Most children starting primary school in Australia do so after attending early childhood education and participating in a transition to school programme. While this has become the expected pathway, it is not the one followed by all children and their families. In this article, we describe visible transitions as those that are known, understood and planned – that is, they follow the expected path. In contrast, invisible transitions occur when children and families arrive unexpectedly at school. Drawing on two studies involving 30 schools in two different states of Australia, we report the scope and nature of invisible transitions and the challenges and opportunities arising from invisible transitions in these schools. Each of the schools reported instances of invisible transitions. Some, but not all, schools promoted strategies involving school staff, other families and children to support those arriving unexpectedly. While invisible transition was identified as a challenge, the opportunities for reflecting on existing transition approaches and building inclusive strategies were also noted.

在澳大利亚，大多数儿童在接受早期儿童教育并参加过渡到学校课程后就开始这样做。尽管这已成为预期的途径，但并非所有儿童及其家庭都遵循这一途径。在本文中，我们将可见的过渡描述为已知，理解和计划的过渡，即它们遵循预期的路径。相反，当儿童和家庭意外到达学校时，就会发生无形的过渡。基于涉及澳大利亚两个不同州的30所学校的两项研究，我们报告了无形过渡的范围和性质，以及这些学校中无形过渡所带来的挑战和机遇。每所学校都报告了无形过渡的实例。一些，但不是全部，学校推广了由学校职员，其他家庭和儿童参与的策略，以支持那些意外到达的人们。虽然无形的过渡被认为是一项挑战，但也注意到了反思现有过渡方法和制定包容性战略的机会。