School Ready: An Occupational Therapy Approach to Supporting Transition to School

Starting school is one of the most significant milestones in a young child's life, with occupational therapists playing a vital role in making that transition successful. This practical one-day workshop equips occupational therapists with current evidence, assessment tools, and intervention strategies to support children aged 4-6 years and their families as they prepare for and navigate the school environment.

Program Overview

This full-day online workshop explores the occupational therapist's role in supporting successful transition to school. Combining theory with practical application, participants will examine the latest evidence on school readiness, explore collaborative approaches with families, schools, and multidisciplinary teams, and build skills in assessment and targeted intervention.

What you will learn (key learning objectives):

Review child development principles relevant to the 4-6 year age group and their implications for school transition

Understand the evidence base for factors that contribute to successful school participation

Explore different models of service delivery including individual, group programs and consultative appraoches

Discuss the OT role and collaborative partnership approaches with families, early childhood services, health teams, schools, and community organisations

Apply assessment frameworks to evaluate functional school readiness, participation, and children's strengths and support needs

Develop and implement evidence-based intervention strategies targeting goal setting, self-care, fine and gross motor skills, social-emotional development, pre-academic skills, attention, participation and accommodations

Understand practical service delivery considerations including report writing, parent involvement and outcomes measurement

By attending this workshop you will:

Strengthen your clinical toolkit for assessing and supporting school readiness across diverse populations

Build confidence working collaboratively with schools, families, and allied health teams

Gain practical strategies for a range of service delivery models — individual therapy, group programs, consultative and multidisciplinary approaches

Enhance your capacity to advocate for children's participation and access to the school curriculum

This workshop is suitable for:

Occupational therapists working in paediatrics, including those in early intervention, private practice, community health, and school-based settings.

Further, this workshop is relevant for OTs exploring or preparing to work within the Thriving Kids initiative.

DATE:

Friday 9th October 2026

TIME:

9:00am – 5:00pm | ACT, VIC, TAS, NSW |

8:30am - 4:30pm | SA |

8:00am – 4:00pm | Qld |

7:30am – 3:30pm | NT |

6:00am – 2:00pm | WA |

Please log on 15 minutes prior to start time each day.

VENUE:

Online via Zoom. Login details will be sent to registered participants prior to the workshop.

ACCESS:

This is an interactive workshop and will not be recorded.

Participants will be able to access the workshop resources online in their OTA account for the duration of the event and for a further 12 weeks after the event.

CPD HOURS:

Total CPD claimable workshop hours: 7.5 hours

A certificate of attendance will be issued upon completion of the full course. Please allow up to 48 hours for the certificate to appear in your CPD tracker.

REGISTRATION FEES

EARLYBIRD – Register on or before 16 August 2026

OTA Member: $400
New Graduate Member: $360
Non-member: $520

STANDARD – Register on or after 17 August 2026

OTA Member: $440
New Graduate Member: $400
Non-member: $580

Members must be logged in with username and password to register at the member rate.

Not a member, you can join here and enjoy many benefits.

RSVPS close at 11:55pm AEDT on 4th October 2026.

Note: All pricing is inclusive of GST

DISCLAIMER

All information is correct at the time of publication. OTA reserves the right to alter or delete items from the CPD calendar as required, and takes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, and changes.

All resources including copies of the presentation, along with all supporting documents and links are not for distribution and are the property of the presenter.

An OTA staff member or representative may be photographing this event for use in OTA publications and/or on OTA social media sites. If you do not wish to be photographed, or have your image published please make this known to the OTA representative at your course or contact OTA on 1300 682 878 or info@otaus.com.au

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Terms and Conditions including OTA’s refund and cancellation policy are available here

CONTACT US

Please email info@otaus.com.au or phone 1300 682 878

Presented By

Olivia Jackson

Olivia holds a BAppSc (OT) and MHlthSc (OT), both through the University of Sydney, and brings over 30 years of experience working with children aged 0–18 years across a wide range of disabilities and diagnoses in community settings. Since 2004, Olivia has owned and operated Occupational Therapy Paediatric Services, a private practice employing a team of therapists and allied health assistants. Olivia has a particular interest in supporting children and families with complex needs and in advocating for the role of therapy in schools. She is currently completing her PhD at The University of Sydney, with research focused on mentorship and its role in paediatric practice in Australia. Olivia regularly mentors and supervises paediatric occupational therapists and has a strong commitment to continuing professional development.

Frances Dobson

Frances graduated from Cumberland College of Health Sciences (now The University of Sydney) in 1979 and completed a Master of Health Science in Occupational Therapy, specialising in developmental disabilities, through The University of Sydney in 2001. Since 1981, Frances has worked as an occupational therapist supporting children and families across a wide range of settings and specialist multidisciplinary teams, including with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and families experiencing psychosocial disadvantage. Her clinical interests include infant and early childhood development and the impact of occupational therapy with diverse communities. Frances is strongly committed to collaborative, family-centred, strengths-based, and capacity-building approaches, with practice grounded in trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming care. Alongside her clinical work, she has remained dedicated to ongoing professional development and to providing education and mentoring to occupational therapists.