A smooth transition not only means that students feel supported when beginning kindergarten, but also that parents feel welcomed and empowered with the knowledge necessary to help their child have a successful kindergarten year. Principals also have an important role to play when it comes to connecting with the parents of incoming kindergarteners, preferably well before the first day of the school year. Principals and directors can collaborate to allow time for kindergarten teachers to meet with the pre-K teachers to review children’s previous assessments, discuss curricular alignment, and discuss the skills that are most important for children to possess prior to kindergarten entry. Once principals know the providers in the area they can reach out to those providers and get a sense of which ones have children typically attending their school. Principals in any state, though, could take the initiative to reach out to their regional Child Care Aware offices for assistance in gaining a better understanding of the child care providers in their area. Principals receive a list of local child care providers and regional Child Care Aware offices provide follow-up resources to facilitate communication between the providers and principals. In Washington, principals are able to submit a data request to receive a report of licensed child care providers in their area. Perhaps most importantly, principals can make time and space for pre-K and K teachers when they are housed in the same building to plan together and share data on incoming children, and principals can connect with other early learning providers in the community who served students who will soon be entering elementary school. Leaders of elementary schools can do a number of things to help incoming kindergarteners and their families. What actions can individual principals and teachers take to ensure a smooth transition to kindergarten if they happen to work in a state and district that has not yet made a concerted effort to improve the transition? While states certainly have a role, most of the action around improving transitions is at the local level. In a recent report, I highlighted states taking steps to help smooth the transition into kindergarten and outlined actions all states should consider. Some of these incoming kindergarteners might have previously attended a pre-K program or Head Start program, but the majority will arrive with no prior school experience at all.īecause kindergarten is often the first school experience for many students, ensuring a smooth transition into the school year is essential for setting up children to succeed in both kindergarten and future grades. For many incoming kindergarteners, this will be the first time they’ve set foot inside a school building. During her free time, Jennifer likes to engage in different kinds of sports.Now that we’re in back to school season, educators across the country are preparing for the first day of school. During the last twenty plus years, Jennifer has gained a developing expertise in both local and international early years education, specializing in Montessori education, school-based curriculum development and teaching strategies for exposing young learners to English in the Hong Kong context. And just prior to joining Think International she was a program leader, curriculum developer, field work supervisor and course lecturer at the Open University of Hong Kong. She is the former principal of The Montessori School of Hong Kong and had spent 8 years in the Education Bureau conducting teacher training, curriculum reform, resource development, parent education and research work related to English language education in the early years. Jennifer is a native speaker of English from Canada with over 20 years of professional experience in the field of early years education. Ms Jennifer Ng, BA(Hons), MEd(ELT), MEd(ECE)
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