Starting school takes on a digital twist in NSW

The New South Wales Department of Education has released information for early childhood education service providers who participated in last year’s pilot of a Transition to School Digital Statement, as well as for NSW public schools who have received an email with the new Transition to School Digital Statements.

 

Services who were not a part of the pilot should continue to use the current Transition to School Statement, the Department said. 

 

The Transition to School Statement is optional in NSW. It is recommended that early childhood education and care services complete a statement for children starting school the following year. 

 

All Transition to School Digital Statements completed during the pilot were delivered to primary schools in readiness for Week 1 of Term 1, 2021 to support children commencing kindergarten.

 

Completed digital statements have been archived in PDF format and will be available for view or download when the Transition to School Digital Statement portal is again available to services later in 2021.

 

The information in the statement summarises a child’s strengths, interests and approaches to learning in their year prior to school. It assists primary school teachers to better understand a child and how best to support their transition from early childhood education to school.

 

The new Transition to School Digital Statement was made available to a small number of services during a pilot last year. Services participating in the pilot were able to choose whether to use the new digital statement or the existing paper-based Transition to School Statement.

 

Feedback gathered during the pilot, and the outcomes of the pilot, will be used to improve the offering before it is made available to any more NSW services in 2021. 

 

Note, the information outlined in this piece does not cover troubleshooting issues. For support with questions about how to use the Transition to School Digital Statement, please call 1800 619 113 (toll free) or email [email protected]