Transitions to another school question

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I am an elementary school teacher in MN, and work with several students who will be transitioning into a new school next year. These students have been in a pull out program (spend more than half their day with me) until now, so they don't have experience with moving from class to class. What are some things that helped to prepare you for a new school as a student, or what were some things that you did for your child that helped prepare them for their new experience? What were some things that did not work as well? Thank you!

What age are these children?

I'm in Scotland and my son, diagnosed with Asperger's, moved from Primary School to High School in August last year. He didn't move with his classmates, but started the new school on his own as I now live in a different area.

Here, it is standard practice for all children in the last year of Primary School to spend two Induction Days at High School. They get shown round the school and get to experience classes and moving between them. My son also, on the second Induction Day, got the service bus, not school bus, to school and back.

Because my son has additional support needs, his transition was planned earlier than usual, and as he was moving from one education area to another, teaching and other educational staff from both areas were involved. He made additional visits to the High School, and during the summer holidays he attended a holiday club there with other children who had additional support needs and/or were coming from primary schools not in the catchment area.

My son was looking forward to moving classes and having different teachers, subjects and rooms throughout the school day. He find s it hard to focus for lengthy periods of times, so High School suited him that way. His Support Plan allows for him to leave classes a few minutes early so that he can be in the corridors when they are quiet, but he has chosen not to do that.

My son's transition went well, and although he was getting a bit fed up with having so many tours of the school, I do think that the fact that he was extremely familiar with the layout must have been a help. He might not always have remembered which subject he had next, but he knew where all the classrooms were, and how to get to them.

Induction Days were probably the most helpful thing for me. Most students got one. From memory, I had five (one large one that everyone had, and then either one for students with disabilities and three for students who were thought to be "high risk of not transitioning well"). This meant I had already been introduced to a lot of the staff who would support me in my first term.

I also got to go to morning sessions with two other autistic students where we could talk about what the day had in store and such. There were some issues because they changed the times without telling me, and I can't remember how much they actually helped, except that I always tried to go.

Finally, I was put in the same class as several people from primary school. This backfired big-time.

I found the transition to secondary school very difficult. I found all the big transitions very difficult, but this was probably the hardest one.

When the school realised how hard I had it, they let me do some more sessions with other students who were struggling. We'd sit around and talk with some social workers. It was good, but I can't remember much.