As we have now entered the summer term, thoughts for many will be on preparing for the new academic year. For some children, things may stay relatively similar or the same, however for many children there will be new faces, classrooms and possibly school settings to adjust to. Here are some of our top preparation tips:
Try to organise a meeting with any new members of staff who will be working with your child early on. Let them know more about your child, what they like/don’t like, things that work/don’t tend to work and discuss what will be kept the same to minimise any disruption. For example: Can they continue to use the same visual schedule? The same routine? Will they eat lunch in the same place?
If your child has a communication passport or a one page profile, then it would be a good idea to share this at the beginning of the transition process. Please contact us if you would like a template in order to create a communication passport with your child.
Try to organise some opportunities for your child to meet new staff and visit new learning environments. This may need to very gradual, with staff coming in to visit your child in their current familiar setting before your child goes to visit a new environment.
Use visuals - visual images and schedules can be used to introduce discussions about transition and to prepare for visits. Please contact us if you would like any visual resources prepared for your child, as we can help with this.
Ask the school for photos which you can show your child. Photos of where they will sit, the entrance to the classroom, where they will put their belongings, staff members etc. Keep sharing these photos throughout the summer break. Perhaps they could be stuck up somewhere at home. Sometimes schools will use these photos to prepare a transition book for your child.
If you child is moving classes, can the new class teacher/learning support assistant welcome your child to school in the morning in the same way as they currently enter school?
Reassure your child that some things will be the same.
If there will be new staff working with your child, then please contact us for information about Fragile X which you can pass on to them. We have a lot of resources about learning styles which tend to work best for those with Fragile X, plus an informative PowerPoint which is aimed at educators.
Let the school know about our eLearning course which is aimed at professionals who work with individuals with Fragile X. You can find out more here: https://www.fragilex.org.uk/training The course costs £25 and can be purchased from our online shop or by emailing info@fragilex.org.uk
If your child is starting a different school, you could do some travel preparation or ‘travel training’ so they become familiar with the route to the new school.
You can view our original blog post about the new school year here: https://www.fragilex.org.uk/single-post/the-new-school-year-getting-ready-for-the-autumn-term
Useful links and resources:
Discussion cards for secondary school: https://reachoutasc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Back-to-School-secondary-cards.pdf
Starting secondary school booklet: https://reachoutasc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ReachoutASCtransitiontoSecondaryschoolbooklet.pdf
Transition to a new class booklet: https://reachoutasc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Transition-to-new-class-2021.pdf
Some templates and examples for Communication Passports: https://mycommpass.com
By Alison Field - Families and Professionals Advisor (Child Enquiries)