Ms M?ir?n N? Ch?ileachair:

The passport is the relevant piece. I think providing a report probably is not enough. I was a primary school principal for 20 years. We had a great SEN department who made visits to the school, brought the SEN children with them, familiarised them with the post-primary school building and got them to meet their teachers, year heads, class tutors etc. We had a very good relationship with our local post-primary school. Some of the children went out of the area to other post-primary schools with which we did not have a relationship so it was harder to establish good practices.

Transition is not just a report. It is a more complex ongoing process that needs to start early in the year to build up a child's expectations of what is happening and engage with parents. Both schools on either side of the transition need to engage. We are doing interesting research with Early Childhood Ireland on transitions from the early years sector to post-primary, especially in the light of two years of more formal education under the ECCE scheme, and to see if a different type of reporting or transition is needed. That is a much more complex process that needs to be looked at. Each child will need a different support. We all know the children who wave goodbye at the school gate and never want to see you again, but others need support. Much of the transition process should start as early as September for some children; definitely by the middle of term 2 that process should be engaged with by both schools on either side of the transition.