Expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland: Quality Action Plan

Transitions That Are Well Managed

In an ELC setting there are several transitions we expect a child to manage, from: home to the setting; person to person; setting to setting; outdoors to indoors and ultimately from ELC to primary school. It is essential that all of these are handled sensitively, inclusively and positively.

Building the Ambition is already strong on the importance of transitions and pays particular attention to the needs of the eligible two year olds when considering transitions within the setting. As part of the refresh of the National Guidance on Pre-birth to Three and Building the Ambition, we will strengthen the guidance on supporting children when they make the transition from home to ELC.

We know that in some cases primary schools are supporting transitions by embedding early years specialists in Primary 1. As stated in the 2017-18 Action Plan, we will identify and share examples of how, through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, schools are supporting transitions from ELC to primary school using Attainment Scotland Funds.

CfE early level, covering children from age three, should ensure that children’s wellbeing and learning is supported in a continuous and progressive way across ELC settings and into primary school. Curriculum for Excellence benchmarks were published during 2017 to provide clear statements about what learners need to know and be able to do to achieve each level in CfE, including the early level by the end of P1 (for most children).

The expansion in ELC is likely to result in more variation in patterns of attendance at ELC (different drop-off and pick up times) and might also increase the use of multiple settings (involving multiple providers across the day/week). The latter might include not only different settings providing the funded hours about also ‘top-up’ or ‘wrap around’ care. Sharing information about children’s needs and interests and tracking their progress across the curriculum will therefore have to be carefully managed. We will therefore include a module in the national programme of CPL on how to collaborate in tracking, monitoring and planning across the curriculum.