What is Positive Transitions?
Positive Transitions supports children, young people and their families in the transition from primary and secondary school across Edinburgh and the Lothians. The service is designed to support them to feel valued and understood, improve their self-esteem and peer relationships, and enable them to fulfil their potential.
Our work with children and young people began in 2014 when we consulted over 700 young people about what it’s like to live in Edinburgh. The transition to secondary school was one of the biggest challenges young people faced, and the area we chose to focus on first. Our work was established as the ‘Positive Transitions’ service in 2016.
Interventions
Positive Transitions spans across a wide range of interventions that offer support both on a one-to-one basis and through group projects. We provide holistic support and youth work that aims to support not just children and young people, but also their parents, carers and families. We do this by working directly with schools, teachers, families and other agencies to identify and offer the most suitable and appropriate support, as well as collaborating with social work and arts therapies programmes in universities across Scotland.
Youth & Family Work
We support children, young people and families through one-to-one support and sessions that are designed based on the experiences and input of young people themselves. Themes range from art, sports, music, science, transitions and more!
Befriending
Befriending matches young people with a befriender, providing them with a positive role model and a safe environment to chat and engage in activities based on their interests, including arts, crafts, science, cooking and games.
Family Support
We support families and help young people to engage with family, schools and the community. We host social work students on placement from universities across Scotland who consider the needs of the young people, and how best to support them.
Arts Therapies
Arts Therapies provide opportunities for young people to explore and express their emotions through the arts. We host students on placement from universities across Scotland who provide a supportive environment in which to use a range of materials and artistic methods.
If you want to make a referral to Positive Transitions get in touch today! Whether you're a parent, carer, school or young person, you can contact us about making a referral. Together we'll discuss specific requirements and identify the right support.
Please note that we're currently receiving a high volume of emails and that response times may be longer than usual.
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Our guide to transitioning to high school
The move to high school can be both exciting and nerve-wracking and can bring up a big mix of emotions. We've put together a guide with advice, tips and activities to help young people have a positive transition. This is a big time of change and we know there can be a lot of other things going on in life during this time that young people may also need a bit of help or support with, so we have also included a directory of where to go to find support if needed.
If you're a parent or carer of a young person making the transition to high school, don't forget to also check out our Top Tips for Parents & Carers.
Research
We've partnered with the University of Edinburgh on a multi-disciplinary participatory action-research project on positive school transitions.
Using our learning from delivering Positive Transitions, the project will evaluate and reflect on what makes a positive transition, with the aim of creating a model of practice that can influence and improve pupil transitions into secondary school across the country. Findings will also enhance theories on school transition, and explore intersecting issues such as class, ethnicity, gender, culture and disability, to ensure any practice model meets the needs of all children and their families.
Read our stories
Read our latest case studies and find out more about Positive Transitions in action.
Volunteer
As a Youth Work Volunteer, you'll help facilitate our group workshops with young people, providing them with support and a safe environment to build their confidence as they transition into secondary school.
Collaborate
If you're a school, individual, organisation or community group interested in collaborating with us, we'd love to hear from you. Whether you want to chat about delivering Positive Transitions in your school or learn more about our action-research project, please get in touch.
Donate
Donate to People Know How and help us improve people's wellbeing and solve social issues. There's a few ways to donate, including direct donations, charity prize lotteries, or via the Give as you Live extension which allows you to donate while shopping online at no cost to you.
Our funders & supporters
Thank you to our funders and supporters past and present for making Positive Transitions possible.
