Transition: moving between educational settings
What is Transition?
The term ‘transition’ is used to refer to the life changes that children and young people may go through. There are many transitions that children and young people will go through but this page focuses on just one kind of transition. This is moving into, between and out of educational settings. These can be:
- Early years education to school
- Primary to secondary school
- First to middle school
- Infant to junior school
- Middle to secondary school
- Secondary to post-16 provision or to work.
The three main transition points for most children and young people are:
- Early years education to primary school
- Primary school to secondary school
- Secondary school to work, college or university.
How does this work for a child or young person with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan?
Parents can prepare for the move well in advance by visiting schools (or colleges). Parents might find it helpful to keep notes of what they like and don’t like about these settings so that this can be part of a discussion with the Local Authority (LA). The child’s next school should be discussed at their Annual Review preferably two years before the move. This is to allow parents and teachers to discuss and prepare for the next placement in good time. A Local Authority officer may attend the Annual Review, which can be useful. The key years in deciding on future provision are Year 5 and Year 9 so that there is plenty of time to make the transition work.
Once the parent has named the preferred school, the Local Authority will consult with that school. The Local Authority will take many factors into consideration, most importantly whether the school can meet a child’s needs and whether or not it is an efficient use of local authority resources.
The Local Authority will want to work with parents and carers so that they are happy with the child’s school and the LA is happy that the child’s needs will be met in an efficient way. The LA could decide not to name a parent’s preferred school in a child’s EHC plan. If parents disagree with the school named on the EHC plan, they have the right to appeal to the Special Education and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST).
The EHC Plan should be amended by 15th February in the year of transfer when a child moves from Year 6 to Year 7. The EHC Plan should be amended by 31st March in the year of school transfer when a child moves from Year 11 to post-16 provision.
The best kind of planning around transitions will have the child or young person at its centre and will focus on what is important to the child and the family. The child or the young person should be part of decision making.
If your child has an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) you will not need to apply for your child's reception place or secondary school place via the normal admissions process. This will be identified during the Annual Review. If you have any questions please contact your caseworker.