Helping Your Child Transition

Sticker on the floor to help students social distance

Support for Transfer Families

Brown International Academy welcomes you to our school! We hope that you’re as excited as we are for next fall. It will be a wonderful time as we get to know and engage with so many new families like yours.

While it’s an exciting time for us, we understand that families transferring from other schools or learning or home environments may be feeling a bit anxious about the transition. You may be wondering how quickly your child will adjust, make new friends and generally fit in. We have every confidence that he or she will. To help your child and you through the adjustment period, we have implemented a new learner buddy system and compiled a few helpful tips.

Learner Buddy System

Since we know that the largest school transition issue most children face is a sea full of unfamiliar faces, we will assign your child a buddy for his or her first two weeks of school. Your child’s buddy will be a “seasoned student” who welcomes your student the first day (and hopefully every day after that), introduces your child to other students, plays with him or her on the playground, and helps your child quickly learn the ropes — such as lunchroom procedures, restroom locations, etc.

This buddy support for your child not only makes the change process a smoother one for your child, but it also provides an opportunity for current learners to practice the IB attitudes of empathy and acceptance. At Brown, we believe these attitudes are as important to learn and practice as knowledge and inquiry.

Helpful Transition Tips

To help parents/guardians through the transition process, we have also compiled some new school transition tips. These were gleaned from websites by an incoming Brown parent, and include kids’ suggestions, as well. Feel free to practice them as you see fit.

Over the Summer

When School Starts

Finally, please feel free to meet with your child’s teacher if your child is expressing difficulty in making the adjustment. The teacher will work diligently to support your child’s transition into the Brown community.

So again, welcome to Brown! Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to enable your family’s smooth transition to our school. Aside from school resources in the form of staff who care about the well being of your child, there is a great, collaborative network of parents who are also available to help. See you soon!