Mid-year transitions: Supporting new arrivals

When children start in your youngest year group you will have established practice that enables children to settle into the new environment and for all the adults and children involved to form strong relationships with each other. But what happens when a child joins mid-phase or mid-year?

How much attention do we give to the needs of children who join a class that’s already well established, and how much do we consider the impact that a successful transition into your school can have on the child’s learning?

Many schools share examples of the child and parents/carers meeting with the headteacher, being taken on a tour of the school or a “meet and greet” with the class teacher. Where children joining mid-phase or mid-year are often doing so as a result of moving house, it’s also familiar to most school leaders that the child’s records from their previous school will arrive with the child or shortly after, and that the parents will be given some kind of welcome pack with details about school uniform, school meals and holiday dates. All standard stuff.