Do I have to complete a Transition to School Statement?

The Transition to School Statement is optional in NSW. It is recommended that early childhood education and care services complete a statement for children starting school the following year. The information in the statement records a child’s interests, strengths and preferred ways of learning in their year prior to school. It assists primary school teachers to better understand a child and how best to support their transition from early childhood education to school.

Do I have to complete the new Transition to School Digital Statement? What if we follow a different process for the Transition to School Statement, or have already completed our Transition to School Statements for this year?

The Transition to School Digital Statement and the related pilot is optional. You can choose to use a different process to complete the Transition to School Statement. However, we would love your feedback on the pilot of the new digital version so we can make it more useful for services like yours. We've designed the Transition to School Digital Statement to make it easier for early childhood services to complete and send the statement to schools.

It would be great if you could test out the functions of the Transition to School Digital Statement and provide us with your feedback. We'll roll out the new statement to all NSW early childhood and education services, pending the outcome of the pilot.

Why was I selected for the pilot?

We've selected a representative sample of services across NSW to pilot the statement. This includes community preschools, mobile preschools and long day care services.

Can I use our service’s existing consent form?

You must use a document substantially in the form of the written consent form template provided (PDF, 132KB).

Do I need to share the form with parents?

Parent/guardian consent is required for each child before creating a Transition to School Digital Statement. You will need to obtain written consent (PDF, 132KB) before completing the statement. There is an option to print/download to send to parents after you have completed the form.

What happens if I decide not to participate?

The Transition to School Digital Statement pilot is optional. While we would love you to participate in the pilot, you do not need to and there are no ramifications for not participating. We would like to hear more about why you were not interested in participating, so we will send you a survey at the end of the pilot period.

Can I still participate if I was not selected?

The pilot for the Transition to School Digital Statement is limited to a small number of services to ensure these services can be supported during the pilot period.

Services that didn't receive an email inviting them to participate in the pilot may not be able to login to the Transition to School Digital Statement. However, if your service is able to login, you can begin using the Transition to School Digital Statement.

If you choose to use the Transition to School Digital Statement but did not receive an invitation to join the pilot, please let us know at ececd@det.nsw.edu.au so we can provide you with an opportunity to provide feedback on the pilot version of the Transition to School Digital Statement.

Services who aren’t part of the pilot and cannot access the Transition to School Digital Statement should continue to use the current Transition to School Statement.

Will the Transition to School Digital Statement change after the pilot?

Depending on the feedback received from the pilot, we may make minor changes to the Transition to School Digital Statement and choose to launch the statement statewide. It would be great if you could test the functions of the Transition to School Digital Statement and provide us with your feedback.

When do I have to complete the statement?

We'll be contacting pilot services in October with a survey asking for your feedback on your experiences so far. You do not need to complete all your statements before the end of October as the Transition to School Digital Statement will remain live for you to use after the pilot has concluded.