Teachers’ perceptions of successful transition to school for children with and without Downs Syndrome in the UAE and England

The experience of transition into school has been shown to correlate with later school outcomes, with a successful experience resulting in later positive academic and social outcomes. Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) face more challenging transitions. Teacher attitudes and expectations of children with SEN play a key role in determining the quality of the transition. Early Years Foundation Stage teachers were recruited from the UK and from the UAE. They completed a questionnaire twice, rating the importance of factors in ensuring a successful transition to school for children with no SEN and with Downs Syndrome. Significant differences in the rating of factors were found for the two groups of children. Between-country differences were significant for Knowledge and for Academic factors. The implications of differences in expectations cross-culturally and for children with SEN are discussed.