Transition

Moving between settings or key stages. For many children with SEND it is the hardest thing in the school year.

What it is

Transition covers moves between settings — nursery to Reception, primary to secondary, school to college — and smaller moves between year groups, classes and teachers.

For children with SEND, and for anxious children generally, transitions are where progress is most often lost.

Where it applies

Every child, but the planning matters most for children with SEND, looked-after children, and children with anxiety.

How it works

For a child with an EHCP, there are statutory deadlines: the plan must be reviewed and amended, naming the new setting, by **15 February** in the year of transfer from primary to secondary or to a post-16 setting, and by **31 March** for transfer into post-16 provision at other points.

Beyond the deadlines, useful transition is extra visits, photographs, meeting key staff, a map, a transition passport, and a named adult on day one.

What you can ask for

Ask for the 15 February deadline to be met and chase it in January. Missing it is common and it leaves families without a confirmed place at the point they most need one.

Ask for enhanced transition: additional visits, at quiet times, with a familiar adult.

Ask for information to actually transfer. "The SENCO will pass it on" frequently means a folder arriving in September and being read in November.

Where to get help

SENDIASS and the receiving school's SENCO. IPSEA on the statutory deadlines.