Transition to Year One- Miss A

Today we had a meeting at the school to organise the transition from pre primary to Year 1. I met her teachers who are the same 2 that Mr J had. I love them both and in a small twist of irony I taught one of their daughters in pre primary :)


The bad news came straight away....we have the same special needs assistant.
I knew straight away in kindy there would be issues and sure enough there was. They don't get along and Miss A performs badly when she is there. After requesting she not be there in pre primary surprise surprise we got her again. She cant even turn up to work on time, Miss A doesn't want to speak to her and the teacher had to intervene. She said she gave up and separated them. The assistant doesn't do one on one work with A anymore and she floats around the room. For Gods sake the funding to employ her comes from having special needs kids in the class and she cant even do her job.

I am so angry I don't know where to go from here. Andrew and I will meet with the principal but with all the issues we have had this year trying to get L into kindy I don't know if he will listen. In the meantime we wrote a list of things we were concerned about:

Multiple teachers and moving to different lessons.... ie sport and art
Free play in the school,no more enclosed play area
Making friends
Getting tired sitting at a table
Letter formations and handwriting
Specialised seating ie a Bambuk chair
Transition in the morning and afternoon. no more waiting until Mum arrives before she can leave
Speaking to the teacher when she is upset or hurt
Learning her sounds and blends
Being able to follow instructions from the mat to her table
Using a slope board or other writing assistance
Learning social cues and how to make new friends


This list goes on. The jump from pre primary to Year 1 is one of the biggest she will make and we are unsure how it will all go. In the meantime I will spend the 6 week break working on her social skills and handwriting and talking about how things are about to change.....