For any child starting school, the first day can be an exciting time, but also an anxious one. However, for families relocating to a new country, there can be an extra level of anxiety. Helping a child through this transitional stage has a pedagogical underpinning. Children need to feel settled and happy before they can learn. Children who are emotionally secure adapt to school life faster.Parents can do many things to minimise potential concerns and help their children to experience successful transitions, such as selecting the best school for their child before the family reaches the new country.If the child is moving to the UK and does not have English as a first language, seeking a school with a mother-tongue programme not only makes a softer landing in the new school, but is also in the child’s best academic interests.Research over the past three decades has increasingly demonstrated that continuing language and literacy in the first language builds a strong foundation for development of the new language. Additionally, this approach is important for overall personal and educational development.Curricula such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the International Primary Curriculum were designed with the needs of internationally mobile children in mind. Drawn from best practice worldwide, they have a holistic view of child development, and take a global approach to topics like history, promoting history as a discipline, including the nature and diversity of sources, methods and interpretations.Students transferring from one international curriculum to another will find a sense of continuity, both in the curriculum and in the shared values of teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, international-mindedness and an understanding of enquiry-based education.Though this may provide a different approach to education from that employed by some parents and national systems, current research highlights that the IB programmes are frequently sought by universities and employers.Whilst academic rigour is an important part of programmes such as the IB Diploma, universities, and increasingly employers, are looking for embedded values. According to Professor Tony Wagner, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “Tomorrow’s school-leavers will need critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, the ability to collaborate and work in a team, advanced oral and written communication skills, agility and adaptability.”These skills and values are at the heart of the IB Programme.

Happy landings

International schools are also concerned about the social and emotional health of their globally mobile students, and have identified that specialised transitions training helps them not only to survive such transitions but also to thrive and appreciate the valuable experiences they are having. Programmes are in place to help not just the students but also their families to integrate quickly into their new community.Ideally, after the student has been accepted, but prior to starting school, the family will have had contact with the school, learning about the new classes and teachers. Some schools have picnics over the summer, so that children can visit their new school. Often, before term starts, an orientation day is held, during which pupils meet their new teachers and a ‘buddy’ classmate who helps them through their first days and weeks.

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Even if schools do not have such a programme in place, there are many things parents can do to help their children in this transition. Here are a few tips:

1. Involve children in age-appropriate decisions. It can be tempting to handle everything, but children will feel more capable and develop confidence if they are involved in decisions that may impact them.
2. Help build bridges with the past. Changes seem much more manageable if your child can keep in touch with old friends and relatives, but be careful that this doesn’t impede integration into the new school.
3. Explore the new environment together. Share and discover places in the new neighbourhood – shopping centre, theatres or museums. Become familiar with appropriate public transport.
4. For the first few weeks of school, try to clear your own schedule as much as possible. This period is very important for your child’s long-term comfort and confidence in a new school. Children will need parents to be there to help them establish routines and overcome any anxiety or confusion experienced at the start of a new school.
5. Re-establish routines that may have been interrupted by the move to a new country. Bedtime reading is a great way of enjoying quiet time with your children and helping them to settle down after an exciting day. Reading to your children regularly is also the best way of helping them learn to read.
6. Establish good communications with your child’s teacher and the school. Volunteer for PTA committees, attend the Back to School night, and become a partner with the teachers, staff and administrators around your children’s education.
7. Model optimism and confidence. Although it is natural to feel sad about leaving your previous school and nervous about starting a new school, children pick up on anxiety. Reassure your children that you love them, but also that you have confidence that they will adapt and succeed once they become familiar with classmates and their new teachers and routine. Give them the space they need to develop confidence.

Finally, encourage an acceptance of diversity. When entering a new and different culture, assist your children in viewing the behaviours of host-country nationals as something different, rather than applying value judgements.

Relocate Global’s new annual Guide to International Education & Schools provides a wealth of advice to anyone searching for a new school in the UK and in an international setting, and offers insights into what it takes to make the right school choice. 

For related news and features, visit our Education section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit

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