THE TRANSITION FROM KINDERGARTEN TO SCHOOL

Abstract

Every transition to a new environment is an important step in life for the child and the family. To make this step as less stressful as possible, it is important that we think about it early enough and that everyone participates in the process: family, kindergarten and school.

The article presents the cooperation between family, kindergarten and school. Here, the important question is how to prepare the child and help him enter school. Kindergarten teachers play an important role in getting to know the child, who accompany the child throughout the entire preschool period and support parents and teachers with their knowledge and experience. During the preschool period, the child is in a relationship with important people through play and is gaining experience and skills.

The changes during the transition to school are greater or lesser, more or less pleasant for the individual. Quality education also includes a quality and smooth transition from preschool education to primary education.

In Slovenia, we devoted a great deal of attention to the transition from kindergarten to school during the preparation of the major education reform in the 1990s. One of the major changes was the lowering of the age for children to enter school to six years of age in the calendar year. With the aim of making the children's transition to school smoother and adapting schools more appropriately to the needs of younger children, in the new (younger) first grade, educational work was gradually started to be carried out by two professionals: in addition to the teacher, the educator or another teacher.