Tips for writing an early years transition document

June 25, 2017 Karen 16 comments

Susan, who has been a child minder for just over a year got in touch and asked if I could offer some advice on transition documents.

There are many documents available to buy or download on the market, but I used to make my own using the computer.  Basically they need to include the child’s name, date of birth, your contact details ( I also added my Ofsted Reg. No) roughly how long the child has been with you and how they have progressed during that time. The document has to be signed by the carer and parent.

I recall a particular child, Harry, who had a significant speech delay when he first came to me. I have written about Harry in more detail in a post titled Double Dutch When Harry was ready to leave my child minding setting to go to a school nursery

, I had never written a transition document before, I wanted and needed to include the speech delay, but knew I had to be respectful of him and his mother who never took him for a hearing test

. My first thought was not to mention it at all, but I realised that his teacher would soon discover this for herself and may think that his child minder was not very good  as she never said anything about it.

What I did was to write that Harry was a happy child who got on well with his peers and had shown signs of speech delay when he first came to me but that he was now making progress.

I had another parent who worked as a special needs nursery nurse, ask for my opinion about her son, ” Do you think there is something wrong with David?” she asked me.I did think that there was something not quite right, but would never say anything to upset or offend a parent, so I replied that, “In my experience, he was a little slower in his development than the average child, but as all children are different, I wouldn’t worry too much, monitor his progress and mention it to your health visitor at the next appointment” she seemed happy with that, David was diagnosed with a mild form of autism after leaving me so my instinct had been correct.

Back to the document, you can make it quite simple, Susan with only the essential information, but I have heard of early years settings who include a photo of the child and even some of their artwork

I think that child minders have an advantage over other early years settings as we tend to work more on a one-one basis , having fewer children than a nursery or pre-school  means that we can get to know our children really well which should make writing this document easier. also there shouldn’t be too many children leaving at once, unlike a larger setting who may have a dozen or so .   leave to start school.

I hope this has helped Susan and given you a few ideas, if you have any further questions you know where I am!

As always questions/comments are welcome

Karen

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16 Comments on “Tips for writing an early years transition document

  1. Having used a childminder before our daughter went to nursery I can totally understand how important a transition document like this could be and hope your post was useful to Susan and many other childminders out there!

  2. I’ve never come across anything like this before. Useful to know it exists so I can look out for it when my little is old enough #familyfun

  3. Transition from one childcare setting to another always needs to be handled carefully and it seems that you played a crucial role here for the children in your care. We are going through the transition to high school phase right now which brings its own challenges! Thank you so much for sharing with us at #TweensTeensBeyond

  4. This is really useful thanks for sharing Thanks for linking to the #THAT FRIDAY LINKY come back next week please

  5. Having worked in a childcare setting, I know how important these things can be and how much time it takes a practitioner to prepare. You must have done so many of these in preparation for your charges to move on in their next journey. Like Sharon, we are also entering the secondary years and it’s all change again. #tweensteensbeyond

  6. Karen, you are doing a wonderful job. Your attitude as a child mentor inspired me a lot. And transition document is a new one to me. Thanks for sharing this insightful post with #HappySunday !!!

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