The challenge of change

For some young people, transitioning from primary to secondary school can be a challenging time. Lorraine Langham, CEO of the charity Future First, describes how relatable mentors can alleviate the struggle…

Read the full article below or read on page 18 of our September magazine

For many children, the transition from primary to secondary school is a positive experience of excitement and growth; for others, it can be a time of anxiety, challenge and disruption, impacting not only on a child’s attainment, but also their general wellbeing. 

In a post-pandemic era, the number of children requiring extra support has naturally risen. As we all know, the leap from a small primary classroom to a huge, unfamiliar, building – shared by a thousand secondary students – is daunting at the best of times. Now consider the children who spent a good portion of their recent education working on a laptop from their kitchens; you can imagine how overwhelming this transition might be for them. 

At Future First we are already hearing from teachers reporting a strong decline in children’s social skills due to the pandemic, with many being as far as two years behind. The social skills these children are missing are critical tools for the transition between schools and are instrumental in helping develop new friendships and relationships with teachers, meaning many more will certainly struggle with the change. 

Transition for children facing adversity 

Transition is most challenging for the children who are already facing adversity – for example, those living in households with low socio-economic status may be anxious about accessing a suitable uniform. Those who do not have contact with a trusted adult may not be able to seek practical advice or ask for help related to their new school (such as how to get the bus, or find their class). If English isn’t your first language you may be fearful of meeting peers or communicating with new teachers and, if you are from a background where you’ve experienced trauma or domestic violence, simply experiencing change or disruption may make a school transition significantly more difficult.  

In short, the challenges children already face can make change more problematic, and secondary schools may not always be able to support children in the ways primary schools can.  Consider, for example, a child in a primary school who may have received support from a single teacher. Primary teachers are able to adapt the support they give as they have a better opportunity to understand each child’s context. A secondary teacher, however, may teach up to 300 different students, and may not understand the background of each child, especially those new to the school. This means that, for some children, the support they had in primary school ends. Which is why, for many children, having the opportunity to reach out to a mentor, in the form of a person with similar lived experience, can help.   

Connecting with a mentor

Having a mentor can enable a child who is struggling with a transition to be able to reach out directly to someone who may have previously faced similar issues, or been on a comparable journey. Whether they are from a similar household, live in the same regional area or estate, or have the same religious faith or background, easily accessing unbiased advice or guidance can help considerably. 

This help may come in the form of an answer to a simple question related to their lived experience such as, How did you make friends? How did you learn to find your way around a bigger school? Or, Who can I talk to about my problems? To which a mentor can give their personal advice or support. 

There are lots of different mentoring and support services available, but schools may not have thought about asking their past pupils to do this. Future First has helped many schools to use their alumni as mentors and we are happy to support others. Schools can also do this themselves, signing up past pupils, getting them DBS checked and training volunteers to provide support.  Giving students a choice of mentors that mirror their background or interests, empowering them to choose who they connect with, is a strong factor in successful mentor matching.

The mentor can then be accessed via a fully-safeguarded and moderated online platform; we use one provided by Brightside. Children are not limited to using the technology during school time and can ask for support from their ‘phone or any other device at any time. This allows mentors to help students who are school refusers, or those who have high levels of social anxiety, and are, therefore, not attending school. 

The power of a positive network

For many children the opportunity to ask questions, seek guidance, or obtain information, simply isn’t available; making a connection with a person who has been where they are, and successfully finished school, is invaluable during transition – especially as our research shows that 43% of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds do not think, or are unsure of, whether people like them can be successful.

The transitional stage is a vital time that determines how well a young person settles into secondary education and, in the wake of the pandemic, more children need help to adjust. Our work with children has demonstrated that access to a relatable mentor makes a huge difference, especially in relation to confidence. 

Using past pupils as relatable mentors with lived experience is just another way schools can support children to thrive at secondary school.

Lorraine Langham is Chief Executive of Future First, the UK education charity helping young people in state schools and colleges broaden their horizons by connecting them with former pupils and other positive role models.