We investigate the effect of surface ordering on the bulk anchoring and anchoring transition of a nematic liquid crystal placed in the contact with a solid substrate. We model this situation by a simple lattice spin model in a semi-infinite geometry, where we impose the orientational distribution function (ODF) at the planar boundary. Mean field calculations, verified by Monte Carlo calculations, show that theanchoring transitionsin the system are fully determined by the parameters of the imposed boundary ODF.