It’s September. Your pupils are transitioning into the next stage of their education journey – whether that’s a new school year or a totally new school environment. For some, these adjustments can overwhelm – new teachers, new peers, and a new routine can amount to a whole new level of stress.
School transitions involve some huge changes – not only for children but their families too.
Your efforts to ensure a seamless transition likely began pre-summer, but with the right support, you can help them navigate through their first term. Here are just three practical methods you might want to consider…
1) Ensure everybody has a ‘buddy’
Building friendships and relationships is key to a positive experience within the classroom, and pairing your pupils up is a good way to enable these friendships to form.
If you have mixed year groups within your classrooms, it’s worth pairing different year groups together, so that older pupils can reassure any newbies (since they went through the same transition just last year).
Assigning your pupils a buddy is helpful for several reasons. Ultimately, it provides them with a friendly face and a source of guidance, tackling feelings of loneliness and anxiety. But it also ensures a sense of belonging and community as the buddies become a support system and a friend, thus encouraging peer interaction, communication skills, and empathy.
Typically, a buddy system promotes a smoother integration into the school year and enhances the overall pupil experience. An ally within the classroom can truly work wonders for a smooth transition.
2) Set up a uniform exchange scheme
The cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, and it’s important to extend your support to parents and guardians.
Parents and guardians play a vital role in a pupil’s academic success, so ensuring they’re comfortable during a school transition is equally as important as your pupils.
Uniform exchange schemes support families with the costs involved in a new uniform (particularly within primary schools when children are growing at a rate of knots).
Dedicate a space in your school where parents and guardians can drop off their pre-loved uniform items throughout the year and communicate that this is a service available to your parent community.
Due to the sensitivity around the matter, you might want to consider setting up a pre-loved uniform booking service via your parent communications software to enable anybody collecting items to do so discreetly.
3) Get your Autumn Term parents’ evening in the diary (or host parent drop-in sessions)
As above, parents and guardians will also be feeling the pressure as a new academic year begins. Keeping them in the loop as their children transition will ascertain short and long-term benefits on your pupils’ academic achievements.
It’s all about providing the right tools and information parents need now to support children in the future. So, they must know they can come to you with any concerns about their children or the education journey as a whole.
More often than not, a school-wide approach doesn’t suit all. Some parents will prefer to communicate in a group setting, while others will prefer a more personalised, one-to-one conversation. Why not accommodate both?
Don’t give up on harder-to-reach parents either – support should be available to all – they need to know you’re on hand. Technology helps with this (a lot).
But wait, there’s more… get more tips and helpful resources in our webinar.
We’re joined by expert panellists to offer their recommendations and resources to support you and your pupils through the Autumn Term.
Hear from Ella Savell-Boss and discover details of the NSPCC’s Kindness Challenge by saving your seat online.
This is a sponsored article brought to you by IRIS Software Group.
To learn more about IRIS Education’s parent communications suite and how it can help, visit our website.
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