Transition to School (T2S) is a multidisciplinary school readiness program that supports at-risk children aged 3-5 years transitioning to primary school. This program is delivered in a government-identified socio-economically vulnerable community. Children and their primary caregivers attend 3-hour, once-weekly sessions over 16-weeks. A team of registered music therapists and speech pathologists facilitates the program within local primary schools to simulate a classroom environment. Initial program evaluation in 2019 demonstrated that the T2S Program helped children improve their self-regulation, social competency and language and communication skills. Additionally, the program helped build parents' capacity to support their child's transition to school.

Due to COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions preventing face-to-face service delivery, the T2S team pivoted to online activities. This was an extra-ordinary and creative collaboration between two disciplines, ensuring continuity and equity of access to high-quality therapeutic support for this community. Positive results continued to be achieved across the program's school readiness goals.

Returning to face-to-face delivery in 2022, the impact of ‘living with COVID-19’ brought new obstacles, including more challenging behaviours from children; and families being hesitant to engage in services. This required the team to continue thinking outside the box, to support these at-risk families. New outreach projects to local school communities subsequently evolved.

This presentation will discuss the T2S journey from its inception, to navigating the challenges and lessons learnt to date. It will highlight the diverse, creative and innovative processes that were developed which led the T2S Team to win the 2023 ZEST Award for Outstanding Community Partnership. Furthermore, the Australian Institute for Family Studies (AIFS) has recognised the program as a 'Promising Program'.