Yearly transitions

 

I’m not a huge fan of the tradition of handing kids off to different adults at the end of every year. Particularly in international schools where the children experience so much change in their lives.

Yet as I’m heading into the last term, I’m already starting to think about transitions.Often transitions are something we think of getting kids ready as empty vessels to fill, moulds to put into the right shape for the next group of adults to start  working on.

How might the children in the class I teach now start school ready to start learning in a new space with new people?

Getting to know the new teachers.

Spending time in the new space.

Listening to the children about who they want in their class.

A number children will benefit from personal interaction before the hand-off.

Rather than see yearly transitions as something done to children each year – disrupting friendships by placing children in new classes, with new teachers in new classrooms – we might want to think about changing years as something that happens slowly over time.

What might that look like?