Moving on to Primary 1 – Early Level Transition
Each year Milngavie EYC implement an exciting transition programme to support our children to prepare for their move into P1. This programme usually includes a joint active outdoor learning project with the current Primary 1 pupils, opportunities to meet and build relationships with key school staff, visits to the P1 learning areas in the infant building, nurturing group and individual discussions, activities to build our children’s confidence for this next step, and a graduation ceremony to acknowledge and celebrate our children’s achievements.
This year things are a little different (again!), however we are determined to provide an effective and enjoyable transition programme for our nursery leavers.
Some children will be leaving to join Milngavie Primary School and other children will be going elsewhere. If your child is not transitioning to Milngavie Primary School please let the nursery know if your child will be absent over the coming months due to attending visits/ introduction events at your chosen primary school. The nursery will liaise directly with each setting to transfer children’s records. All parents will receive a transition document to complete with their child to give to their teacher on their first day at school.
In the nursery, staff will work closely with preschool children to discuss going to school and various activities will be on offer to help children prepare for and process this next step. Please see below a list of some key picture books that will be used in nursery to support this transition.
Our active learning project will support children to get to know the P1 teachers and key school staff. Staff will visit our nursery garden to meet the children and also create short videos to explain what life is like in Primary 1. We will be exploring all the exciting outdoor challenges we normally do with our Primary 1’s and will be sharing our experiences with them via Teams meetings, videos etc. between our playrooms and their classrooms.
We are going to have another Parent Coffee Break (online on Teams). This one will take place on 21st April at 10.15 till 10.45. Everyone is welcome, however some of the discussion will be particularly relevant to pre-school parents as we seek views about transition and graduation.
We are lucky to be able to use the school infant area over the Easter school break. We will take small groups of children over to see the P1 classrooms and Active Learning Zone, practice lining up at the P1 entrance etc, get to know the route to the classrooms and look at where they will find the cloakroom pegs and toilets. We may even practice going to the loo! This will be particularly exciting for the boys as the Infant block boys toilet has a urinal – a whole new experience for some of our lads! This will build the children’s confidence and reinforce positive expectations of starting school.
Later in April we will set up a wee school classroom role play area in our playrooms for our children to have fun playing schools. It is always great fun watching our future teachers learning to control their classes and often giving very strict lessons – and also seeing how they copy the mannerisms of the nursery staff in their role play performances.
