Transitions

Many of our parents and pupils become highly stressed at the mention of transitions, however please be assured that we will plan any transitions very carefully with you.  Every child at The Beacon will have a transition as our setting is not a long -term educational setting.  Therefore transition work is a priority for us and something we continually develop and review.

Although every transition is unique to the child, we do have a typical approach that we then adapt for individual needs.

Our Transition Approach

We start transition work with our pupils from the moment they start placement with us.  We create memory books for the children which continually grows throughout their placement.  When pupils leave our Unit they take their memory book as a beautiful album of many positive memories from The Beacon.

In preparation for moving to a new school we work 1:1 with pupils to create 'Let me introduce...myself' booklets.  These are booklets that the pupil records lots of different information about themselves, from their likes & dislikes, to what helps them most when they get stressed.

We provide pupils with a visual 'ending's planner.  This shows when new staff are visiting and when new school sessions are happening.  It also has 'ending sessions' with key staff planned in.  All 'ending' sessions are planned before the final day to ensure the child doesn't become overwhelmed with the finality of a last day.

We typically arrange for key staff at the new school to make planned visits to the child at The Beacon setting.  This allows the child to start to build relationships with key staff before they actually attend the new school.  In these visits the pupil can share their 'Let me introduce...myself' booklet.  This supports the child in being able to share information about themselves at a time when they may feel anxious and have difficulty in knowing what to say.

We also encourage the staff from the new school to share pictures/booklets about their new school with the child.

Once relationships have been established we then plan sessions for the child to attend their new school.  On these visits they will  by then already be familiar with their new staff and hopefully feel a little less anxious being in a new setting.

On the last day of a placement children move their picture on our 'transition tree' from their tree-house up into the branches.

Following the end of placement we send out a 'thinking of you' card to let the child know that we are still thinking about them in their new school.