Our Aim
Our overall aim is to treat the students and their home backgrounds with respect and understanding so that we can help young people to have a successful supported transfer in the secondary sector.
Introduction
The team will attend an introduction meeting with the welcoming school and prepare a reintegration plan. The team will then offer 6 individual sessions to the young person and liaise with parent / carers and the school.
Research shows that the transfer to a new school is a challenging time for students and their parents and carers and inevitably produces various stresses. Students' apprehension revolves around five major issues:
- The size and layout of the new school.
- New forms of discipline and authority.
- New demands of work.
- Making new friends.
- The prospect of being bullied.
Coping at a new school is difficult for students who have already experienced problems in the education system.
The Programme
The programme we offer helps students to reconcile themselves to change - first helping them recognise the need for change and then encouraging them to embrace it, allowing them to grow. There is a considerable body of research on changing schools which informs our model and the activities that we use to support the transfer process. A number of transition projects emphasize the usefulness of activities that can help develop self-esteem and social skills. For example students' anxieties about friendships need to be expressed. It is useful to help them recall how they managed other school transitions such as from primary to secondary and how they managed - how they felt if they lost friends; what helped them to adjust; how they made new friends; and if the strategies they employed then would be helpful now.
Parents and carers offer a vital role in supporting such a move in order to make the transfer successful. Part of our role is to offer advice and support to families to assist parents.
