Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
The Summer may have only just begun, but before you know it, it will be time to get the uniforms back out. For some children, it will be the start of their transition to secondary school!
For many parents, this will be a summer of nerves and anxiety if your child is about to transition from Primary School to Secondary school. This transition is a significant moment in both the child and parents’ lives. New environments, new staff, new friends, and the potential for whole new problems!
However, there are steps you can take as a parent to help make the transition as easy as possible for the child. Therefore, if you are a parent who is nervous about your child’s transition to secondary school, here are my 10 tips of what you can do to support your child with their school transition:
1. Information gathering
Preparing and planning for a secondary school transition will start many months beforehand. It starts as soon as you start looking into which school you want your child to attend. Many parents will visit potential schools, who will often put on events or presentations selling their school to prospective parents.
However, there are alternative sources of information available for parents to access. These sources can shed light on whether a school is appropriate for your child or not.
For example, OFSTED reports will give you an indication of the journey the school is on and how they are currently performing. School policies will give you an insight into how the school runs on a daily basis and what support is available. Finally, feedback from other parents can give you the unfiltered, real experience other children and parents are having. However, be cautious as these accounts may not be the full story of what is actually happen.
You know your child best as their parent. You will understand their needs, how they learn/behave and what their strengths/weaknesses are. Therefore, you can use this knowledge together with other information available to determine which school is best placed to meet the needs of your child to allow them to flourish. This can be such an important step that will make a huge difference to the secondary school transition. All before your child even steps foot in the building.
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2. School visits/Asking questions
Visits to potential schools gives the parent and child the opportunity to view the school environment. You can learn more about day to day school life and your chance to gather the information you need. Therefore, it is important that parents seize this opportunity to ask questions and determine how suited this environment will be for your child.
Dependent on the needs of your child, their confidence or concerns about a secondary school transition, all will impact the type of questions you may want to ask a potential school. For example, you may ask about the structure of the school day. You may ask about activities available to your child after school. Alternatively, you may want to ask about what special educational needs support is available.
The more information you provide to your child or questions of theirs that you can answer, the more comfortable and confident they will feel ahead of the secondary school transition.
3. Meet the key staff for your child
When your child starts secondary school, there are going to be some key staff who are going to be influential in your child’s school life. Again, depending on your child’s needs, the number of staff involved may vary. However, typically your child will be allocated a Tutor and a Pastoral Manager/Year Manager/Head of Year. These staff will be responsible for the pastoral care of your child. Other key staff may be the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo), an allocated Teaching Assistant or perhaps a Designated Teacher.
It can make a significant difference to your child if they have an opportunity to meet these key staff ahead of their transition to secondary school. Having friendly and familiar faces will allow your child to be feel more comfortable when they start,. This will give them a source of support if there are issues in school and gives the parent a point of contact to raise any of their own issues or concerns.
Therefore, it is always worth a parent finding out who these key members of staff are. Find out how they can be contacted and if possible, arrange for the child to meet them if you think it would benefit your child.
4. Information sharing between schools
One of the biggest barriers I have seen in my roles working in schools and with families, is when information is not appropriately shared between the primary school and the secondary school. This can often lead to children not getting the appropriate support or the school not sufficiently understanding the needs of a child.
As standard, information does get shared between the schools. However, it may not always be the full picture, or information may not get disseminated to the appropriate staff. If this is the case, it can make the secondary school transition for a child all the more difficult.
For parents, you have little control over this flow of information and may not know what specifically has/has not been shared. Therefore, if you feel that there is essential information that the new school needs to know about your child, make sure you tell them yourself!
Don’t always assume that the new school will know everything they need to know about your child from primary school. There is no harm in checking and contacting the school yourself to share this information. This way you will guarantee the information has been shared. As a result, your child will be set up to go to a school that has all the information they need to support your child.
5. Understand the School policies/procedures
Schools can operate very differently from one another. Whether this be the structure of the school day, the lessons taught, the consequence/reward systems in place. Therefore, school life can look and feel very different for children changing schools.
One way of understanding what school life will be like for your child, is to read the policies and procedures the school have in place. These are usually found on the school website. Reading these will allow you to be able to answer questions your child has. You will also be able to give them an idea of what school life will be like. Most importantly, you can identify what support may be available for your child if needed.
6. Discuss your child’s expectations/concerns
One of the best ways you can support your child with their secondary school transition, is to understand what your child’s expectations of their new school are, or what concerns they have about going there.
I am sure we all remember the rumours and stories that go round of what happens when you first go to secondary school. Whether this be getting your head flushed down the toilet, or your lunch money taken! These expectations are still around today and naturally, children can get quite anxious about transitioning to their new school.
Therefore, it can be a helpful exercise for parents to have these conversations with their children. This is to ensure they have a realistic expectation of school life and ease any concerns they have. These concerns can also be shared with key staff, so that they can also support the child in school.
7. Practice the journey to school
For some children, even the idea of travelling to their new school is a worry. This can be an immediate barrier to the secondary school transition. Therefore, a practical way parents can help with this, is to practice the journey to the new school. Overcoming this challenge, may require practice and repetition. This does not need to wait until your child start attending the school.
Whether it be knowing the route to school, accessing public transport or knowing which school entrance to use, practicing the journey to school can set your child up positively when starting their new school.
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8. Additional transition days
When the transition process begins, primary schools will typically arrange transition days to give the children an opportunity to experience their new school. For some children, there is the opportunity to have additional transition days. These can be available for children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), children with anxiety or social issues.
Therefore, it is always worth asking your child’s current school about additional transition days when the transition process starts. This can make a massive difference to your child’s confidence attending their new school.
9. Try to have realistic expectations
Starting a new school is not easy and each child will likely have to deal with some challenges along the way. This could be issues with new friends, new staff or struggling to adapt to the change in environment and expectations. Regardless of what the issues are, they are made harder if your expectations of starting a new school are unrealistic or too high.
The hope is always that there are no issues with the secondary school transition and everything runs seamlessly. However, it can be helpful for your child’s resilience if you prepare them for the challenges they could face. It could be as small as losing their coat in school or as significant as facing bullying. Preparing your child for the possibility that challenges can emerge when going to a new school, can increase their ability to cope.
It is also important to educate them on how to respond to these challenges. Who do they go to for support? How do they access this support? Play out scenarios with your child so if faced with any challenges, they are more equipped to deal with them. It is not about scaring your child, or placing additional worry on to them. However, it is a case of preparing them that school life will be different and that means there could be ups and downs.
10. Be positive and encouraging with your child
Finally, being positive and encouraging with your child around their school transition is vital. In a period of change, anxiety or even fear for your child, your consistent positive encouragement is the counter balance for that. Find the positives of school life. Encourage them to overcome barriers or challenges and ensure they are taking the right first steps as they adjust to their new school.
This will not always be easy for parents. It is not uncommon to become frustrated or angry at your child’s new school if you feel they are not supporting your child. However, it can be unhelpful for your child if they witness this frustration, as it begins to change their own perceptions of school.
If you can, address your concerns directly with school and away from the child. This ensures that your concerns are addressed, but your child is able to retain as positive an outlook of school as possible.
Summary
Children going through a secondary school transition can face a range of different challenges. However, a lot of these challenges can be avoided if steps are taken early enough. Successfully going through the school transition starts a long time before the children step foot in the school. It is also not simply the responsibility of just the child and the parents.
If schools, parents and the child all work together, the school transition will likely be a positive one. My hope is that some of the steps above can provide parents with some ideas of what can be done to give their child the best chance of a successful school transition to secondary school.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced with school transitions? Let me know in the comments below.
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This is all great advice for transition.
Thank you Jamie!
These are the things my parents did when I was in my senior primary school years. I’m grateful for them.