Evaluation and transition of the children

This intellectual output consists of a toolset, resource base and a list of recommandations in order to optimize the reception, observation and transition processes of newcomer students into the regular classroom. It is essential to ensure that newcomers may access the level of education that corresponds to their cognitive possibilities in order to reduce early school leaving and to support excellent schooling attainment. Therefore, teachers need knowledge, guidance and support in order to manage the transitions of pupils with highly heterogeneous linguistic and cultural background, from the reception into the school system to the transition into regular classroom. As previously described, educators may not possess the appropriate developmental expectations. As a result, they are inclined to underestimate the true potential of their newcomers while overidentifying possible impairments. Additionally, criteria regarding the reception, admittance, duration of special schooling and transition to regular or to secondary school greatly vary between the cities. These factors may hamper the optimal educational academic development of the pupils.

Thus the objectives of this module are:

  • To identify the most successful strategies to improve the integration of newcomers into the regular classroom
  • To provide strategies and interventions for a better cooperation between teachers of the newcomers and the regular class as well as a better understanding of the competences of pupils and of the educational support they need.
  • To identify the most successful available resources to observe the development of the children and ultimately, to help newcomers to catch up with the curriculum as soon as possible;
  • To develop more cooperation between the different stakeholders to design a transition management programme;
  • To make this knowledge available in order to empower schools across Europe with the ultimate goal to improve the prospects of this vulnerable group of pupils in our society.

Activities, evaluation and dissemination: The currently available practices and resources for reception, observation and integration into regular classroom will be collected (nationally and internationally) and described (3 university sites in collaboration with schools) in the three partner sites. Questionnaires and guidelines will be developed to gather documentation about benchmarks. The UU is responsible for cross-national gathering and analyses of the data. Literature regarding second language learning development, transition practices and educational attainment will be reviewed (UU). The data will be shared using the partner communication blog. Data will be compiled in English and translated into the languages of the partners. A list of best practices regarding reception and transition criteria in Dutch and English will be compiled as well as recommendations for the support of the children when integrated into the regular classroom. Each municipality will reflect about how to optimise the management of transitions based on the module and adapted to its particular situation and elaborate a management programme.