What developmental resources do our pre-schoolers have approaching the transition to school?

Abstract

The transition to school is one of the most important periods of a child’s life. A focus on their development as children approach this transition can help us understand how children are tracking towards further learning and development at school. It can also indicate possible areas of concern that we should be planning for. This paper uses the data from ‘Growing Up in New Zealand’ (GUiNZ) study to answer the question – what resources do our pre-schoolers have for starting school? The GUiNZ study measures some core development areas for pre-schoolers and this paper describes these core areas and comments on how development reflects what is valued by the early childhood education (ECE) curriculum (Te Whāriki), as well as the curricula at school (the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa).