Primary To Secondary School Transition
What adjustments will my child have to make when moving to secondary school?
The primary-secondary transition represents a major milestone for all children, and that's because there are so many changes involved. First of all, the school context. It's almost certain the school is going to be much larger than the primary school your child's been attending. It's more likely they are going to have more longer and complicated journey to school. They will be mixing with a wider and larger range of other children and other adults. Then there are other curriculum demands which obviously become more challenging and more diverse. Relationships with adults in the school context will be forcibly different, because moving from the primary level where they have one key teacher, they'll then be dealing with a whole range of subject specialists.
How can I help my child to adjust to secondary school?
There are lots of things you can do to help make this transition easier, but the core principle is to be as informed as possible to help your child be as informed as possible. In terms of the school arrangement, the size of the building, the layout, the location, all of those things you can talk about. You can have practice runs to school. In terms of the school day, the schools generally do quite a lot of work to try and prepare their new entrants. There are open days and visits and whilst that's obviously the work of the primary and secondary school staff, you can help and support it by showing an interest, and an active curiosity in what your child will have learned on these visits and give them the opportunity to express any concerns or questions.
How will going to secondary school affect my child's social relationships?
Moving to secondary school will present some very big changes to a child's social relationships. The first thing is the field of possible social relationships is going to be a lot bigger. It may, or it may not, feature children of the opposite sex, but there's no doubt about it: your child will be experiencing the challenges of puberty, and possibly heightened awareness and interest in the opposite sex. This will be a feature of a lot of talk between children of this age.
How will going to secondary school affect my child's overall development?
There's no doubt about it. Secondary school will offer many things that will support your child's overall development. The bigger the social circle, the greater the range of learning, both formal curriculum and extracurricular activities, and all of these things will be opportunities for your child to extend and develop their own interests and strengths.
