This summer we ran a programme of events for young people called Summer Fun Days, building towards a positive transition to secondary school.
The transition to secondary school is a significant milestone in a young person's life filled with many changes and new obstacles such as making new friends, juggling multiple subjects and navigating a new environment. That’s why our Positive Transitions service focuses on providing support at this time in a young person’s life.
Each year we run a programme of events for the young people we support in the summer before they start secondary school. From our research, evaluation and monitoring we have learnt that the three key issues affecting children and young people in the transition from primary to secondary school are a lack of resilience, confidence and friendships.
This year’s programme was named Summer Fun Days. It gave young people the opportunity to meet some of their new classmates and partake in fun activities over the summer while getting a sneak peek at their new school, alleviating that first day of school anxiety. The days were a combination of learning, playing and sharing ideas that tied into common questions about secondary school. The conversations started here will continue into the school year, followed up by our coordinators at one-to-one sessions during the term time.
A day to remember
Each Summer Fun Day began with games and meeting new classmates. Many bonded over Lego, building castles and aeroplanes, and seeing whole worlds come to life as they started to work together. Others used painting and drawing to show off their artistic visions. At the core of both activities was the use of creativity and art to express feelings about the upcoming school year. The young people also spent some time writing down and discussing scenarios or worries about secondary school, guided by our experienced coordinators.
Each afternoon we welcomed Edinburgh’s Botanical Garden team who led sessions on plants, growth and the importance of looking after our environment through botanical gardens, linking the growth seen in nature with opportunities to thrive in secondary school. The sessions ended with young people making their own herbal tea.
We saw a 25% increase in the number of young people attending our Summer Fun Days this year. Many young people who attended the sessions told us that it helped them feel more confident about the transition to secondary school and over a third made new friends as a result of attending.
Thank you to the Stafford Trust for funding to run these sessions and The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and to Eve and Petra for creating fun and engaging activities.
Continuing the support
School transitions make an impact all year. That’s why we’ve created our free guide to school transitions, a complete pack of advice, activities and resources to ensure young people feel confident starting high school.