Hi Everyone

I am new to this forum and joined with the view of gaining some knowledge for my dissertation, which i am seriously behind on due to ill health. My aim is to examine the transition between reception to year 1 and the part play plays during this process. I have to say I am am bit unsure of which direction to take it in as you can probably tell from the wording of my aim, basically i want to look at how going from such a play based enviroment to national curriculum effects the child, and how its important to still carry and element of play over to reception.

I really hope this makes sense am a bit all over the place at the min, anyway any advice, links, policies you can reccomend would be greatly appriciated.

Thank You

Danielle

Hi and welcome
I too am really interested in this and found some fantastic stuff written and researched by Aline Wendy Dunlop and Hilary Fabian - they talked about transitions to school and how play can form a transition bridge. There is also some stuff about transitions in the In depth section on the EYFS CDRom

Hi, it may be worth calling a few local schools to see what they do. The school I used to work in used to run with a similar sort of format as the EYFS for the first term of Year 1. Children spent time inside and outside the classroom working in small groups. As the term progressed they spent more time on adult led activities and less on child initiated activities. It still came as a bit of a shock to the children when they started the second term but they were used to the surroundings and routine by then and I am sure it used to help. Good luck with your dissertation, mrsW.x

Hi thanx for the responses was a nice suprise to log on and see them , I am due to go into my local primary school next wednesday to see how the handle the change over situation i just need to prepare my questions to ask before hand, which is a bit hard as i havnt pinned down exactly what to research.

I have ordered the book smooth transitions that i have seen a few people mention on other forum question but i will also look at the research you suggested, I think once i have done some reading on the transitional process the questions to ask the teaching staff will be clear to me, well i am hoping so anyway.

Thanx again for the responses and i look forward to hearing anything else anyone has to say

Danielle

hi Danielle,
I was delighted to see you are doing a similar thing to me! i was thinnking of looking at how the profile was used and valued/ or not maybe? Like you I am concerned about getting the questions right. Will be starting this after April so will be watching this space.
wishing you all the best, if i have anything that may be of help I will be in touch!
regards

yes i too think you should observe in several schools, and compare the transitions. I dont feel that my reception children had an easy transition last year, and feel that this in turn had an afect on their emotinal development. I feel that transition should be done slowly, so children can ease their way in to year 1. My school are the opposite to this, as the children are just thrown into the dep end. Maybe you should try giving out a questionaire to early yers and key stage 1 teachrs to compare their views on transition. I think you will see a difference here.

Our authority has just put together a transitions toolkit - look up BANES transitions toolkit ( sorry haven;t figured out links yet) which has loads of useful stuff in it. I'm the childminder in it

Hi thanx again for all the responses jus a bit of an update...

went to see my tutor today and i have narrowed my question now so i am hoping it will be a bit easier for me now. My new title is

[i]teachers perspectives on the role of play in reception and year 1 classes

and my new question (which is basically jus the title)

What are teachers perspectives on teh role of play in reception and year 1

With my aims being

To investigate teachers views on the importance of play

To compare the role of play in reception and year 1

To explore how teachers prepare children for the transition from reception to year 1


I know i have moved away from my initial aim just a little but i do feel more a at ease now i have a plan infront of me, I may even take a brief look at international views on play.

My work is due in on 24th April so time really is ticking down for me, trust me to get ill in my final year, just my luck, lol

Hi there,

Have just been reading this thread with great interest. I am currently a Year 1 teacher and have spent since september battling trying to increase the value of play based learning in Y1..

I had previously worked in Reception for 3 years and had a good understanding into where they were coming from ( the part ive found tricky to sell to other ks1 members as they have a more 'top down' approach)

The transition is a huge thing for these 5 years olds (many had only just turned 5 in august in my class) Some people may say the ch 'played' too much but theyre most prob the ones who don't recognise the value of the 'play' for the children's learning and development!

this is an area that i feel v strongly about and how if done in smooth small steps can help the whole child immensely.

I'd be more than happy to complete a questionaire if you need an extra opinion! :)
sorry to rant on, but its so lovely to see it being explored! :)

Hi emma

Dont be silly your not ranting on! I feel it is a big jump for these children to take also, at the mo i am still completeing my lit review but if you could complete a questionaire, once ive drafted one up that is, it would be great to get as many different views on the subject as possible. Hopfully i should have my questionnaire drawn up this time next week, so if i could sent it to you taht would be great, and anyone else that would be willing please let me know.

Thanx

Danielle

Danielle, Lancs early years team have produced an excellent booklet on the importance of transistion into year one with case studies from various schools on how they tackled this issue and the improvements they put in place.

I took part in the follow up working party and as a school we too tackled this issue
by moving year group meetings from autum to July for year 1 so pqarents could meet the teacher before they moved out of reception

by producing visual cds showing the new structure ie where year one put coats etc for the children and parents

by using talking partners year one talking to reception children during circle time talking about fears and sharing similarities and differences

obviously pre visits and also something which I know some year 1 teachers find difficult initially, the changing of the environment and delivery of the curriculum with greater continuos provision.

Also we have made time this year rather than a snatched 30 mins at the end of the year to look at receptions development towards early learning goals/profile scales so that the year 1 teacher will have a greater understanding of what areas have been achieved and what areas are missing for each child.

been really pleased with it as have parents and most importantly the children

will be pleased to fill out a questionnaire Danielle good luck x

Julie Fisher (Oxfordshire) has been working with several local Authorities on just this subject transition - and has been engaged in a long term project developing a play based curriculum in Y1 - she found out three important things
1. children are more engaged iwth the learning process and have a positve attitude to learning
2. Speaking and listening was increased
3. writing was everywhere with everyone engaged in the writing process

She has produced a book called Transition - not sure if it is only availabe in Oxfordshire - but will check and get back to you
and there is a second book on the way which deals with the first findings of the project.

The Rose report (not the letters and sounds one) on Primary Education available on the web also deals with transition - which I always thought was the way we settle children into Key Stage1 but its not - or so I discovered today its about how KS1 settle themselves around the children - so that learning is child led with the skills and concepts developed through interactions and interventions with children and adults - not a chair and a desk for every child and sand only when you've finished your work - I am sure there are lots of KS1 teachers who already do this I am in Foundation so our childrn and of course us bigger children have a great time playing and learning new things each day -
good luck with your dissertation
have you sent questionnaires to parents of children in Y1 to ask of thier experiences?
G

Hey thanx again for all the advice, especially as i am struggling finding varied forms of research so everyone time i log on and some1 mentioned a knew thing like the rose report which i would never have thought of its great, i just need some journal papers now so if anyone knows of any good ones i would be very greatful.

I have just wrote up my interview questions, obviously wheni carry them out tommorow i will go into more depth but if anyone wishes to answer them on here it would be very interesting to see it from different national perspectives. Questions are listed below as i am not sure how to use the email on this, thanx again danielle

Interview Questions


What is your opinion on the value of play in the early years?




What is the difference between play in a reception classroom compared to that of a Year 1 classroom? Are there any similarities?


Do you have any experience within a year 1 setting? If so how did you manage the time for play and the time for study?


How do you prepare reception children for year 1 and the National Curriculum? Does the school have set measures in place?

OR

How do you deal with the radical transition from foundation stage to national curriculum that children face? Does the school have any set procedures in place?

Do you see any difference between children coming from different pre-school setting? Do you have many children that have never been in any sort pre-school environment?

hi there,
for journal articles, try googling the scholar google option. There were at least 3 i thought might help. You can then look at their ref sections and find more? It looks good- your strand of enquiry, watch the emotive language in the questions maybe?
Go for it!

Hi Danielle,

I just handed in a dissertation on the same subject last week. My focus was whether schools were carrying out the recommendations made by recent research into the transition (Ofsted and NFER).

Both researches recommend a play based approach at the beginning of year 1. For my research I went to 3 different local schools and did some interviews with staff and looked at their provision and Autumn planning to see whether they had used play based activities as they do in reception. I also posted a questionnaire on FSF and got over 18 excellent replies about schools practices during transitions.

I have attached my bibliography, which may come in handy.

If you've got any other questions just ask.

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/85135

This pack was the result of lots of LAs work around transitions across EYFS and into Yr1 and is useful.

Ofsted/HMI
http://ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publicati...aluation-by-HMI



NFER - I refer to this a lot

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/pims-...key-stage-1.cfm

All the above useful and relevant.
Cx

congrats Millhill, bet you are chuffed to have done that work and got it all out of the way. i have downloaded your bibliography, thanks for posting it. still not sue of my focus yet though. Keep getting sidetracked.
eek

I am extremely pleased to get it out of the way. In the end I had 55 pages and about 50 pages in the appendix!!

My recommendations were as follows:

The main recommendation is that further, more detailed, research is undertaken to identify:

• Whether all schools are accessing training on the transition from Year R to Year 1
• What training LEAs are providing
• What use is made of the EYFS profile in Year 1
• What members of staff are involved in transition meetings.

Further recommendations for schools are:

• To allow whole staff teams to meet, including SENCOs and support staff, to ensure all staff are involved in transitions and to ensure every child’s needs are met.
• To assess their practice during transitions using a self evaluation document based on recommendations of good practice; then create an action plan to improve on their practice.
• To draw up a Year R to Year 1 transition policy/ guidance booklet and distribute to all staff involved. The guidance should detail what staff should discuss in relation to individual children, the documents which should be shared and what use should be made of this information in Year 1.
• To involve parents in the transition process, providing them with written information on the change in the curriculum and how the school deals with this. Also how parents can support their child during the summer holidays. Ensure consideration is given to parents with EAL.
• To invite parents to meet the Year 1 teacher before the Autumn term to discuss the individual transitions
• To develop their own guidance for staff and parents, showing links between the EYFS and the NC and how play-based activities can be incorporated into the NC.
• To make more use of the outdoor areas when planning activities for children in Year 1.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Emma

Oh, forgot to say. Just finished my last assignment of my degree today, which is due in on the 6th May!

I'm so pleased, it's been 3 years of hard work and now it's all over!!

Just got the GTP to get on with now, I start in September

Ive just completed my diss on transition from N to R and the effects it has on a childs PSED. If you would like my references I could e-mail them to you? Dunlop and Fabian are fantastic, and there are alot of recent government publications out there, as well as EYE magazine, and of course the TES. These all helped me alot during the long slog! As everyone else has suggested, go into schools and grab some policies and observe them in practice. xx

Hey there!

Has anyone put together a Year R to Year 1 transition policy/ guidance booklet yet?
Is anyone interested in sharing with me?

thanks
Kristine