ABSTRACT
Most children anticipate the start of school with mixed emotions ranging from excitement to apprehension. It is unlikely that all children will respond to starting school in the same way because people react to change in different ways and there are variations in their experiences of the transition. If children settle well in their first year at school it ‘sets them up for later’ (Laurent, 2000). However, research (Curtis, 1986; Cleave and Brown, 1991; Dowling, 1995; Kienig, 1999) has raised concerns that starting school might cause anxiety that affects children’s emotional well-being and their long-term social adjustment, thus hindering future learning. This chapter explores one way of helping children to gain skills of resiliency to help them through the transition from pre-school to school.
