School not having induction days at secondary?!

[WaitroseAldi]

Apparently the head teachers of a few of the local primary are saying they are not comfortable with sending year 6 upto secondary for two induction days. Is this what it has became?! The poor kids will have absolutely no idea what to expect come September, most of them haven’t even stepped foot into the school to look around.

It’s so sad and my Ds (autism) has not stopped worrying about it since his teacher told his class last week!

I'm in Scotland and our P7 have had a Friday afternoon when the high school kids are not in. It's not quite the same as the usual but I think they are doing their best.

My DD's is going ahead but it's a very small secondary and only 60 going into Yr 7 so they are just doing it in their current class bubbles. They are also planning a five day activity based 'summer school' in the summer holidays for the new year 7's to meet and get used to the school, restrictions allowing

DC's school have the first day of term in September just for Year 7s.
(To be honest they did this before Covid). I'm surprised more schools aren't doing the same as feels like an obvious solution - and much nicer for the new Year 7s to settle in with the school to themselves.

I think transition should be moved to September as well. Or the schools shut a week earlier and only transition happen in that final week.

Extra bonus is that school children and staff will be in much smaller groups, the majority will be at home and many less people will need to isolate over the summer holidays

@UserAtRandom

DC's school have the first day of term in September just for Year 7s. (To be honest they did this before Covid). I'm surprised more schools aren't doing the same as feels like an obvious solution - and much nicer for the new Year 7s to settle in with the school to themselves.

That's the plan at our school, but it hasn't been signed off as definitely going ahead, so hasn't been communicated to parents yet. I expect we'll be letting the parents and primary schools know the new plan at some point this week.

Yes, DD will be going to a secondary school that she has never set foot in. She is quite happy to hide behind online events - in reality this means she opts out of any interaction. She is not naturally gregarious nor particularly confident and the shift to online learning previously just resulted in disengagement from education and regressed social skills.

I'm really, really concerned for her. But she is 11 and therefore not a priority during this pandemic.

I'm really, really concerned for her. But she is 11 and therefore not a priority during this pandemic.

Kids are not a priority in this pandemic.
It's irresponsible to cancel transition day because it will impact anxious children and could have long lasting negative outcomes in terms of their education. Whatever for? Most adults have had at least one vaccine, many are double vaccinated. Pp have said how their children really didn't cope well without having a transition day last year.

It's an absolute disgrace to cancel important events for children at this point when they had missed out on so much education already.. Meanwhile, we have football fans, BLM demos and G7 leaders all merrily doing whatever the hell they please.

They will send the year 7's to school a few days before the rest of the school - it's shit but he will be ok x

allgirlskidsanddogs it's not fair to compare private to state though. I work in 2 different private schools. Both have transition going ahead. It has been very difficult to work out all the logistics to fit within the guidelines but if we didn't do it, the parents wouldn't sign up to pay for a school their child hadn't experienced and we wouldn't get the pupils. So it's not that the private schools care more. We just have no choice but to make it work.

Lots of children last year (if not all) started secondary school without having had induction days. The schools helped them transition with virtual events, videos etc. Then they started a day or two early in September to get used to the school before the other year groups arrived.

The kids will be absolutely fine.

My dd started this year, she was due for extra transition work and gone none.
The school had them in an extra day before the others but that was it.

I have to say the school have been atrocious about supporting them (but they have a bad reputation for this anyway). But I guess they have bigger fish to fry. I hope this time they are more prepared, plus I think having a diagnosis in place will help.

It’s shit it really is I hope they do something over the summer to support, I know some do camps for the transition kids and some managed that last year despite the restrictions.

I am feeling increasingly angry about how little consideration under 18s and their educational wellbeing have had in the last few months.
My DD Yr11 has applied to various 6th forms and colleges (applied "blind" last autumn not able to visit them then but hopeful of doing so before the final decision had to be made on results day) - but all the taster days have now been cancelled so god knows how she's supposed to choose which one is right for her.
She's had both years of her GCSE course fucked up and I can see the disruption to her education is going to spread into Year 12 (loads of kids now off sick or isolating at all the local schools here).
I know it's a once in a century pandemic blah blah blah but so much of this could have been avoided by better planning (I'm looking at you Gavin Williamson )

Our primary is doing outdoor stay and play for an hour next week but it’s weather dependant!

I’m a head of y7. Last years year group settled just fine without a transition day. We did online videos introducing myself and tutors, a tour of the school and teachers also said hello.

We opened a day early for the y7s and it all went smoothly.

@WaitroseAldi

Apparently the head teachers of a few of the local primary are saying they are not comfortable with sending year 6 upto secondary for two induction days. Is this what it has became?! The poor kids will have absolutely no idea what to expect come September, most of them haven’t even stepped foot into the school to look around.

It’s so sad and my Ds (autism) has not stopped worrying about it since his teacher told his class last week!

Same as my DD last year- only she also have 0 days of schooling from March 20th onwards as her school didn’t have Y6 back. Home schooling was absolutely woeful with not a single phone cal or contact with her teacher at all. It’s been hard because just as she was getting over the hurdle of getting used to secondary, it all shut again so it was back to almost square 1 at Easter this year. I really hope the new year 7’s get a straight run once in this year

Ds wasn’t allowed any settling in sessions at his Special needs school (in a different town 20 miles away!) he left his mainstream school on the Friday and started his SN school on the Monday. Absolutely no transitions what do ever due to covid.

I don’t understand how it was suddenly suitable for him to start on the Monday but not go for a settling in session prior to this though.

I don’t understand how it was suddenly suitable for him to start on the Monday but not go for a settling in session prior to this though

It’s the back and forth of multiple schools. Presumably with a large catchment they would be coming and going from lots of primaries, although it doesn’t cut out the coming it cuts out the going back and seeding it back to the primary schools

The primary school he just left had been welcoming children in which had involved settling in sessions (2 in yr2 in the weeks before he left) even ds old senco couldn’t understand the arrangement with his new school.

Ds is the only child to have started in the last year at his new school so it wasn’t like they had a multitude of different children from all different schools.

Seems to be pot luck as the sn boards I visit, some of those children are able to attend regular sessions prior to starting.

Ds is the only child to have started in the last year at his new school so it wasn’t like they had a multitude of different children from all different schools.

No, that is shit and doesn’t make sense. Start half day settling on the Monday so it’s not seeded back to his primary, but there’s ways of doing it.

As far as I know, it is the dfe and LEAs who have banned transition days, not individual schools. It's absolutely rubbish either way 😖
Looks like many fun events for summer term will be cancelled too 😩

@CeCePlus

As far as I know, it is the dfe and LEAs who have banned transition days, not individual schools. It's absolutely rubbish either way 😖 Looks like many fun events for summer term will be cancelled too 😩

😫 at this, sums it up

Plus add the depressing image of dc isolating for ten days

V football crowds

Local secondaries here are moving year 7 and 12 transition to September.

So they go in for 2 or 3 days just those year groups, rest of school have an extra 3 days at home. The days were initially planned as inset days. The teachers involved in transition are having to make up the inset days as twilight hours.

At my school we are still holiday reception transition. But it is in groups of 10 children, outdoors and for half an hour. There will be a week of transition hours in September. We are also posting virtual tours, teacher videos, etc

Infant-junior (we have three school system here) isn't happening in person. Virtually transition sessions, video tours, etc. We also have some cross transition lessons planned for the final two weeks which will follow them into year 3.

Our in school transition is a mix of teacher videos and the new teacher visiting the class in the children's current classroom but with SDjbg from the teacher.

Our risk assessment from the LEA via DfE means that normal transition can't happen again.

Fwiw this year's reception settled beautifully in September despite no in person transition. A very small number with SEND had a slightly longer transition period in September, but only an extra few days.
The year 2s moving to the junior school all went smoothly too from what we heard.

@DoggyDoolittle same experiencd here year 11 and I think DD will end up staying at her crap school for sixth form cos she has no sense of what it's like anywhere else.

Virtual tours IMO are a total waste of time.

I teach in a secondary and was a Year 7 form tutor this year - last years intake had no transition on top of not being in school since March and they were fine! They had a couple of settling days in September and a lot of support. I think the initial first day in was scary, but it always is.

I also had a child who started reception last September, having no transition etc, and as a parent it was really bizarre handing her over to strangers outside a building she’d never been in before. It was fine though! But I get how stressful it feels.

FWIW I agree with the transition days being cancelled. We’re an inner city school and have kids coming from multiple primary schools (I think it’s more than 10). We’ve had a few covid cases lately too, it just doesn’t seem like a good idea to run transition this year!