Transition planning for students with disability
There are many times in a student’s school life when they will need support to transition to a new environment or routine. Often the biggest transitions for students include moving to a new school, moving to a different area of a school (eg. primary to high school) and starting a new school year. No matter how successful the year has been or confident the student appears, please do transition planning anyway! Term 4 is the time to be doing transition planning for your students with disability or who might be anxious when routines change (although starting planning conversations in Term 3 is even better!).
Transition planning for students is more than just a handover to a colleague or students attending an orientation event. While these practices are valuable, it is important to complete the following steps in your transition planning:
Make a list of the routines that will be new or different next year. Consult with specialists, current teachers and education assistants. Check in with parents to find out what new things they are worried about for their child. The student is also likely to have items to add to the transition list! (Eg. lockers, school bag location, lunch routines, seating, new teacher, more students, play areas, bells/sirens, uniform, play boundaries, behaviour expectations, where to eat lunch etc)
Explicitly teach and practice new skills and routines using actual practice and/or social stories or visual prompts, and/or role play (Eg. using a combination lock, my new teachers will be…(provide photos and names if possible), my uniform will look and feel different, where am I allowed to play, when I arrive at school, at lunchtime I can meet my friends at…)
Prepare transition resources for the family to look at with their child over the December holidays. This could be a pack of social stories or book of labelled photos/images for families to read, practice and talk about in preparation for the first week of school. This could be specific to an individual student or for many students. Check out this great social story video created for students returning to school after a long COVID lockdown. Or this social story for starting a new year. For more transition resource ideas, check out these links:
Visit new locations. Do this at different times and in different situations. (Eg. after school when it is quiet, during recess when it is loud, in class while other students are working.) Have students practice or role play new skills and routines in these locations where possible.
Meet new teachers or prepare students to meet someone new. Meeting their actual future teacher/s isn’t always possible before the end of the year, but find ways if at all possible. Even if future teachers aren’t made public to other students, consider making an exception for students with disability to help with transition planning.
Write a Transition Plan that outlines the above goals and strategies and who will implement these. A formal documented plan isn’t always needed, but can be a good checklist of what needs to be done and a record that the school has planned well.
Plan transition resources and personnel that may be needed for a short time at the beginning of the year. This may be a short-term Education Assistant, mentor or volunteer to help with new routines and skills, a checklist of items needed for a task, visual prompts etc. Make sure new staff are familiar with strategies that work when the student is relaxed and when they are escalated (this is where a good handover comes in!). It is so important to get the year off to a successful start for students and teachers!
Avoid complacency. Too many schools don’t plan for transition because students are doing well. Remember that by the end of a year or the end of primary school, students are calm and comfortable with how things work, but may still become extremely stressed and revert to old behaviours in new situations and when everything is unfamiliar. Assume students will need support and plan for this, rather than assume they won’t and end up with a distressing transition that lasts for much longer than it needed to!
Repeat the above steps! Just because a student has visited a new classroom or met their new teacher once does not mean a transition process has been followed or successful. Be sure to repeat experiences, explicit teaching and visual strategies again and again, especially during Term 4 and the December holidays.