A slower start for quicker settling in

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It is important that transition continues into the new school year. Fresh and organised classrooms are ready to welcome their new classes in September. Many schools have invested in transition time during those last few, more relaxed weeks of the summer term, where children have spent time in their new classrooms, getting to know their new teacher whilst their new teacher gets to know them too. Transition time in the summer term is valuable and helps to reduce ‘back to school’ feelings of anxiety in September, but are summer term transition sessions enough?

Summer learning loss is inevitable, with the ‘wind down’ of lessons at the end of the summer term and the six-week summer break, children may have had up to 8 weeks without formal lessons. For some children this break in learning will have been replaced with enriching experiences such as holidays, day trips and activities at home. Their brains have been given the opportunity to ‘switch off’ from formal learning and in return they should arrive to school in September, refreshed and ready to learn. Any ‘rustiness’ should not matter, this is normal and to some extent necessary to ensure that attitudes to learning do not stagnate. Often this feeling of ‘rustiness’ along with a fresh start, drives children to improve their skills such as handwriting, spelling, reading stamina and times tables at the start of a school year.

However, for some children very little educational stimulation may have taken place during the summer break and even worse, negative social and emotional experiences may have increased during their time away from school. All children will have some sort of gear change to make when they return to school, this may simply be a matter of getting back into the academic swing of things or it may involve a child making complex emotional adjustments.