Perry 2011

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‘How ’bout we have a celebration!’

Advice from children on starting school
a a
Bob Perry & Sue Dockett
a
Charles Sturt University , Albury, Australia
Published online: 27 Sep 2011.
To cite this article: Bob Perry & Sue Dockett (2011) ‘How ’bout we have a celebration!’ Advice
from children on starting school, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19:3,
373-386, DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2011.597969
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2011.597969
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European Early Childhood Education Research Journal
Vol. 19, No. 3, September 2011, 373– 386
‘How ’bout we have a celebration!’ Advice from children on

starting school
Bob Perry∗ and Sue Dockett
Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia
ABSTRACT: The first part of this article reports a project in which children were
consulted about ways to improve transition to school. Children from 14 schools and
Downloaded by [University of Tasmania] at 21:27 13 October 2014
prior-to-school settings collaborated with their peers and teachers to plan,

implement and document transition to school. Children attending school reflected
on their own experiences while children about to start school discussed their
existing knowledge and understandings, their uncertainties and questions and
identified ways in which these could be addressed. Both groups documented and
shared their advice with the other participating groups. Transition programmes
were changed to reflect children’s suggestions. The second part of this article
explores some of the methodological complexity associated with engaging young
children and their teachers in research. On one level, we explore relationships
between teachers and researchers and the roles of teachers as co-researchers. On
another level, we explore research relationships between the teachers and the
children involved.
RESUME: La première partie de cet article présente un projet dans lequel des
enfants ont été consultés sur les façons d’amélioration le passage à l’école
primaire. Des enfants de 14 écoles primaires et maternelles ont travaillé avec
leurs pairs et leurs enseignants pour planifier, mettre en oeuvre et documenter ce
passage. Les enfants déjà dans le primaire ont réfléchi sur leurs propres
expériences alors que ceux qui allaient y entrer ont discuté de ce qu’ils en
savaient et comprenaient, de leur incertitude et de leurs questions, et ont identifié
des moyens d’y répondre. Les deux groupes ont documenté et partagé leur avis
avec les autres groupes. Les programmes mis en place pour favoriser le passage
au primaire furent transformés, prenant en compte les suggestions des enfants.
La seconde partie de l’article explore la complexité méthodologique concernant
la participation de jeunes enfants et de leurs enseignants dans la recherche. D’un
côté, nous avons analysé les relations entre chercheurs et enseignants et le rôle
de ces derniers comme co-chercheurs, et l’autre côté les relations entre
enseignants et enfants impliqués.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Der erste Teil dieser Abhandlungen behandelt ein

Projekt, in welchem die Kinder gefragt wurden, wie der Übertritt in die Schule
verbessert werden könne. Kinder aus 14 Schulen und Vorschulen arbeiteten mit
Gleichaltrigen und Lehrerinnen daran, den Übertritt in die Schule zu planen,
durchzuführen und zu dokumentieren. Kinder die bereits die Schule besuchten,
reflektierten über ihre eigenen Erfahrungen. Diejenigen Kinder, welche kurz vor
dem Schuleintritt standen, besprachen, was sie an Vorwissen hatten, was sie
verunsicherte und welches ihre Fragen waren und sie fanden Wege, wie all dem
begegnet werden kann. Beide Gruppen schrieben ihre Vorschläge auf und
∗
Corresponding author. Email: bperry@csu.edu.au
ISSN 1350-293X print/ISSN 1752-1807 online

# 2011 EECERA
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2011.597969
http://www.tandfonline.com
374 B. Perry and S. Dockett
tauschten sie untereinander aus. Existierende Schul-Übertrittsprogramme wurden

verändert und die Vorschläge der Kinder eingebaut.Der zweite Teil dieser
Abhandlung untersucht methodische Komplexitäten im Zusammenhang mit der
Studienbeteiligung kleiner Kindern und ihrer Lehrer und Lehrerinnen. Auf einer
Ebene untersuchen wir die Beziehung zwischen Lehrernund Lehrerinnen auf der
einen und Forschern und Forscherinnen auf der anderen Seite sowie die Rolle
von Lehrern und Lehrerinnen als Ko-Forschern und -Forscherinnen. Auf der
zweiten Ebene untersuchen wir die Beziehung zwischen den Lehrern und
Lehrerinnen auf der einen und den beteiligten Schülerinnen und Schülern auf der
anderen Seite.
RESUMEN: La primera parte de este artı́culo informa sobre un proyecto en el que a los
niños se les consultó sobre las formas de mejorar la transición a la escuela. Los niños
pertenecientes a 14 escuelas y los de preescolar a la escuela colaboraron con sus
compañeros y profesores para planificar, implementar y documentar la transición a
la escuela. Los niños que asisten a la escuela reflexionaron en sus propias
experiencias mientras que los niños a punto de comenzar la escuela conversaron de

su conocimiento e ideas previos, sus incertidumbres y preguntas y señalaron los
modos en que éstos podrı́an abordarse. Ambos grupos documentaron y
compartieron sus consejos con los otros grupos participantes. Los programas de
transición fueron cambiados para reflejar las sugerencias de los niños. La segunda
parte de este trabajo explora algunas de las complejidades metodológicas asociadas
con la participación de los niños y sus maestros en la investigación. En un nivel, se
exploran las relaciones entre profesores e investigadores y los roles de los docentes
ası́ como de co-investigadores. En otro nivel, nosotros exploramos las relaciones de
investigación entre los profesores y los niños involucrados.
Keywords: transition to school; children’s voices; research relationships
Background
Since 1997, we have investigated the perceptions, expectations and experiences of all
involved in children’s transition to school (Dockett and Perry 2007). We have
particularly emphasised the voices of children in these investigations both because
they are the central players in transition to school and because of the recent
significant changes in the ways in which children are viewed. Current perspectives
view children as competent experts on their own lives (James and Prout 1997),
who have a right to have a say in situations that impact on them (Lansdown
2005). The theoretical and conceptual shifts in the ways that we view children and
childhood (Christensen and James 2008), combined with the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations 1989), underpin these
current perspectives.
There are many reasons why accessing children’s perspectives of starting school is
worthwhile (Dockett and Perry 2007):
. Children are the experts on their lives – they are living their childhood now
(Clark and Moss 2001). Adults can remember elements of their childhoods,
but things may have changed since then.
. Children’s experiences are different from those of adults. Engaging in research
with children enables adults to find out what matters to children and how we
can best respond to the things that matter.
. Listening to children is one way to make their interests visible. This is essential if
resources are to be allocated to children in ways that support their interests.
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 375
. Including children’s perspectives acknowledges their right to be heard, and highlights

the need for their views and experiences to be taken seriously (Clark 2005; Lansdown
2005). Article 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations
1989) clearly identifies the rights of children to express their views on matters that
affect them. As researchers we can ensure that children have opportunities to
express this right in meaningful and appropriate ways within research contexts.
. Listening to children is the basis of building respectful relationships. Education,
particularly early childhood education, is based on building such relationships for
the benefit of all involved (Department of Education, Employment and Work-
place Relations 2009).
This article reports on a project which highlights the role of children’s perspectives in
planning, implementing and documenting transition to school. The project was con-
ducted in a regional city in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In NSW, children typi-
cally start formal schooling in January of the year in which they turn five, providing
they are five by July 31 of that year. They must be at school by their sixth birthday.
The first year of school in NSW is called kindergarten. Before they start school, chil-
dren in NSW may attend a range of early childhood settings, including preschool or
childcare, both of which run educational programs.
The Voices of Children project

The Voices of Children project commenced when the Illawarra Transition to School
Program (2009; Kirk-Downey and Perry, 2006) determined to run a small investigation
into the ways in which primary school children could be actively involved in the plan-
ning, implementation and evaluation of transition to school programs. The aim was to
work in a small number of primary schools – and the prior-to-school settings from
which children entered these primary schools – to trial various ways in which children
might be so involved and to ascertain which of these approaches might be appropriate
to adopt within transition programs.
The project was outlined during initial meetings in June, at the end of Term 2 (the
second of the four terms in the school year). These meetings were attended by staff from
both school and prior-to-school settings. The outline was very general, providing
opportunities for educators within these settings to interpret the project in ways they
felt were relevant within their particular contexts.
The following information was included in the call for expressions of interest for the
project.
The purpose of this announcement is to seek expressions of interest from schools for them
to be part of this project. The exact details of what might be involved in the project will
vary from school to school and will be formulated by the school community in conjunc-
tion with the investigators. However, in broad terms, the project at each site will involve a
small group of children – possibly, but not necessarily from right across the school –
working with the school’s transition team to plan, implement and evaluate the transition
to school program for the school and its community. Clearly, there would also need to be
input from teachers and the broader community but such input would be part of the normal
transition program (Perry and Dockett 2008, 6).
Four schools and ten prior-to-school services submitted expressions of interest and
were included in the project. During Term 3 – between July and September – programs
were planned, implemented and documented. At the end of September, children who
had been involved in the project, their teachers, some of their family members and
numerous community members attended the Voices of Children Expo at the city
Council Chambers. Children from each setting were involved in a presentation,
noting particularly what they had done and the impact this had made on their transition
program.
Research approach
Methodology
The overall methodological approach for this study reflects the theoretical framework we
have used in many of our studies concerning starting school. This framework commits us
to strengths-based perceptions of children and their educators, a rights-based recog-
nition of children and educators as active citizens with rights to participate in decisions
that affect them and to ethical symmetry. In practice this framework means that we regard
children as competent and capable of contributing to interactions about their perceptions,
expectations and experiences. It also commits us to recognition that children are not in
training to become future citizens; indeed they are already citizens. Finally, ethical sym-
metry underpins an approach that insists that all research participants – including chil-
dren – are afforded the same ethical considerations. (For further details of the impact
of such a framework on our work, see Dockett, Einarsdóttir, and Perry 2011.) Active
acceptance of such a theoretical framework influences the choice of methods to be
used for data generation and the forms of data analysis employed. One key aspect of
the study was the choice that was given to both educators and children about the
methods they might use. While this provided some challenges for analysis, it does
reflect the overall methodology or theoretical framework underlying the work.
Methods
The essence of the project was for teachers to engage with their groups of children to
determine how the project was to be implemented in each site and, as a consequence,
what data were to be generated and shared. With the emphasis on no one right way to
accomplish the project, a wide range of data were constructed, including:
. books made by children at school to describe what school was like for them and
what new children needed to know;
. DVDs of what school looked like and what happened at school;
. PowerPointw presentations where children shared what was important about their
school;
. drawings about what preschool children expected school to be like; and
. letters from preschool children seeking specific information about school.
Data from the early childhood educators involved in the project came, in part, through
their involvement in the development of these materials. However, there were two other
approaches to data generation by the educators.
Following the Voices of Children Expo, one of the authors visited the schools and
prior-to-school settings involved in the project to gain further feedback. Individual
interviews were held with educators in each setting who had been involved in the
project. These interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the prin-
ciples of grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss 2008).
Secondly, a forum was held in the following March, where educators from each of
the settings involved in the project shared their experiences and reported on the changes
that had been made as a result of the project. The discussion from this forum was audio-
recorded, transcribed and analysed against the categorisations developed from the indi-
vidual educator interviews.
Outcomes
As well as the tangible outcomes that were listed in the previous section, there were
many less tangible, but very important outcomes from the project, including:
. opportunities for learning – about transition, different settings, children’s compe-

tencies and much more;
. links between schools and prior-to-school settings that were either instigated or
strengthened;
. changes made to transition programs as a result of children’s input;
. relationships that children built with other children;
. relationships built among teachers in different settings;
. relationships built among adults and children;
. many ways in which children were treated seriously, as people with valuable con-
tributions to make and the skills and abilities to make these;
. value that adults reported they received from talking and listening to children;
and
. affirmations that children are competent and capable and have the right to be
heard.
Evidence for these claims is provided through an analysis of the various activities and
products from the project. Specific methods of data analysis depend on the nature of the
data and the methodology established for the study. One example of this is the encour-
agement for children to explore a variety of ways of realising their right to participate
and for the researchers, in conjunction with the children, to establish appropriate ways
of analysing. For example, conversations among children and educators about what
might be appropriate in a transition program can be analysed using the principles of
grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss 2008) while drawings and their associated
scripts can be analysed from the perspective of drawing as meaning making (Stanczak
2007). In this article, data analysis sought to listen to children’s perspectives and to use
their input to ask questions not only about the substantive issue of starting school but
also of the methods being used for data generation and analysis.
A celebration
In one preschool, children were asked what teachers at preschool or school could do to
make transition to school better for them. There were many suggestions, including
making some drawings and asking the school teachers to introduce them to friends.
One snippet of conversation shows what the teacher at this setting described as ‘the
combination of excitement about going to school and the sadness about leaving
friends’.
Teacher: Some of you said it would be sad to leave preschool and your friends. I wonder what
we could do to make it not so sad?
Luca: How ‘bout we have a celebration! On the first day I have at school and stay there the
day. Then we go home and get some party clothes on and then come here for a
celebration with everyone who goes to school next year!
Bradley: Can we take our preschool teachers with us? Can we take our big school teachers to
the party? (Perry and Dockett 2008, 11)
As a result of this suggestion, the teachers and children decided that they would have a
celebration party at the preschool, perhaps not on the children’s first day of school but
shortly thereafter, and that the children’s kindergarten teachers would be invited to the
party.
Advice from buddies

In a school, a small group of six kindergarten children and their Year 6 buddies – older
children who had partnered the six younger children when they first came to school
(Dockett and Perry 2005) – were asked to suggest improvements in the transition
program based on their experiences earlier in the year. There were many suggestions
concerning details such as the type of materials and games included in transition pro-
grams, but there were also some major structural suggestions. For example, the kinder-
garten children suggested the following: being outside when we can and sharing
buddies by having three of four for each class. The older buddies also suggested struc-
tural changes such as: having more visits by the preschool children to the school;
having the parents less involved (or not involved at all) so that the children can get
used to being at school; and having current kindergarten children suggest activities
that groups of preschool children could rotate through.
Finding out about school

In another cluster formed by a school and two preschools, teachers in the preschools
had conversations with the children about school. For example, preschool children
were invited to draw what they knew or wanted to know about school and to engage
in some discussion around pictures of school and school events – including working
in the classroom, playing outside and eating lunch. Children’s comments suggested
that they knew quite a bit about school already. Any questions were collated into a
booklet entitled: What I would like to know about school. Kindergarten children
were asked to think about their transition to school. Their comments were recorded
on a survey. One example is shown in Figure 1.
Following these initial conversations, brainstorms and drawing activities, the edu-
cators across the settings arranged a series of visits: the kindergarten teacher and some
students visited the preschools and the children and teachers from the preschools
visited the school. Planning for the preschool visits meant that the kindergarten chil-
dren had to think about what questions preschool children might ask and what they
should take on the visits. They documented their thinking in a number of ways
(Figure 2).
Children’s perspectives were already taken seriously by the adult educators across
these settings but this project provided many opportunities to document and share
Figure 1. Kindergarten survey.
Figure 2. Questions and things to take on the preschool visit.
children’s perspectives in different ways. Of particular note was the success of the
booklets from the preschools as a stimulus for reflection by the school children and
as a catalyst for discussion during the visits.
A week in kindergarten
Another cluster of a school and three prior-to-school settings launched into an extensive
program of consultation, visitation and documentation. Through the kindergarten
teacher, an invitation was extended to the broad school community to comment on
the transition program and make suggestions about changes and improvements.
From the comments of kindergarten children, a book called Let’s find out all about
school was produced. The prior-to-school teachers and kindergarten teacher planned
a visit to each centre to talk with children about starting school. Children at the
prior-to-school settings and the school were encouraged to talk about starting school
and what was or had been important for them. Kindergarten children developed a
PowerPointw presentation for new children, presenting an overview of a week in kin-
dergarten at their school. (The kindergarten teacher assisted her children with technical
issues around making the PowerPointw but decisions about the content were substan-
tially taken by the children.) The children thought it particularly important to tell new
children what they did at school – hence, the focus on a week in kindergarten. Figure 3
shows one day.
A small group of kindergarten children (who had previously attended the respective
prior-to-school settings) took the PowerPointw presentation to these settings and shared
it, along with their experiences of school, with the prior-to-school children and staff.
The preschool children shared some of their drawings about school and asked questions
of both the kindergarten children and the teacher (see Figure 4).
Communication between staff in the prior-to-school settings and school set up a
positive context for the visit of the kindergarten teacher and school children. When
these visits occurred, the children were very excited. The preschoolers had been
Figure 3. A day in kindergarten.

Figure 4. What school will be like.
talking and drawing about school, and some children had questions they wanted to ask
about school. When the school group arrived, some of the preschoolers tended to be
very quiet and somewhat overwhelmed. However, all the preschool children who
then attended transition to school programs through their various schools did seem
to respond positively to these, possibly because they felt that they already had some
background knowledge. Some of these children recognised the teacher and the children
from the visit.
Voices of Children Expo

At the conclusion of the project, the children who had participated, their teachers,
members of the Transition to School Program, council officers, some family
members and the researchers attended the Voices of Children Expo, held at the
Council Chambers. This was an opportunity for the teachers and children to share
their involvement and to celebrate the outcomes. It was also an opportunity to demon-
strate to children (and their teachers) that what they had contributed was valued. Each
site involved in the project was invited to share their experiences through a presentation
led by the children involved. There was obvious excitement and pride in all the groups
of children and teachers as they recounted the journeys they had undertaken throughout
the project.
In correspondence following the Expo, one of the teachers commented:
It was fantastic to see everyone again at the Council [for the Expo] and to observe their
varying journeys. I found it particularly beneficial for all our children involved in terms of
them being able to see the whole project through from inception to completion. All our
children were very excited about participating in the project itself and the excursion (pre-
dominantly the bus ride) was a nice ‘reward’ for all their hard work. I must commend all
other schools and prior-to-school settings involved on their fabulous job, the presentations
were fabulous! (Perry and Dockett 2008, 45).
What does the Voices of Children project mean for future transition to school
programs?
All teachers involved in the project were asked to indicate what they thought the
impacts of the project would be on their own practice. The following is a summary
of their responses.
. Recognition of the value of children being involved in transition to school

processes.
. Recognition of the importance of children being involved in decision making and

planning of transition to school programs.
. Incorporation of children’s suggestions into transition programs.
. Celebration of opportunities to listen to, document and respond to children’s per-
spectives and to rethink transition to school based on these perspectives.
. Increased cooperation and collaboration among the schools and prior-to-school
settings.
. Increased confidence on the part of prior-to-school settings to engage with
schools to which some of their children will be moving but which were not
involved in the project.
. Increased opportunities for educators across the settings to interact, plan and
evaluate transition to school experiences.
. Development and use of resources that are appropriate and relevant to children as
they make the transition to school (Perry and Dockett 2008).
The project has impacted on the educators involved, both in terms of their own collaborative
propensities and their recognition that children, from both prior-to-school and school set-
tings, have important roles to play in planning and implementing transition to school pro-
grams. At this level, then, the project could be declared a success. It is pleasing to note that
many of the impacts outlined above continue to be implemented within the local transition
to school professional network (Illawarra Transition to School Program 2009).
Teachers and researchers

One of the elements of high quality practice in early childhood education is that teachers con-
tinually reflect on their practice and seek improvement (Siraj-Blatchford et al. 2006). In the
Voices of Children project, the teachers who expressed interest in being involved were motiv-
ated by a sense of reflection and improvement that had been created over the preceding three
years through the work of the Illawarra Transition to School Program (Kirk-Downey and
Perry 2006). Some of them were quite experienced in listening to the voices of children.
For example, in a book of children’s comments entitled Voices of Children in Transition
to School: It’s a Celebration, two preschool educators wrote the following.
We are convinced about the value of children being involved in the transition to school
process and the importance of experiences being designed for children by children.
This process of collecting information from children and giving children the opportunity
to be involved in decision making and planning at preschool is not a new concept. We
have over the years developed skills to allow children every opportunity to be involved
and we often call for a meeting to discuss issues, planning, concerns, exciting changes
happening, new information and so on. For the Voices of Children project, we followed
this same approach (Perry and Dockett 2008, 9, emphasis in original).
For other educators involved in the project, this approach was new.
The researchers in the project were very pleased when so many participants expressed
interest in being involved, particularly given that there were very few resources available.
Quite consciously, only general guidance was given by the researchers – we wanted to find
out what the teachers and their children could do, not whether they could do what we
suggested. The project was about eliciting children’s voices in the planning, implemen-
tation and documentation of each site’s transition to school program. How that was
done was left up to participants in each site. This was a strategy which recognised that
the teachers were capable professionals who had a right to have a say in matters that
affected them, just as it was hoped that the teachers recognised similar rights for their chil-
dren. It was a risky strategy in that there was little researcher control over what the various
groups of children and teachers did, how they planned what they did, and how they
recorded it all. Not surprisingly, different groups of teachers and children did different
things and did them in different ways. Some teachers encouraged their children to think
‘outside the square’ and be innovative; others were not so willing to relinquish their
control over their site’s experiences.
In the follow-up interviews with teachers, some expressed feeling very unsure of
‘what was required’ when they first started the project. They sought input from one
of the researchers about formats, amounts of documentation required and the amount
of time they should spend on the project. In response, they received confirmation
that they and their children needed to develop an approach that was relevant in their
context. In other words, there was no set format or documentation to be completed,

and no set time allocation. While this did not alleviate the discomfort of everyone, it
did allow those who were willing to ‘fly’ to do just that. Their successes then rubbed
off on the few who were still floundering from lack of direction. In the end, teachers
from all 14 settings succeeded in developing ways in which their children could be
involved in their transition to school programs.
Such an approach to research as used in this project, where the researchers are seeking
to find out what will happen when teachers and their children determine the nature and
level of involvement can be methodologically complex. The central guidance given to the
teachers was that they were to engage with the voices of their children. However, there
was also a reasonably tight timeframe, tied to sharing the results of their collaboration at
the Expo. Hence, there was a tendency, in a few of the sites, for the teacher to ‘take over’
and lead the children to certain outcomes and products. In other sites, the teachers encour-
aged the children to lead and trusted the children’s capabilities.
From the researchers’ point of view, the methodological complexity of the project is
highlighted through the following aspects:
. provision of general guidance only for the teachers;

. short time period for the project and, hence, pressure on the teachers for a
product;
. different beliefs among the teachers about the capabilities of children and, there-
fore, the value of listening to children’s voices;
. selection of children by the teachers – who was involved and why; and
. the opportunities and constraints differentially exerted on the children and their
teachers in different sites.
In spite of this complexity, the project has shown that it is possible to meaningfully
involve children’s voices in the planning, implementation and documentation of tran-
sition to school experiences and to engage teachers as co-researchers.
Teachers and children

The presentations by the children at the Voices of Children Expo, the DVDs and books
that were created and shared, and the children’s own comments about how important
their contribution to the work of the project had been leaves no doubt that the
project has reflected the perspectives of some of the children in each site. However,
there are many questions still to be asked about the complexity of researching with chil-
dren. We need to reflect critically on the following.
. Are we listening to all children?

. Do we expect some children to represent all children?
. Who selects the children to participate?
. Are we listening to children as part of a regulatory agenda?
. Do we provide an environment that supports the involvement of all who want to
be involved?
. Do children genuinely understand what is being asked of them?
. How is listening to children’s voices part of an agenda to develop respectful
relationships?
. How do we move from listening to acting, both with and on behalf of children?
Researching with children not only impacts on the children but also on the adults
involved.
The best thing was actually getting to know those children. I really appreciated the hours
we spent together, just talking and conversing and watching them interact. . . I’m not just
the teacher anymore, I’m the person they spent all this time with. . .it was a different level
of relationship. . .it has built a better rapport between the children as well. (School teacher)
(Perry and Dockett 2008, 18)
We’ve been asking a lot more about their [children’s] ideas about school. We haven’t
said, ‘This is what school will be like’. We’re letting them think about what school
will be like, listening to their ideas and doing a lot more drawings of their ideas of
school and what will happen at school.. . . It’s made us aware of the importance of
listening to children and taking on board their ideas.. . . We need to listen to children.
What they have to say is really important. Just talking and listening to the children has
been one of the biggest things that has happened here. (Preschool teacher) (Perry and
Dockett 2008, 40)
The project presentations and documentation claim that the voices of children were
listened to in ways that recognised the strengths and capabilities of the children and
even surprised the teachers who were impressed by the quality of the children’s
input and their perspectives on transition to school.
Conclusion
The Voices of Children project has shown that a group of teachers can deliver innova-
tive programs that are based upon their abilities to involve children in the development,
implementation and documentation of the programs. The project has highlighted three
key ideas – the importance of taking children’s perspectives seriously; the importance
of relationships; and the importance of context.
Throughout the project, it was critical that teachers took time to talk with children,
listened, and responded to them by utilising their suggestions. The nature of the infor-
mation shared by children demonstrates that their interactions with their teachers
occurred in contexts where they felt valued, respected and comfortable sharing their
thoughts, concerns and understandings. The classroom contexts generated by educators
and children have contributed greatly to this willingness to communicate.
Children’s relationships remain an important element of making a positive start to

school (Dockett and Perry 2007). Children who had been at school some time reiterated
the importance of buddies as they started school, and children about to start school were
eager to meet their buddies, knowing that they would help them manage the new
environment of school. Having children from school visit prior-to-school settings
was a major element of several projects. The positive comments from the children
involved emphasised the importance of maintaining existing relationships while build-
ing new ones as well.
While this project was about children and listening to children’s voices, the relation-
ships built and/or extended between adults were also important. Many professional,
collegial relationships were facilitated and supported. These will provide the basis
for even greater collaboration in the years to come, and can only enhance the ability
of educators to listen to children’s perspectives.
Each of the schools and prior-to-school settings across the project adopted the same
general aim of listening to children’s voices in the transition to school. However, the
implementation of the project at each site varied considerably, emphasising the point
that there are many different ways to achieve the same aim. In each specific site, edu-
cators responded to their context, making the project directly relevant for that setting
and resulting in changes that were significant within that setting.
The Voices of Children project involved children in the planning, implementation
and documentation of transition to school programs. As well, it brought professionals
closer together and set in place a number of innovative processes and activities that
have enhanced the transition practices in the participating schools and prior-to-
school settings. The project provides a powerful example of what can happen when
early childhood educators and their children are encouraged to investigate innovative
practices together.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the teachers and children who were part of the Voices of Children project,
along with members of the Illawarra Transition to School Program.
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This article was downloaded by: [University of Tasmania]

On: 13 October 2014, At: 21:27

European Early Childhood Education

‘How ’bout we have a celebration!’

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2011.597969

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

‘How ’bout we have a celebration!’ Advice from children on

Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia

prior-to-school settings collaborated with their peers and teachers to plan,

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Der erste Teil dieser Abhandlungen behandelt ein

ISSN 1350-293X print/ISSN 1752-1807 online

tauschten sie untereinander aus. Existierende Schul-Übertrittsprogramme wurden

experiencias mientras que los niños a punto de comenzar la escuela conversaron de

. Including children’s perspectives acknowledges their right to be heard, and highlights

The Voices of Children project

. opportunities for learning – about transition, different settings, children’s compe-

Advice from buddies

Finding out about school

Figure 1. Kindergarten survey.

Figure 2. Questions and things to take on the preschool visit.

Figure 3. A day in kindergarten.

Figure 4. What school will be like.

Voices of Children Expo

. Recognition of the value of children being involved in transition to school

. Recognition of the importance of children being involved in decision making and

they make the transition to school (Perry and Dockett 2008).

Teachers and researchers

context. In other words, there was no set format or documentation to be completed,

. provision of general guidance only for the teachers;

Teachers and children

. Are we listening to all children?

Children’s relationships remain an important element of making a positive start to

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