Supporting Your Child Through School Transitions

This blog brings together advice from two recent OxPCF SEND Connect webinars exploring transition to secondary school.

Our first webinar, delivered by Oxfordshire County Council's SENSS Communication and Interaction Team, looked at why transitions can be challenging and shared strat

egies to support children through change.

We were also joined by Rainbow Trees Pathway, who focused on the practical aspects of preparing for secondary school, including building independence, working with schools and understanding the support that should be available from the very start.

Together, both webinars provide a comprehensive guide to supporting children and young people with SEND through one of the biggest transitions in their education.

The end of one school year in most cases leads to the beginning of another. For many children, this will mean moving to a new classroom or teacher, or even to a whole new school. This can feel overwhelming for not just children and young people, but their families. In a recent OxPCF webinar, the following advice was shared.

👉 Watch the SENSS webinar and see the full summary and resources here.

👉 View the Rainbow Trees Pathway presentation here

Understanding Transitions

Why can transitions feel so challenging, and how do anxiety and sensory differences can affect a child's ability to cope with change? How can we support our children in building the skills they need to manage these transitions? It often comes down to understanding each child's individual needs rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

What is a transition?

When thinking about a transition, many people immediately think about big events, like moving from primary to secondary school or changing educational settings. But transitions happen throughout every day. These smaller day-to-day transitions can have just as much impact on children and young people as the bigger ones.

A transition is any movement or change from one activity, environment, or expectation to another. Importantly, transitions are not just single events, but rather processes that include:

what happens before the change;
what happens during the change;
What happens after the change.

For example, for some children the anticipation of a transition can be just as challenging as the transition itself.

Transitions can be broken into two different groups: macro transitions and micro transitions.

Macro transitions are significant changes such as starting nursery, moving to primary or secondary school, changing year groups or moving into post-16 education. These events are often carefully planned because they are recognised as major milestones.

Micro transitions, however, happen repeatedly throughout the day. These include arriving at school, moving between classrooms, changing teachers, transitioning from playtime to lessons, moving from one activity to another, or travelling between home and school. Although often described as "small" transitions, they can feel just as significant to the child experiencing them.

What makes transitions so challenging?

Transitions can introduce uncertainty, and uncertainty reduces predictability. When familiar routines change or expectations alter, children are often required to process new information, navigate unfamiliar environments or interact with different people. For many children with SEND this can increase anxiety. Children may begin to worry about or experience heightened stress long before it actually happens.

This anxiety can affect children physically, emotionally and psychologically. Some may show obvious signs of distress, while others may become withdrawn, unusually quiet or increasingly tired. Others may experience stomach aches, headaches or other physical symptoms that reflect their anxiety rather than illness.

Heightened anxiety can also make it much harder for children to think clearly, solve problems or use strategies they would normally rely on. A child who usually knows how to ask for help may be unable to do so when feeling overwhelmed.

Parents will have their own feelings around transitions. Moving to a new school or changing teachers can be stressful for families as well as children. The goal here is to recognise these feelings while encouraged parents to recognise these feelings while remembering the aim is not to eliminate change, but to help children develop strategies to manage change more successfully throughout their lives.

Tips for Supporting Successful Transitions

Successful transitions begin with careful planning that is tailored to the individual child. It can help to identify which transitions present the greatest challenge for an individual child. For example, they may cope well with changing classrooms but struggle with arriving at school each morning. Understanding these individual differences makes it easier to identify practical solutions and appropriate support. There is no universal timetable for preparing children for change.

Plan ahead

Some children benefit from months of preparation, multiple conversations and repeated visits to a new setting. Others become increasingly anxious if they have too much time to think about an upcoming change and may cope better with a shorter period of preparation. Parents know their child best and should draw on their own knowledge when deciding how much preparation is likely to be helpful. Schools should also remain flexible, recognising that strategies may need to change if a child responds differently than expected.

Even with excellent planning, unexpected situations will arise. A member of staff may be absent through illness, a classroom may change at short notice or another unforeseen event may occur. Planning should therefore include not only preparing for expected transitions but also focus on helping children develop flexible strategies for coping with changes that cannot be predicted, and helping children understand that while some things may change, many important parts of their day will remain familiar and predictable.

Use visual supports

Making information as clear and accessible as possible can be really important for children. Visual supports can be one of the most effective ways of reducing uncertainty because many children are able to process visual information more easily than spoken language, especially when they are anxious.

Examples of visual supports include:

Visual timetables
Colour-coded school maps
Symbols on classroom doors
Photographs of key members of staff
Labels for different learning areas
Visual prompts showing the steps involved in everyday routines.

The presenters also encouraged schools to teach children how to use these tools, rather than assuming they will understand them automatically. A timetable or map is only useful if a child knows how to interpret it. Practising with these resources before they are needed can help children feel much more confident when transitions occur.

Families can use similar approaches at home. Visual morning routines, for example, can reduce the number of verbal prompts needed before school and help children become more independent in preparing for the day ahead. Dual coding – where spoken language is supported by pictures or symbols – can help children understand new vocabulary, remember routines and process information more effectively during periods of change.

Build predictable routines

Predictability reduces anxiety. Children often feel more secure when they know what is expected, who they will be with and what will happen next.

Establishing consistent routines helps create this sense of predictability and can make transitions feel much more manageable. These routines should become familiar as quickly as possible following any transition, whether that is moving to a new classroom, starting secondary school or simply beginning a new school year. However, routines cannot always remain the same. Teachers become unwell, timetables change and unexpected events occur.

Adults can help children by explaining which parts of the day are changing and, equally importantly, which parts are staying the same.

For example, if a familiar teacher is absent, adults might explain:

"Your teacher is different today, but you'll still be in the same classroom, sitting in the same place, with the same classmates, and you'll still have lunch at the usual time."

Helping children focus on familiar aspects of their day can reduce uncertainty and make unexpected changes feel less overwhelming.

Some children benefit from sitting down and talking things through, while others may find conversations easier during a walk or while engaged in another activity. Matching communication to the child's preferred style can make discussions about transition much more successful.

Support independence

As children move through school, new expectations are placed on them to organise themselves independently. Remembering equipment, navigating larger school sites, keeping track of homework and managing more complex timetables – these can all become additional sources of anxiety during transition.

There are practical strategies that can help children develop these skills gradually.

Many schools now encourage pupils to use planners, diaries or digital calendars to organise their work. Mobile phones, where appropriate, can also become valuable organisational tools through the use of reminders, alarms and calendar notifications.

Digital tools:

Phone reminders to prompt students about homework, equipment and daily routines
School apps made available for keeping track of homework assignments and timetables

These digital tools not only support children through school but also help them develop important skills for adulthood.

Other practical strategies:

Colour-coding exercise books and folders
Using labelled plastic wallets for homework
Keeping subject books in school where possible
Agreeing clear routines for packing school bags
Providing visual reminders of equipment needed for each day.

Organisation should not become an additional barrier to learning. Where children need extra support with these routines, schools can often make reasonable adjustments to reduce unnecessary anxiety while still promoting increasing independence over time.

Understand sensory needs during transitions

Sensory processing differences can have a significant impact on how children experience transitions.

New environments often bring unfamiliar sounds, smells, lighting, textures and levels of activity, all of which can increase sensory overload. Even familiar schools can become challenging during busy transition times. Sometimes adults only see the "tip of the iceberg" when a child becomes overwhelmed. What appears to be challenging behaviour may actually be the result of many smaller sensory experiences building up.

Signs that a child may be experiencing sensory overwhelm can include:

Becoming unusually tired
Stomach aches or nausea
Withdrawal from activities
Increased distress
Changes in behaviour
Avoiding situations they would usually enjoy.

Sensory needs are highly individual. A child may cope well in most classrooms but struggle in one particular classroom because of lighting, background noise, smells from nearby kitchens or toilets, or simply because of where they are seated. Rather than assuming any difficulties are linked to a particular subject, adults should explore whether aspects of the physical environment might be contributing to the child's anxiety.

Schools and families should work together to identify each child's individual signs of sensory overload, as these are often subtle and may not be immediately recognised by adults who do not know the child well. Understanding these patterns can help schools make simple but highly effective adjustments.

Work in partnership with schools

Successful transitions rely on effective communication between families and schools.

Parents have detailed knowledge of their child's strengths, anxieties, communication style and early signs of distress. Sharing this information with schools allows staff to understand what support is likely to be most effective from the outset.

Likewise, schools should communicate openly with families about new routines, expectations and available support so that parents can reinforce these at home.

Where possible, children should be involved in identifying what helps them feel safe, what situations they find challenging and what adjustments they believe would make a positive difference. For example, by knowing a child finds corridor congestion to be overwhelming, allowing them to leave lessons a few minutes early to avoid the crowds can support them in making it to their next lesson on time. Similar adjustments, such as arriving slightly earlier for lunch or leaving playgrounds before they become crowded, can often help reduce sensory overload without disrupting learning

Help children regulate

Children who become overwhelmed during transitions often need time to regulate before they are ready to return to learning. Expecting a child to immediately resume classroom activities while they are still distressed is unlikely to be successful.

Schools should allow children the opportunity to recover using familiar regulation strategies. These might include emotional regulation scales, Zones of Regulation, quiet spaces or other approaches already known to the child.

Placing strict time limits on regulation is not advised. For example, telling a child they have five minutes to calm down may inadvertently increase pressure and make regulation even more difficult. Instead, adults should check in sensitively, provide reassurance and support children to return to activities when they feel ready.

Successful transitions are built on understanding, flexibility and collaboration. Every child will experience change differently, and there is no single strategy that works for everyone. By recognising individual needs, reducing unnecessary uncertainty and working together across home and school, families and professionals can help children develop the confidence and resilience needed to navigate transitions throughout their education and beyond.

Practical Preparation for Secondary School

Insights from our SEND Connect webinar with Rainbow Trees Pathway

Rainbow Trees Pathway built on many of the themes explored by the SENSS Communication and Interaction Team by focusing on practical steps families can take before September.

They encouraged parents to remember that transition is a process rather than a single day. Preparing children gradually, visiting the school, building familiarity with routines and identifying trusted adults can all help reduce anxiety.

Some of the practical suggestions included:

Practising the journey to school before September.
Asking for a school map and walking important routes around the building.
Locating classrooms, toilets, the canteen, the SEND department and any quiet spaces.
Building independence by practising packing school bags, using timetables and organising equipment.
Identifying a named adult who your child can go to if they need help.
Talking through what the first day will look like and what will stay the same, as well as what will change.

Rainbow Trees Pathway also reminded families that children do not need a diagnosis before schools provide support. Schools should respond to identified needs through Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP) and reasonable adjustments where appropriate, helping children access learning from their very first day.

Thank you

Our sincere thanks to Oxfordshire County Council's SENSS Communication and Interaction Team and Rainbow Trees Pathway for sharing their expertise, practical advice and experience through these SEND Connect webinars.

Both sessions highlighted the importance of understanding each child's individual needs, working in partnership with families, and planning ahead to help children and young people with SEND feel confident and supported as they move into secondary school.

We're grateful to everyone who joined the webinars, shared their questions and experiences, and helped make these sessions so valuable. We hope the recordings, presentation slides and resources continue to support families as they prepare for this important milestone.