Transitions to Primary School: School Entry Decisions, Parents’ and Teachers’ Ideas About School Readiness, and Cooperation Between Preschools, Primary Schools, and Parents

Abstract

AbstractIn the present project of the BiKS-3-18 ‘Educational Processes, Competence Development, and Formation of Educational Decisions in Preschool and School Age’ longitudinal study, quantitative and qualitative methods were used to study the transition from preschool settings to primary school. The focus was on the ideas about school readiness among parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers, on parents’ school entry decisions, and on cooperation between preschools and primary schools. The results show that parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers have similar ideas about school readiness, with some variance between the groups of respondents regarding the importance of the various criteria. Parents’ school entry decisions are based on criteria that vary in prominence depending on the time of school entry. Moreover, parents with a migration background tend to oppose delayed school entry. Furthermore, the results show that children enrolled early have lower skills than their classmates in the first year of school. Children enrolled late are consistently considered to have better skills than their classmates. Most parents are satisfied with their school entry decision. Cooperation between preschools and primary schools mainly takes place at a low level.