workshops to empower parents in supporting their children’s development.
  • Establish a parent buddy system for same language and experience support.

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, said, “change is the only constant in life”, so remember transition is a journey. Start early, consider the uniqueness of the children and families with EAL, and build in ongoing transition strategies to enable young children to tackle changes with confidence and resilience.

 

Further reading and links:

 

 

 

 

Sejal Payne

Sejal Payne is a specialist bespoke education consultant with many years of skills and expertise in supporting school improvement. Sejal is a dedicated, knowledgeable and highly experienced consultant with over 15 years of working in schools and within local authority, supporting the provision of Black and Minority Ethnic Pupils, including pupils with English as an Additional Language and working collaboratively with the schools to identify areas of development and address the gaps. Her experience ranges from Early Years to secondary school.

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