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Smooth Transition

19.3.3 Ready Schools: Their Role

The transition from home, childcare centre or a cre'che to a pre-primary setting
Notes requires to involve parents and community. The pre-primary centres/schools can
organise parent education workshops and work with parents, creche workers
and other community institutions and members to prepare children for pre-primary
school. Such planned interactions will help the teacher gather relevant information
about children’s skills and talents as well as about their special needs.

In the same way, when the children progress from pre-primary to grade one,
teachers of the primary school and parents need to be involved with pre-primary
teacher to understand the progress and attainment levels of their children. It will
facilitate a smooth transition from pre-primary to primary school, the new and
more formal educational environment. The portfolios of preschool children should
be shared with and given to the grade one teacher to help her/him understand
children better at the time of entry.

Pre-primary and primary schools should be ready to welcome children in terms
of infrastructure, balanced and developmentally appropriate programme and daily
schedules, teaching learning material and teaching strategies, supportive learning
environment and appropriate teacher-student ratio.
A ready school curriculum is drawn up based on children prior experiences
and skills and meaningful experiences. Secondly, schools must respect individual
differences amongst children in terms of language, culture and exposure to
learning. This is possible if the school works in close collaboration with the
home and community. Young children in an ECE Centre need easy access to
child-friendly toilet facilities, accessible lockers/shelves and other storage space.
Thus, the ECE centres and classrooms of the early grades of primary schools
should be such that they require minimal amount of moving, carrying and
supervision. It will be good if the ECE Centre is located within or near the
primary school. Classrooms should be inviting and have a print-rich environment
which should be changed from time to time to enhance children’s interest,
observational and learning skills. All displays meant for children should be
kept at the eye level of children. The classrooms should have sufficient material
and equipment such as crayons, clay, blocks of various sizes, pencils, picture
books, story books, games, dolls, toys, puzzles and so on, to be available to all
children.

19.3.4 Ready Teachers and other Workforce: Their Roles

All the teachers and caregivers should have a good understanding of a quality
programme and children’s developmental characteristics. The knowledge of

178 EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION