It is considered best practice to work closely with parents to develop collaborative partnerships. Parents have knowledge of their child and these rich details are of value to the Prep teacher in trying to make the transition to school as successful as possible.
Consider formally requesting information in the following areas:
- concrete information about the student's home and family life useful for engaging the student
- any regular challenges for the student
- past and present successes
- usual communication and socialisation methods and supports
- strategies previously used successfully for transitions and changes
- any specific concerns, issues, routines or activities.
The above information from parents can be documented in the 'All about me' section of the Transition booklet: My journey to Prep.
Templates for communicating with parents
Templates can help make communication more efficient and effective. They can be documents or email templates for adult-to-adult communication or symbol, photo or imaged based templates or emails to support communication between a child and an adult.
When developing or editing child-to-adult communication templates, consider how you will support the student to communicate or share the information important to them as well as the amount, form and relevance of the information in the template
The templates available in the Transition booklet can be individualised to reflect the needs of the student and the team.