From Junior to Senior - your daughter's concerns...

The move from primary to secondary school is both an exciting and a daunting prospect: exciting because of all the new opportunities and experiences it promises; daunting for exactly the same reason!

This transition brings about a massive expansion in young people’s horizons, but during this process issues bob to the surface that underpin their security and happiness. The most common worries that 10 and 11 year olds articulate to me are:

• What are the lunches like?
• How much homework is there?
• I am worried about getting lost

It would be easy to dismiss these as trivial, especially since these particular worries tend to evaporate after a day or two in senior school, but at the point at which they are felt by your daughter they are real and pressing concerns.

School Lunches

Some junior school children have had the experience of packed lunches and may have opted for them because they already have a fear of trying food other than the most familiar. 10 and 11 year olds are still developing their ‘palate’ and it is understandable that they may be fearful of unfamiliar flavours and textures. But at the same time our role at school is to foster healthy eating habits and confident encounters with new experiences. So I will tell a girl worried about the lunches that everyone here has school lunches so we can be sure they have the option of a good, hot lunch in the middle of a busy and tiring day (remember, a Senior School day with extra curricular activities may go on to 6pm – significantly longer than a Junior School day which may end at 3.15 for some). I will tell them that we have three hot options a day including a vegetarian option and pasta, and that we also have a salad bar. I will show her the menu board so she can see the options and think about them while queuing and before she reaches the servery, and I tell her about our Tuck Shop and how much effort the catering staff go to to give us fun days like wiggly worms (spaghetti) on Halloween and pink custard on Valentine’s Day.

One challenge that remains for senior schools is in managing the transition from tight Junior School controls over ‘snacks’, to a freer experience where children make more of their own decisions. A healthy tuck shop is important but we do not ban chocolate and crisps. Instead we teach the need for balance and moderation and informed choices.

Homework

Children in junior schools have widely ranging experiences of homework. For some it means the loose and unstructured experience of ‘A project’. For some it is irregular and inconsistent. For others it is a nightly torture of work to be delivered each morning without fail. Whatever the Year 6 experience, many children expect that it will be much worse at Senior School. At the same time those who have been bored in Year 6 look forward to the challenge.

I tell them that we do have homework and that I expect them to do it. That it is one of the reasons students at our school do well because they are either going over (reinforcing) what they learnt in the lesson or working independently to discover something new.

It is important that they know that there is flexibility if they really can not do a homework and when I tell them that their parent can write a note in their book or in their planner to this effect, they are reassured.

I tell them to be organised enough to do their homework when it is set and to try their best, but that I don’t expect them to be super human and will always listen if they have had a problem.

One tip for new Senior School parents is to avoid too many other evening activities during the week once children start Senior School. Parents need to support the school’s expectations of homework; if they don’t their child will suffer.

Getting Lost

After seven years in first and middle schools where they know the site intimately, many Year 6 children worry about how they will learn their way around a new site – especially as they realise that they will be required to move around the site to different lessons. In Junior School most lessons are delivered in the same classroom but in Senior School children regularly move around the site to different rooms four or five times a day. So the concern is natural. How does one find one’s way around a new and much bigger site with strange buildings and room numbers that may not appear logical?!

The answer is that it is a natural concern; one that most new Year 7s will experience (not to mention new teachers); they will of course receive a map and they will be given several opportunities to ‘practise’ finding their way around. In the first weeks of the September term teachers are usually asked to let students out of lessons early so they can find their way to the next one! And they are asked to be patient and understanding when they arrive late. I articulate all of this to our new students, as does their Head of Year. In this way, while most 11 year olds worry that they will not find their way around, all do. In fact, as I tell their parents, within a few days of being at Senior School they know lots of different routes around the school buildings, all the secret nooks and crannies and all the short cuts!

Above all, encourage your daughter to enjoy the summer holidays without letting too many worries creep in, and rest assured that your daughter’s new school will be as keen to see her settle in as you are!