The course has begun and the youngest are in the adaptation phase because for many children it is the first time they go to school. According to professor and systemic pedagogue Amaia Biurrun, the most important thing is communication and collaboration between parents and teachers. Therefore, he insists on the need for children to see that the school is done with adults: “Many times we think it’s better not to enter school with the child, but if we do, we don’t give importance to getting to know the new center together.”

Although the path to knowing the school is common, he believes that children should have autonomy to explore: “If I tell you what you have to play with and how, I don’t help you conquer the new space.” To do so, he says that adults should stay in the background; otherwise, children may feel lost when they go.

For the school to be nice it is important to be “attractive”: “You have to be able to play, but also the aesthetic order, which helps them to locate”. Biurrun is pleased because teachers are increasingly paying attention to the interests of children and using the materials they have in school to know them: “Before you start, they ask parents what they like, so if you see that the child doesn’t adapt, they can try something that awakens their interest.”

Farewell time

To help both emotionally and psychologically the child, it is important to respect the rhythms of the child between the teacher and the parents, and in function of this to greet the child before or after: “Sometimes we believe that not crying means adapting, but from my experience in the classrooms I know that in one moment or another they will have to release the crying.”

Since greeting can cause “fear” and “uncertainty” to both parents and children, it is “very important” to work communication between parents and teachers: “This allows them to identify that school is a safe space.” He adds that to identify a trusted person the teacher must be able to greet the parents one by one: “It is very important that the child sees that his father does not go without saying anything and that he leaves the child with someone trusted.” He adds that when the child is dismissed, in order not to cry, without saying anything to leave they produce “a lot of anguish”: “It is the link that the child makes, when it is well his reference person goes”. Therefore, it is important to prepare to accompany parents in these “hard” situations.

Besides being a companion at school, when they leave school it is also important to be next to them: “Often when they leave school they have uncomfortable emotional bursts that we need to know how to manage.”