Parents of kids starting secondary school in September... video message

[BloggersNetwork]

Hello. I am part of the transition team at a secondary school, working in a pastoral role. I have been asked to record a short video to introduce myself to the new cohort. My video will then be amalgamated with videos from other relevant members of staff and sent to all the new students.

Never done this before.

I am thinking about what would be the most comforting and reassuring message for this cohort. I want to acknowledge the difficulties with potentially lack of endings, stressful new beginnings, etc.

I'd be really really grateful for ideas.

Also, I'd like to be creative with it without being silly or gimmicky, so again, any suggestions would be much appreciated. It's important that what comes across is that I'm there 'for them' and I am not a teacher.

Thank you all

Say what you would say if you met them for the first time in an assembly.

Acknowledge the strange situation, explain your role and include a couple of things about you.

Keep it relatively short and factual. Show your warmth and care by being sincere and reassuring.

I don't know if you will cover this or someone else, but ds (started last year but missed transition due to illness) was in such a panic about not knowing exactly where to go on the first day.
So I would want a video telling kids exactly step by step where to go and what will happen. What door should they go in? When will they find out their classmates? Should they go to the assembly hall first? Will there be time to go to the toilet? Really really basic things, things you think are too obvious to be worth mentioning in a video. Those were all the sorts of things he was anxious about.
Tell them exactly how to find you if they have a problem. Don't just say "come and see me", actually spell out that they should walk up to your room and knock on the door. Can they knock on the door if they can see you are already with someone or should they wait outside?
When you can get into school you should do a video walkthrough of where they should go.
Ds wasn't anxious about the work or the social side, he was very anxious about the actual practicalities because he hadn't been inside the school before.

I don't think you need to do a lot of acknowledging of the current situation. They know it's shit already - they don't need to hear 15 people say it again.

Something along the lines of; Don't worry, everyone is new once, you're all going to get lost but that's okay. You will make friends, we will do everything we can to help you settle in and you're going to love it.

I think what they most worry about is getting lost and being late to lessons, what if they can't find the loos, or they forget their books and will they make new friends etc. They're not too worried at this stage about the work or the teachers.

A lot of that worry is alleviated by Transition days where they get to see some of that stuff, and start to make friends. That's what they are missing so some reassurance that they aren't alone and all the year 7s are in the same boat.

Maybe some reassurance that the first day could be a transition day rather than straight into lessons?

This might sound ridiculous, but make sure someone tells them whether they need to bring their PE kit in on the first day. Carrying that in unnecessarily just adds to the stress.

Otherwise I agree with PP, lots of clear info on the first couple of days (even if at this point it is 'this is what we normally do').

Maybe also a strong anti-bullying message. 'We know sadly some of you may have been bullied … not tolerated … this is what you should do...'

I'd also be up front about them probably not coming back full time from September (obviously with SLT approval). This may be a shock to them and their parents and the message needs to get out there.