School transition plans: parent guide and template

What is a school transition plan?

A school transition plan is a document that outlines how to support your child as they move to a new education setting. This could be preschool, primary school, secondary school or a new school.

A school transition plan:

includes a profile of your child covering their strengths and needs
covers practical information about the transition – dates, activities, places and people
explains aspects of the transition that your child might need help with
describes the supports your child will get to help them with the transition.

Who are school transition plans for?

School transition plans can help children with disability, autism or ADHD. They can also help children with other additional needs, including children in out-of-home care or children who speak English as an additional language.

Why school transition plans are important

A school transition plan can help you, your child and the school know what to expect and plan for.

Important for your child

A transition plan helps you work out how to help your child:

prepare for and cope with the change
move through the change feeling supported
feel they belong in their new environment.

Important for the school

A transition plan can be a great way for you and the school to work together on supporting your child:

You can share information about your child.
The school can explain how they support children with additional needs.
You and the school can plan how the school will support your child’s particular needs.

When to start on your child’s school transition plan

Start early

It’s best to start planning for your child’s transition early. If you can, start planning 1-2 years before your child starts at the new school. For example, if your child is starting secondary school, start planning with teachers and other professionals when your child is in Year 5.

Early planning gives the school time to prepare. And it gives you time to:

work on the skills your child needs for the transition to the new school
find out what supports your child will need for the transition
work out how your child will get the supports they need.

What if you can’t start early?

Sometimes your child might need to make a sudden school transition, so you can’t plan early. It’s never too late to put together a transition plan. If time is short, start with what’s most important for your child and their school and include this in the transition plan. You can keep building the plan as the transition happens.

Some states and territories or schools might have a formal process to support school transitions. Your school will let you know.

How to develop a school transition plan

Work with the people who support your child

You develop the transition plan by working with people who support your child now or will support them at the new school. This might include teachers, support staff and therapists.

People who support your child now can help you:

collect information about your child’s strengths, abilities and needs
identify the supports that your child might need for the transition
prepare your child for the transition – for example, by helping them learn new skills.

People who’ll support your child at their new school can help you:

identify your child’s transition goals
plan transition supports for your child.

Involve your child

It’s important to involve your child. How you involve them will depend on their age and abilities. For example:

If your child is younger, you could talk together about what they’re looking forward to or feeling nervous about.
If your child is older, you could talk about their strengths, their interests and the supports that have helped them in the past.
No matter how old your child is, visual supports or mind maps might help them think about what they need.

Developing a ‘Getting ready for my new school’ guide for your child could be one of the action items for your transition plan. This is a short, personal document written for your child, which includes the transition information that’s most relevant to them.

What to include in the school transition plan

Key information about your child

Your child’s name and photo
A brief introduction to your child, including their interests, strengths, culture and personality

Your contact details

Include contact details for all parents or guardians, plus any other contact information. For example, this might include a request for translation services, an Aboriginal education liaison officer, and so on.

Your child’s profile

This might be information about:

how your child communicates, connects, moves, learns, manages emotions and does daily tasks
what your child can do independently
what your child needs support with.

Include the strategies and supports that help your child.

For example:

‘Zainab can get overwhelmed in noisy classrooms. Noise-cancelling headphones and a designated quiet space can help.’
‘Aaron finds it easier to move between activities if staff use a visual countdown timer.’
‘Min experiences muscle stiffness. She needs adapted seating. She also needs to move every 30 minutes.’
‘Saarim needs time to feel safe in the classroom. It helps if he can enter the room 10 minutes before class to get used to the space and connect with the teacher.’

Your child’s transition goals

Include the transition goals set collaboratively with your child, the school, and others involved in supporting the transition.

For example:

‘With support from the teacher, Jax will join in group activities during the transition.’
‘Using a colour-coded timetable, Shoshana will work out which orientation activity and room is next.’
‘Oli will use their quiet space card to let staff know when they need to take a break.’

Your child’s transition team

This is a list of key people supporting your child during the transition, with their roles and responsibilities. For example:

‘Elias’s parents will liaise with allied health professionals, kindergarten and school, and help Elias practise skills at home.’
‘Ms Nguyen, the kindergarten teacher, will be the key contact and will give the primary school a summary of Elias’s supports. She will also encourage Elias to follow the new school’s routines.’
‘The speech therapist will develop social stories about starting school for Elias.’
‘The occupational therapist will create visual timetables for Elias’ orientation activities.’

Your child’s transition program

This is an outline of each activity in your child’s transition program from the first planning meeting through to the end of the transition period. You can add more activities and detail as you get more information.

Here’s an example of an entry for an orientation activity:

Date – 15 November
Activity – second whole class orientation (half day)
People involved – you, your child, the learning support leader and the classroom teacher
Activities and events – the learning support leader will meet you and your child at the school office and take you to the classroom. Your child will participate in activities and go home with a workbook to complete.
Support – your child will have a buddy to do the activities with. Your child will get a visual schedule and photos of the learning support leader and classroom teacher before the event. Your child can use a quiet space card if they need a break during an activity.

Other information and resources

Health, medical and therapy reports
If relevant, documents from your child’s previous school or preschool, like their individual learning plan or school reports
Resources that can help the school support your child

If you need help to get started, you could use our school transition plan template. Download the Word version of the template for completing with a computer, or print the PDF version of the template to complete by hand.

Monitoring, reviewing and adjusting the transition plan

You can keep using the plan until your child has settled in at school. It’s important to keep checking on how well the transition plan is working for your child.

For example, as your child starts and moves through the transition, you might find that things change and they no longer need some planned supports or they need new or different supports.

If this happens, you might need to work together with the school to adjust the transition plan.