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Cooperation between the Family and School in the Context of Children's School Readiness for Entering Primary School

Cooperation between families and schools plays an important role in supporting children’s transition from preschool to primary education and may contribute to the development of school readiness across multiple domains. This study examined how kindergarten teachers and teachers at the first stage of primary school perceive strategies supporting school readiness, effective forms of cooperation with parents, proposed changes in pre-primary education, and measures intended to facilitate children’s transition to Grade 1. School readiness was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct encompassing physical and motor development, socio-emotional competence and self-regulation, language and communication, cognitive and early academic skills, independence, and approaches to learning. Data were collected in Slovakia in 2024 using an author-designed questionnaire completed by 202 teachers. The sample included 173 kindergarten teachers (85.6%) and 29 teachers at the first stage of primary school (14.4%). Respondents were recruited through convenience self-selection via social media, without the use of probability sampling or quotas. Because the number of individuals reached by the survey was not recorded, a response rate could not be calculated. The sampling procedure increases the risk of self-selection bias, particularly through the possible overrepresentation of teachers active in online professional communities. Consequently, inferential comparisons between professional groups are exploratory and the findings cannot be generalized to the population of teachers in Slovakia. Teachers most frequently reported play-based activities aimed at developing cognitive abilities as strategies supporting school readiness (87.6%), followed by cooperation with parents (66.8%) and pre-primary education and preparatory classes (63.9%). In relation to family–school cooperation, school consultations and counselling were selected by 70.8% of respondents, while 66.3% identified active communication between families and schools as an effective form of cooperation. Regular parent–teacher meetings and joint educational activities were selected less frequently. These results represent teachers’ perceptions of effective practice rather than empirical evidence concerning the actual effectiveness of particular forms of cooperation. Exploratory comparisons between kindergarten and primary school teachers revealed an association between professional position and proposed changes in pre-primary education. The Pearson chi-square test yielded χ²(4, N = 202) = 13.08, p = .011, with Cramér’s V = .25. Because several expected cell counts were small, the Fisher–Freeman–Halton exact test was used as the primary inferential criterion and confirmed the association, p = .005. After Holm adjustment for the two omnibus comparisons, the association remained statistically significant (adjusted p = .010; Cramér’s V = .25, approximate 95% CI [.06, .37]). Exploratory post-hoc analyses suggested that the overall association was driven mainly by the greater proportion of kindergarten teachers who selected improved cooperation between schools and parents compared with primary school teachers. For measures intended to facilitate transition to Grade 1, the professional groups showed no statistically confirmed association in the omnibus comparison, χ²(4, N = 202) = 6.20, p = .184, Cramér’s V = .18. The Fisher–Freeman–Halton exact test yielded p = .155, and the Holm-adjusted value remained p = .155. The approximate 95% confidence interval for Cramér’s V ranged from .00 to .28, indicating substantial uncertainty and leaving open the possibility of a practically relevant association. Therefore, the non-significant result should not be interpreted as evidence of equivalence between the professional groups, particularly given the small number of primary school teachers. Overall, the findings indicate that teachers view school readiness not only in terms of children’s cognitive development but also as a process supported by cooperation among families, preschools, and primary schools. However, the study captures teachers’ perceptions rather than children’s actual level of school readiness or the causal effectiveness of the proposed strategies. The cross-sectional design, convenience self-selected sample, unequal professional group sizes, use of an author-designed questionnaire without formal psychometric validation, and possible unmeasured clustering of respondents within schools further limit interpretation. The results should therefore be regarded as descriptive and exploratory and as a basis for more representative, longitudinal, and multi-informant research on family–school cooperation and children’s transition to primary education.Keywords: school readiness, teacher perceptions, kindergarten, family–school cooperation, transition to primary school, parental involvement.

Keywords: School readiness, family–school cooperation, parental involvement, teacher perceptions, transition to primary school