Supporting Children’s Transition in Early Years Education: Advice for Nursery Professionals

Transitions are one of the most emotionally loaded moments in a child’s early life. Whether a child is moving from home to nursery for the first time, shifting between rooms within a setting, or preparing to start reception, each change asks something significant of them: trust a new adult, learn a new routine, and feel safe somewhere unfamiliar. 

For nursery professionals, supporting those transitions well is one of the most skilled things you do. It is not just about settling-in sessions and comfort objects. It is about understanding what each child needs, communicating clearly with families, and building the kind of environment where children feel genuinely known. 

This guide covers the full picture: the different types of transition children experience, the most common challenges practitioners face, practical strategies that go beyond the basics, and what the early years sector’s most vulnerable children need from us during periods of change. 

What do we mean by transitions in early years? 

The word “transition” often makes practitioners think of the big moments: a child’s first day at nursery, or the move to reception class. But transitions in the early years are far more frequent than that, and the smaller ones matter just as much. 

Transitions aren’t just movements between settings, but “horizontal” changes within a single day: moving from home to a childminder, then to nursery, then back again. Or shifting from free play to lunchtime. Or moving from the baby room to the toddler room within the same building. 

Yes, the most difficult transitions are after those where a child moves into a nursery for the first time, but these daily transitions also need to be thought about and planned for effectively, too.

The main types of transitions in early years children experience 

• Home to setting: a child’s first experience of regular time away from their primary carers 

• Room to room within a setting: moving from babies to toddlers, or toddlers to pre-school 

• Between settings: changing nursery, or moving from a childminder to a group setting 

• Nursery to reception: the most significant transition, involving a new building, new adults, and a new structure to the day 

• EYFS to KS1: often overlooked, but the shift from reception to Year 1 can be jarring if schools do not maintain continuity of approach 

Each type carries its own challenges. The nursery-to-reception transition tends to receive the most attention, and rightly so. But room moves within your own setting are often underestimated. A child who has spent 18 months building a relationship with their Key Person in the baby room does not simply transfer that security overnight. 

Why transitions matter: the evidence base 

Children who experience poorly managed transitions are more likely to show increased anxiety, regression in skills, and disengagement from learning. The emotional impact is real and measurable. 

The EYFS Statutory Framework places Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) at the heart of early years practice. Transitions directly test all three dimensions: a child’s sense of self, their relationships with others, and their ability to manage feelings and behaviour. 

The benefits of a strong transition are clear: 

• Children who feel “known” by at least one trusted adult settle faster and show stronger engagement with learning 

• Transitions that are planned as a process, not a single event, produce better outcomes for children and families 

• Vulnerable children, including summer-born children, those with SEND, and those who have experienced loss or significant change, need additional time and tailored support 

What the research does not always address is the operational reality facing practitioners. Planning a thoughtful, individualised transition for every child in your setting takes time, coordination, and clear communication. That pressure is real, and it deserves to be named. At eyworks, we offer software to support you with that. 

The most common challenges practitioners face during transitions 

Every practitioner knows these challenges. But naming them clearly and thinking about why they happen is the first step to addressing them well. 

Separation anxiety: in children and parents 

Separation anxiety is the most visible challenge. Children cry, cling, or withdraw. But the less-discussed reality is that parents experience separation anxiety too, and that can make the handover harder for everyone. 

When a parent is visibly distressed at drop-off, children read that distress and their own anxiety increases. Warm, confident communication between practitioners and families at the door matters more than most settings realise. It is not just reassurance; it is a signal to the child that the adults trust each other. Our parent partnership platform can help nervous or distressed parents by providing them a link to their child’s progress, so that they’re always in the loop. Learn more about eyparent.

The child who seems fine but is not 

Some children appear to settle quickly. They engage with activities, follow routines, and show no obvious signs of distress. But beneath that surface, some are managing their anxiety by suppressing it rather than processing it. Practitioners who know a child well, who have read their learning journey and spoken to their family, are far better placed to notice the quieter signs: a child who stops talking as much, who eats less, or who becomes unusually compliant. 

Room moves within the setting 

Moving from the baby room to the toddler room is a significant transition for a child, but it is often treated as a routine administrative event. The child loses their Key Person, their familiar environment, and often their friendship group, all at once. 

Information gaps between settings 

When a child moves to reception, the quality of transition depends heavily on what information the receiving school has. Learning journeys, observations, notes about a child’s communication style, their friendship group, their sensory needs, their particular anxieties: all of this is valuable. But in many settings, this information lives in different places, is hard to compile quickly, and does not always reach reception teachers in a usable format. 

The DfE’s guidance on supporting a smooth transition into reception is clear that sharing meaningful information about each child is essential, and that conversations between key adults provide insights that go beyond written records. The challenge is giving practitioners the time and tools to make that happen. 

Adjusting to new routines 

Children who are used to a particular rhythm in your setting, specific meal times, nap schedules, and the way activities flow through the day, can find it genuinely disorienting to move somewhere with a different structure. This is especially true for children with SEND, for whom predictability is not a preference but a need. 

Communicating clearly with receiving settings about a child’s existing routines, and with families about what to expect, reduces the shock of that adjustment. 

Practical strategies for supporting transitions in early years 

The strategies below are drawn from established best practice and from what practitioners in early years settings tell us actually works. They are not a checklist to complete in order. Use what fits your setting, your children, and your team. 

Build the Key Person relationship before the child arrives 

The Key Person is the single most important factor in a successful transition. Not the environment, not the resources, not the settling-in schedule: the relationship. 

Start building it before the child’s first day. Send a short introduction from the Key Person to the family. Include a photo. Invite the family to share information about the child’s interests, routines, and what comforts them. When the child walks in on day one and sees a familiar face who already knows their name and something about them, the dynamic is different from the start. 

Plan settling-in as a process, not a session 

Most settings offer settling-in visits. The ones that do it well treat settling-in as an ongoing process that adapts to the individual child, not a fixed two-visit schedule. 

A phased approach might look like this: 

1. Initial visit with a parent or carer present (30 to 45 minutes, no pressure to separate) 

1. Short stay without the parent (one to two hours, Key Person present throughout) 

1. Gradual extension based on how the child is responding, not based on a fixed timeline 

1. Full session only when the child shows genuine signs of security: seeking out their Key Person, engaging with play, managing separations without significant distress 

Use visual supports to build predictability 

Children feel safer when they know what is coming next. A visual timetable using real photographs of your setting, your routines, and your staff helps children build a mental map of the day. 

For children moving to reception, photographs of the new school, the classroom, the toilets, the lunch hall, and the teacher can reduce anxiety significantly. Some settings create simple transition booklets with the child that they can take home and look at with their family. 

Involve families as genuine partners 

Families are not just recipients of information during transition. They are the people who know the child best, and they notice things practitioners will not see in a group setting. 

Build in structured opportunities for families to share: 

• The child’s current routines at home (sleep, meals, comfort habits) 

• Any recent changes or stressors in the family 

• What the child is excited about, and what they are worried about 

• Any additional needs or diagnoses that affect how the child manages change 

That information shapes how you support the child. And keeping families updated throughout the transition, not just at the start, builds the trust that makes the whole process work. 

Support emotional expression through play 

Children do not always have the language to say “I am anxious about this change.” Their feelings come out in their behaviour and their play. Practitioners who observe carefully and respond to what they see, rather than waiting for a child to articulate distress, are far more effective at supporting emotional wellbeing during transitions. 

Useful approaches include: 

• Small world play with figures representing families, settings, and schools 

• Role play where children act out drop-off and pick-up scenarios 

• Books about starting nursery or school to open up conversation 

• Feelings charts or weather-based check-ins to give children a low-pressure way to communicate how they feel 

Prepare children for what will be different, not just what will be the same 

Most transition guidance focuses on finding continuity: familiar faces, familiar resources, familiar routines. That continuity matters. But children also benefit from honest, age-appropriate preparation for what will be genuinely different. 

A child moving to reception will encounter a louder lunch hall, longer days, less free-flow play, and a much larger peer group. Acknowledging those differences and giving children language and strategies to manage them is more useful than pretending the change will be seamless. 

The nursery-to-reception transition: what good looks like 

The move from nursery to reception is the most researched transition in the early years, and it is where the gap between what we know and what actually happens is often widest. 

The DfE’s guidance on supporting a smooth transition into reception is clear that the most successful transitions happen when schools, early years providers, and families work together as a connected community. That means joint transition events, reciprocal visits, and shared information about each child’s strengths, interests, and needs. 

In practice, many settings report that the relationship between nursery and school is limited to a brief phone call and a paper transition form. That is not enough. 

What the best settings do differently 

How to manage the admin without losing the personal touch 

One of the least-discussed challenges of transition planning is the administrative load it creates. Compiling learning journeys, writing transition summaries, communicating with multiple families at different stages of the process, and coordinating with receiving schools all take time. Time that practitioners often do not have in abundance. 

This is where having the right systems in place makes a genuine difference. 

When observations, daily logs, and parent communications are all held in one place, pulling together a transition summary for a child takes minutes rather than hours. Practitioners can share a child’s learning journey, their developmental progress, and their Key Person’s notes with a receiving school in a format that is actually useful, not a stack of paper that no one has time to read. 

Daily updates to families through a digital log also mean that parents are not arriving at the end of the settling-in period with unanswered questions about how their child is doing. They have been kept informed throughout, which builds confidence in the setting and reduces the anxiety that can make transitions harder for children. 

Tools like eylog make it straightforward to keep families informed about their child’s day, from what they ate to how they slept to the activities they engaged with. During a transition period, that regular contact is not just convenient; it is part of the support structure that helps children and families feel held. 

eymanage gives nursery managers oversight of the whole process: which children are in settling-in, which are moving rooms, which are transitioning to school, and where the Key Person relationships stand. That visibility means nothing slips through, even during the busy summer term when multiple transitions are happening at once. 

Supporting transitions well: the bigger picture 

Transitions are a microcosm of everything that matters in early years practice: relationships, communication, observation, and the willingness to meet each child where they are. 

When settings get transitions right, children do not just settle faster. They build the emotional resilience and trust in adults that support them through every subsequent change they will face, in school and beyond. 

That is not a small thing. It is some of the most important work in the sector.