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Having members of staff from the Juniors going over to the Infants was helpful, having the opportunity to visit the Juniors on several occasions, using the facilities at the Juniors throughout their time at the Infants such as; the school field for sports day as well as using the grounds for den building when their visit was cancelled due to the weather.

Having a buddy in another year group was also helpful and the information evening in the Summer term. The red box in Reception to drop off important information is helpful. Mrs Sarah Burton!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has the patience of a saint!!!

Our children are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy! They are so proud to be part of Arno Vale Junior School.

I feel I have no concerns with my child settling in, I feel teachers are approachable.

I have found that transitions have been well planned and my children have seemed well prepared for the new school year. When they have spent time with new class teachers they have come home full of enthusiasm and have seemed excited. I thought the information evenings were useful and informative.

The transition for both my children was very smooth. They were happy they'd visited the classrooms before and got to know who would be in their new classes. They felt they knew the teachers from general school activities and even so their teachers were welcoming and approachable, to help with any problems.

Parents evening was helpful and set at the right time, to let the children settle in a little and allow the teachers to therefore be able to make an assessment of where they are at, education wise, friendship groups, characters.

Think the school have things just right.

The introductory meeting for parents as was trialled this year is a good idea.

The children seemed happy with the amounts of visits they had with their new teachers/classrooms.

The visit to the new class teacher that they had was about right. When my child moved from infants to juniors the visits that they had were good.

My year two child benefits from going to breakfast club.

I liked the welcome to year 5 letters that went out earlier this year.

The transition visits to the new classrooms appear to work well

Thank you for all your lovely comments. We are pleased that the new additions to transition have gone down well.

Could we have information about where to stand and where to go on the first day? Particularly for Year 3 parents and children.

This information is on the letter given to the new Year 3 parents, and in the new parents evening in the summer.

Please see the later comment about a map!

We need to know which door children are supposed to enter school on their first day.

Could the infants look around all the classrooms before they start?

Could they stay for dinners one day before starting at juniors?

Please can we have more notice of dates for meetings.

This information is given to the children when they meet their new teachers. We will pass this information onto parents next time. Please see later comment about a map!

The children get a full tour of the school on their visit day, and also do now stay for a school dinnertime.

We try to provide as much notice possible.

Could the children have the option in the first few days to sit next to close friends?

Some teachers do this, but this doesn’t work for all children. We do discuss suitable seating plans with previous teachers.

Could the children have a little more time in Year 6 to discuss who they put down to be in class with?

We are little constrained by this, as it is something we do on behalf of the secondary schools and have very little control over when the requests come in! The children are asked to think about this nearer the end of year so they are ready when needed.

Could we informally meet the new teachers? Eg Woodthorpe Infants used to tie this in with a children's art exhibition just before the summer holiday

Could we have a map of the school sent out before the end of the previous year with class exits marked?

Could we have an equipment list before the children start in juniors?

Children don’t always remember to pass on information, so parents need the information directly.

Most staff members are present at the new parents evening in the summer.

We will look into creating a map for all year groups entry/exit points for next year.

Apart from a PE kit, no equipment is necessary – all is provided by the school.

Some information is passed on via the children, as part of being in the juniors is learning to take responsibility for passing on messages. However, important information is also provided on newsletters and/or on the website.

Is enough information passed on from old to new teacher?

Do the children need a full half term to settle in?

Could the welcome meeting be held in the evening?

The teachers spend a lot of time on transition. We have staff meetings and informal discussions throughout the transition period. We aim to be as thorough as possible but if mistakes are made – we do apologise, we are only human!

We do not have a formal settling in period. However, some children do need longer than others to settle in, this is judged by the class teachers.

We do hold many meetings in the evenings over the course of the year which some parents find difficult to attend, so occasionally we will have events straight after school. Also, the staff are not always available to attend evening meetings due to having family commitments of their own.

Could we have more information about the curriculum and plans for the year, assembly/whole school themes, and what sports/PE activities the children will be doing too?

Could we have anonymised good examples of homework?

Could we have a copy of the class timetable?

All this information is on the website.

This is quite difficult to do. The homework is not always the same from year to year, some children are set different homework tasks and our expectations vary from child to child. The class teachers are more than happy to provide feedback on homework.

We will look into sending out a skeleton timetable at the start of the year but it may not be much help, as it can (and does frequently) change from day to day or week to week.

Could information about kids - behaviour, abilities, learning style, etc be relayed from one teacher to the next?

This information is passed on, the staff do work very closely together, both in the summer term when classes are finalised and throughout the autumn term. However bear in mind the children can change quite significantly over the summer holidays. Also, a new class, a new teacher and new classmates all have an impact on how a child behaves and learns. All the information that is passed on may simply not be relevant anymore.