Transitions

Effective transition is critical to students feeling confident, connected to school and positive about what can be an uncertain time. Transition to school from kindergarten and from primary school to secondary education are the two most significant transitions.

For students entering Foundation at our school, the formal transition program commences in September with a ‘Story-Time’ session. This allows the staff to familiarise themselves with students and the chance for students to begin to familiarise themselves with the environment, their peers and teachers. This session leads into four transition sessions in Term 4 that aim to further support students in feeling prepared and excited for school. These four transition sessions occur school-wide, supporting students at all year levels to feel confident and prepared for their following year of school. Early in December the children then meet their teacher and classmates for the following year.

During Term 4 the Foundation teachers collect information from the kindergarten directors which involves transition statements, discussions and often visitations to the kindergartens.

The transition for our Year 6 students who will be moving on to secondary college commences with an opportunity to visit local government secondary colleges during the year. In addition, we have a debating activity which is conducted at a local secondary college and involves primary children from a range of local schools and secondary students. We often have previous Hampton students come back as secondary students and talk to our Year 6s about their personal experiences at the start of Year 7. In addition, teachers prepare a report on each child and this is provided to the secondary college. Secondary teachers visit the children here at Hampton and discuss the children with the Year 6 class teacher. All schools schedule a day where the Year 6s spend some time at their new setting.