Familiarization and Transition

It is useful to know some things that facilitate a child’s smooth transition to school life:

Particularly important for achieving the best possible adaptation is to prepare the child for the change that is about to take place in his or her life. Very often, difficulties in adaptation are the result of incorrect or incomplete preparation of the child. Some helpful tips for proper preparation are listed below:

• The most important thing is for the parents to prepare themselves psychologically to accept the new reality so they can in turn properly prepare the child. At this point, it is very helpful to talk to each other and share thoughts and feelings.
• It is very beneficial to have a discussion with the child beforehand, so that he or she is prepared and informed about the integration into the new school environment.
• This change should be discussed in a positive way and linked to how many nice things the child will gain from the new experience, such as learning new games, making friends, etc.
• Visiting the school will greatly help the child’s smooth integration, as it will give him/her the opportunity to get to know the school environment and see how many new and interesting things he/she can do there.
• If a new baby is due to join the family, it is preferable that the child joins the pres-school 1 – 2 months before the birth so that he/she does not feel that the new family member is a reason to leave home.

• The emotional state of the parents has a huge impact on the child’s adjustment. Research has shown that when parents mirror their own strong emotional difficulties, fears, doubts, hesitation, etc, the child has more difficulty integrating and adapting to his/her new environment.
• It helps tremendously for parents to be firm and confident that something very good and non-negotiable is happening with the child’s transition to their new school.
• Waking up in the morning should ideally be done in a pleasant mood and early enough before the child leaves so as to prevent the day from starting with stress and time pressure.
• It is better for parents to say goodbye sweetly and confidently to their child and to leave the school without bartering and negotiating the time of departure as this prolongs the child’s adjustment time.
• Even if the whole management of the child’s integration is done in the most appropriate way, there may still be difficulties in adapting to the new environment. These difficulties need not worry parents because they are perfectly normal and expected since they are an expression of a healthy reaction due to separation anxiety.

The integration of the child into Kindergarten is an important step in the child’s self-determination and familiarisation with similar situations of changes in their environment, as the child will be called upon to face similar separations and adaptations many times in his/her life.
That is why it is more beneficial to let enthusiasm and joy for the child’s development prevail, even if this sometimes involves difficult situations and intense emotions.

The Department of Counselling and Psychopedagogical Support of CGS considers it essential to support the student as a mental entity within the educational process.

The psychologist is called upon to investigate those elements that hinder the psycho-emotional development of the student in order to enable him/her to participate creatively in the educational process.

Teachers and parents are supported and trained to help young learners to develop personal, social and mental life skills and become competent and happy people.
The work of the Psychologists and Counsellors is based on the following axes:

Student support
– Psycho-emotional support of the child during the period of adaptation to school.
– Individual or group meetings aimed at his/her smooth integration and development, both cognitively and socially, at school.

Collaboration with teachers
– Awareness of any emotional or developmental difficulties of students.
– Working with teachers to solve problems that arise in students’ interpersonal relationships, in the family, in relationships with teachers, always with the aim of supporting the student.
– Monitoring the classroom and group dynamics, with the aim of ensuring that the group functions well.
– Meetings with teachers to organise interventions on issues arising inside or outside the school context.
– Working with teachers to group students for the next grade.
– Councelling on student needs and classroom management to facilitate and improve the educational process.

Cooperation with parents
– Support and counselling of parents on important issues.
– Parental counselling on the adjustment period and managing separation anxiety.
– Seminars, talks or experiential workshops on psycho-emotional issues.