A blog by @MrsG_EYFS
Bridging the Gap: EYFS to Year 1 Transition Tips for Teachers
When starting school in Reception children often receive a comprehensive transition offer where they are visited either at home or at their nursery setting, meetings are held with parents and they are invited to stay and play sessions. Yet once in school and they transition into the next phase, transition often becomes a one time, hour long session and sometimes not even that. Children moving from EYFS to KS1 are often then expected after a long summer break to move straight to formal learning, even though some of them won’t have met their early learning goals.
Transition between EYFS and Year 1 should be a process that both pupils and teachers go through throughout the summer term in schools, rather than a one off event that happens in an afternoon. It needs to be carefully planned as a team, with EYFS and Year One teachers working together to make the transition between phases as positive as possible for the children.
So how can Year One teachers make sure that transition into their phase works positively?
Spend time in the EYFS classroom
Get to know the children that are coming to you through play. Children are always more willing to share their thoughts and feelings with you when they are involved in something they enjoy. Getting into provision with the children also shows them that you value their play, will show you the characteristics of effective learning and which children will still need support with this when beginning year one.
Gain a better understanding of the EYFS framework and the curriculum that the children have accessed
There are many preconceived ideas about the EYFS framework and what that looks like, but in reality many teachers higher up the school do not understand the processes and the objectives that EYFS pupils are working towards. Spend time with the EYFS teacher and talk through the ELGs. What does this look like in practice? What does it look like if a child has just reached ELG in comparison to a child who is secure. What does GLD mean? How will this affect your planning for September?
Find out how NC subjects link to the EYFS areas of learning
In the EYFS children build the firm foundations needed to access the NC subjects. Although they haven’t focused on lessons such as Science or DT for example, through Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design they will have focused on key aspects throughout their curriculum that will enable them to transfer skills and knowledge to the NC subjects.
Plan a play based transition
The children who will be coming to you in September are still accessing play based learning, so why would you plan a formal activity for children to complete before their Reception year is up? You will gain a much clearer picture of each individual child through this approach than you will of getting them to complete an all about me style worksheet.
Think about what September will look like
Your next big hurdle as a Year 1 teacher is what September will look like for the children joining you. For those children who did not achieve their ELGs they can still access the EYFS curriculum until Christmas. How will you support them? Alongside delivering the Y1 curriculum to those who did reach their ELGs? This is where introducing continuous provision can come in. CP in Y1 has shown in many settings to be a huge success. It allows children to continue to explore the learning of new concepts through a play based approach, which supports and enhances your adult led sessions. In settings where CP doesn’t work, provision is often not planned for adequately and children do not have access to high quality resources. A box of Lego and a box of dolls does not count as high quality CP.
What next?
If these EYFS to Year 1 Transition Tips have got you thinking about what you can do to help with bridging the gap as a Year Once teacher and furtehr supporting the children coming to you in September then take a look at our new Transition from EYFS to Year 1 pack. Together with Is It Time to Play? we have created a variety of resources to support teachers plan for effective transition and get the best out of process that needs to begin this side of the summer holidays.
As always head over to our Instagram account @MrsG_EYFS and @isittimetoplay for more tips and support.