Saint Kentigern Preschool | Transition to School

At Preschool, our children’s early learning journey is ongoing from the moment they start and becoming a ‘transition boy’ or ‘girl’ is a milestone that our four-year-old children look forward to.

We place value on fostering a love of ‘learning for life’, yet within this, we have the responsibility to prepare our boys and girls for their next step on to primary school.

These children meet for carefully planned, small group learning experiences that foster a variety of skills and dispositions. During these sessions, the children are given tasks to complete that require them to use their developing fine motor skills when reinforcing fundamental knowledge such as letter symbols, phonics and to count and practice writing numerals.

Whilst knowledge and skill acquisition are paramount to a successful transition, it is also important to nurture the holistic potential of the children. This means that we endeavour to foster independence, taking responsibility for their emotions and belongings and to have a positive attitude fuelled by high self-esteem. These small group experiences encourage the children to collaborate, listen to others, to persist with seeing a task through to completion and to make their own decisions.

Our transition children also get to enjoy frequent visits to either the Boys’ School or Girls’ School where they meet their new teacher, say hello to old Preschool friends and experience school-related activities. Collectively we hold the view that children who possess effective social skills and communication strategies are very well placed to be an active participant in their own learning journey, both now and in the future.