The Child, Between School, Family and Community: Understanding the Transition to School for Aboriginal Children in Australia’s Northern Territory

Abstract

Australian policies in Aboriginal education have increasingly emphasised the need to improve the school readiness of Aboriginal children and promote their successful transition to school. At the system-wide level, initiatives have included universal introduction of preschool and school attendance strategies, starting in the early years. At the school level, transition programs have included efforts to engage parents in their children’s early learning, and to break down barriers to parents’ connection with their children’s school. Compared with attempts to improve the precursors of academic learning and attendance, there has been far less attention to supporting Aboriginal children’s social-emotional and behavioural development in the process of transition to school. Adverse influences on children’s early social-emotional development can include parent emotional difficulties and distress, family violence, harsh parenting, maltreatment and neglect. In contexts of family vulnerability and community disadvantage, school-based early intervention can strengthen parenting, support children’s development and prevent the continuing development of problem behaviours which can disrupt children’s learning throughout the school years. The Let’s Start program was implemented over 10 years in Australia’s Northern Territory. Cases drawn from this parenting program illustrate multiple influences of family context, parenting and parents’ well-being on children’s adjustment during the transition to school and their implications for early intervention and prevention from preschool through the first years of primary school.