Transition to Secondary School
Help students consider the transition to secondary school and identify some of the challenges that can arise.
Transition Booklets
The move to secondary school can be an exciting time of change and development but it can also be time of worry and uncertainty for some. With this in mind, Young Minds Matter NHS have produced a ‘Transition support pack’ for you and your child to work through.
There are 2 PowerPoint video sessions on Youtube (see below), one for parents/ carers and one for students. The purpose is to support you in learning how to build confidence for opportunities and challenges in year 7.
Learning about moving to secondary school
How to support your young person with transition anxiety – for parents and carers
How to manage worries about moving to secondary school – for children and young people
Embracing Change and New Challenges
Available exclusively to members and designed to be delivered in the final summer half term of the academic year, these lessons focus on identifying feelings, opportunities and challenges related to this transition, and supporting pupils with positive strategies for managing changes from one key stage to another.
Y6 - Y7 Transition Lesson
This lesson i
s designed for the final year of primary school. It explores the conflicting feelings that young people may have about starting secondary school and teaches them ways to express these feelings and manage this transition positively.
| Topic | Description | Lesson Plan PDFs |
| Transition to Secondary School | An additional lesson plan for you to download and share with your feeder schools to prepare young people for the move to secondary school. |
Y6 - Y7 Transition Ideas for Schools
The summer term is traditionally the time of year when schools plan a raft of activities and events to support pupils moving from one phase of their education to the next. The Transition ideas for schools document gives specific ideas and tips to help support pupils, which can be easily incorporated into a ‘Transition booklet’ that pupils can keep as a record and take with them into Year 7.
Year 6 Transition Sessions
Use this transition plan to help build sessions to help guide children through to Y7. These documents link to the transition plan:
Be Awesome, Go Big
Public Health England Resource
Using peer-to-peer discussion and activities, students will explore the transition to secondary school.
The lesson plan includes:
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A PowerPoint for use in class
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Starter activities – carry out a baseline assessment of students' prior knowledge, skills and understanding
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Core peer-to-peer activities, plenaries and exciting extension ideas
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A film to support the activities
SEND Matters UK
SEN support should include planning and preparation for the transitions between phases of education and preparation for adult life. To support transition, the school should share information with the school, college or other setting the child or young person is moving to. Schools should agree with parents and pupils the information to be shared as part of this planning process.
SENDCO Guides - Primary to Secondary transition
SENDCO - working with parents and carers
Supporting Year 6/7 Transition - SENexchange discussion 
Fran from Square Peg shares her thought on transition programes for students with SEN and EHCPs. Check out the useful blog with links to activities and ideas to help aide an inclusive transition and reduce anxiety, including the helpful table below which shows the difference between primary and secondary education.
Read the Supporting Year 6/7 Transition Blog Post here
Moving up! The transition to secondary school 
The Anna Freud Centre have developed an animation and teacher toolkit aimed at supporting pupils who have recently started year 7, or are due to start soon. The animation is aimed at year 6 and 7 pupils to feel more confident, less anxious and better equipped to cope with the changes associated with moving to secondary school.
The teacher toolkit can be downloaded here which includes Lesson and Assembly Plans, Assembly Powerpoint, Resources and signposting poster, as well as four activities around moving up to Secondary School.
Moving up to Secondary School Booklet 
A helpful, printable booklet from Compass for parent/carers to use with their children moving up to Secondary School, with a useful checklist, activities and tips to prepare for transition.
To download the booklet click here
BBC BiteSize Resources for Teachers 
The BBC in partnership with YoungMinds Find your Feet project, have produced the following resources for teachers for students transitioning to secondary school, aiming to support schools to actively support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children as they start the next chapter in their lives.
Helping Children Transition to a New School or Class 
Advise and activities from ELSA Support to use with children making any kind of transition to a new school or class- whether thats moving from primary to secondary school or from one class to another. Visit ELSA Supports website to access all of the acitivites and resources available for download such as the transition workbook "Ready, Set Secondary" which empowers pupils to think about their readiness for Secondary and what they have to look forward to.
Lumi Nova - Tackle worries on starting a new school
Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage is an engaging child-led, parent/guardian supported therapeutic intervention that can be used on most smartphones or tablets.
It facilitates graded exposures (the active ingredient of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) with psychoeducation to empower 7-12 year olds with mild to moderate needs to learn to self-manage fears, worries and anxiety.
It is practical, age appropriate, non-stigmatising, encourages self management and provides user progress and health outcomes data in real time to authorised professionals.
Tagged under: transition, year 6, year 7, secondary school, resources, lesson plan, workbook, toolkit, anna freud, teachers, parents, schools, carers, Go Big, mentally healthy schools, resources, changing schools, SEN, EHCP, inclusion
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