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It is widely known how important it is for children to be supported as they transition to school. To do this well requires information about children’s learning and development and knowing when to give extra help.
The Department for Education is committed to use the best available evidence to aid students and put information in the hands of teachers.
Building on the learnings from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) , this year an 'on-entry to school' tool will be field-tested in selected preschools and schools. Based on the findings of the field testing, a larger trial across sites is intended for 2017.
The aim is to put evidence about every child’s learning into the hands of families and educators. This will help to tell us which children are on track and are travelling fine and help us to follow up on additional learning needs in a consistent way across the transition to school. It is anticipated that this information will assist schools to create educational plans for children as they progress through school.
We are leading work with sites to develop the on-entry to school measures based on current evidence about:
- children’s physical development
- social and emotional skills
- executive functioning
- numeracy and literacy.
If you have comments or feedback, contact the centre on (08) 8207 2079 or at sally.brinkman@telethonkids.org.au.
As part of the consultation process around this work, feedback will be sought more broadly across the department over the coming months.