What is Positive Transitions?
Positive Transitions supported children, young people and their families in the transition from primary and secondary school across Edinburgh and the Lothians. The service was 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 spanned a wide range of interventions that offered support both on a one-to-one basis and through group projects. We provided holistic support and youth work that aimed to support not just children and young people, but also their parents, carers and families. We did 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
Supporting children, young people and families through one-to-one support and sessions designed based on the experiences and input of young people themselves. Themes range from art, sports, music, science, transitions and more!
Befriending
Matching 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
Supporting families and helping young people to engage with family, schools and the community. We hosted social work students on placement from universities across Scotland who considered the needs of the young people, and how best to support them.
Arts Therapies
Providing opportunities for young people to explore and express their emotions through the arts. We hosted students on placement from universities across Scotland who provided a supportive environment in which to use a range of materials and artistic methods.
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 created 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 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 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 evaluated and reflected on what made a positive transition, with the aim of creating a model of practice to influence and improve pupil transitions into secondary school across the country, 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.
Our funders & supporters
