Sunday, 8 April 2018

Transition to School - A Gifted Perspective

At the Connect.Ed. Conference I was lucky to go to a Hook, Line and Sinker 'Taster' Session about transition to school with Carola Sampson. This was both a professional and personal interest as my son will be transitioning to school towards the end of the year. The specific focus was for gifted younger students making this move.
Some of the key takeaways were that both ECE teachers and Primary teachers need to have a strong understanding of Te Whariki and The New Zealand Curriculum. Below are the links between the two in regards to assessment.


It is important that parents share the portfolio through Educa or the paper version and that teachers are open to the importance of this assessment document.  This leads to teachers having access to "reveal previous learning, skills, abilities and progress learning through linking to previously documented learning experiences and episodes at ece and other learning environments." 
(Carola Sampson)


Below are some of the key transition strategies as described by Sally Peters (2010)


It is important to note that although the transition is in some ways a relatively short time, gifted students need to be monitored so we can see their trajectory over a much longer period of time to make sure they continue to be happy in their new school.

 Implementing Transition Booklets so students can take photos of their new school and have input to share how their teacher can help or what they need to do for themselves if they are hungry, tired etc. Having a kindergarten teacher visit the school and the school teacher/s visit the kindy environment are important factors in making that connection for gifted students. 

As valuable a tool as a portfolio is sometimes students don't reveal their true selves in the kindergarten setting so parents may not feel this best represents their childs' abilities or the way they learn.  They may 'adapt' their behaviour to fit in and try to make friends and may not reveal any talents.  Or perhaps teachers don't have an understanding of gifted students. Abilities may be very apparent at home or with someone the student sees as holding that particular area of interest as passionately as they do. Therefore it is vital that parents are advocates to share about their children with ECE and Primary teachers.

So 'knowledge is power' when it comes to giftedness and the links between Te Whariki and The New Zealand Curriculum. The Portfolio should be used as a primary transition tool and parents, whanau and students need to have their voices heard in this process.


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