Building transition partnerships
Principal Bradley Clark
00:00-02:29
So the AEDC data told us that we had a very large percentage of children who were developmentally vulnerable across a range of areas. So some of those areas we thought we could make a really positive impact with, by developing some really productive partnerships with our early childhood centres. That was really our hook as to how we engaged those early childhood centres initially; that shared ownership of this is what we have in common, this is what we can do as a meaningful collaborative project, rather than just a transition process of: “thanks for the students”. It gave us something tangible and concrete to work on. 
How did you build partnerships?
What we did start up with our early childhood centres was a professional network.  Sometimes there was professional development, other times there was just general discussion. We would talk around what we're doing in Prep, they would share what they're doing at the end of the year, they would talk through their transition statements with us, and help us interpret the meaning of those documents. So it was a two-way collaborative street, where we were all engaged in that professional learning, and we found that that also built the relationship and higher levels of trust. 
How was your network formed?
The network developed from an invitation. Initially we had visited each of our early childhood centres, with a formal invitation saying join us for afternoon tea and - at the school. It was very low key event where we just go to know each other. We introduced each other, and got to know who was in our learning community. So it was very low level, very low risk for those people to get involved. We did go to the early childhood centres and work with them at their centres. We also invited them back to our school, in several different contexts. At the start of every school year we always invite them to say come and share in the celebration of how well your students have transitioned into our school. That's something that they were extremely proud of, and very happy to see their students, that they've obviously worked with over sometimes a couple of years, to be successfully transitioned into school.