A New Beginning: Improving the School Start for Preparatory Class Children

This study discusses what the school organization and all parties involved need in order to be prepared for a dramatic structural change such as the transfer of the preparatory class to primary education level. A survey applied to 265 teachers for primary and preschool education and school counselors about the organization and the functionality of the new school start format signaled three categories of necessary actions related to: family and child, school organization and policies influencing primary school education. Data was complimented by an evaluation of the organizational and individual readiness for preparatory class implementation which revealed that teachers managed to overcome insufficient preparation.