Whole school approach to transitions in schools

Child and young person voice should be at the heart of everything we do and inform any decisions we make around transition planning and provision.

During transition days, ensure that staff plan in activities to collect children and young people voice, such as the use of circle time, worry box, one-to-one conversations or feelings and wishes templates.

Some children and young people may not be able to verbalise their thoughts and feelings because of their age, stage, or additional needs. If this is a barrier to finding out how they feel, then other approaches can be used e.g. visuals, feelings faces, scaling charts, choice boards, etc. Please see resources on this "Identifying needs and promoting positive behaviours" padlet which can support to collect children and young people voice using a person-centred approach. For EAL children and young people such as refugee or asylum seeker children who have experienced little or no schooling or those educated in systems very different from our own, an interpretation service e.g. Language Line can be used in order to collect their voice.

Many settings plan transition focused child / young person voice surveys to help them to understand successes and areas of improvement, and to provide an opportunity for children and young people to raise any concerns to make things more effective. Questions may include:

• What are you most looking forward to about moving to your next class, year, or setting?
• What are you most worried about moving to your next class, year, or setting?
• What would help you with these worries?
• What worries and questions did you have before coming to this setting?
• How did your transition help with these worries?
• What would have made you feel more supported during the transition?

Person centred planning resources on this page can help to collect child or young person voice around transitions.

Participation and co-production best practice has some top tips around children and young people participation as well as signposting to participation resources and tools.