Exploring moving up to Secondary School with Year 6 from St Peter's.
Exciting news, The Trinity Project team hosted our first Stride Transition Workshops for students moving from Primary school to Secondary school.
This time of the school year for year 6 is full of rehearsals for their end of year productions. An opportunity to proudly perform in front of their school, staff and parents. For St Peter's this was no different. Rounding off their time with a memorable performance. I still remember the production I was part of in year 6 and if pressed could sing you a song or two. Important milestones on the journey.
We wanted to create a session that would enable the students to consider how they can Stride Well up to secondary school.
What did we offer?
The Trinity Project believes that opportunities the practice of reflection and gratitude are key components of managing change well. Combined they enable us to bring our mind along for the journey as well as our physical body. in light of this we framed our activities to allow this to happen.
Firstly using the image of a butterfly we reflected with the pupils on two key questions;
What they would miss about Primary School?
What they are looking forward to about Secondary School?
As students gave feedback on their reflections it was great to observe them listening to one another. They said things like, they'd miss being in one classroom for their lessons, their teachers, their friends. They were looking forward to; new topics to explore, new teachers, new friends, school dinners.
I suspect you could see these questions as simple but the process of considering these questions together is profound, enabling reflection and gratitude without using either of those words directly. More than this the fact activity is led by the Trinity Project meant we could hold the tension between the two spaces. Not favoring primary or secondary school in particular but, if they are moving up to a school in the area, being able to speak to their loss and their hopes with experience of both their schools. The Trinity Project is uniquely positioned to do this.
Wellbeing and managing feeling of anxiety came up as we discussed this activity. Normalising language we use to describe how we feel and how that makes us act is very important to us as a project. One of our core aims is that in all we offer we seek to raise the emotional literacy of those we support and the communities they are part of. By emotional literacy we mean simply to equip individuals with the language and self-awareness in order to articulate their emotions.
Secondly we focused on Friendships. In conversations this is the area that bring up the most anxiety among the students so it is fitting to focus on this topic for a while. On the butterfly wings friendship appeared a lot, in both the hopes and then things they'd miss. We focused on a story Jesus told of a Good Samaritan, a story well known to the children. We asked the question, what example does Jesus give us of a good friend through the story? Their responses were enlightening. One said, 'Just because you don't like someone doesn't give you the right to not help them.' Another reflected, 'Maybe it shows us that differences shouldn't divide us. I encouraged them to consider how they respond to others at times when their anxiety is high? I wonder what your reflection on this thought is? When we are in the 'Red Zone' or bodies go into alert and our consequence part of our brain shuts down completely. We aren't so concerned with the words we use or the actions we take, we are concerned with the threat being neutralised. If this threat is a person then we respond in a way that will bring us into what our mind perceives as safety. A harsh word, an angry shout or a object thrown.
The Haven have created some fantastic resources and is where I have gained a lot of the understanding that formed the session I ran for the Year 6 pupils.
I'd encourage you to have a look if you are interested.
Click here to go to their tools page.
We hope as a project to use their course materials in the local schools in the near future. An exciting opportunity to build on the conversations we started in the Stride Well session and in other spaces we offer.
Please do be in touch if you are interested in joining me for a session like this or would like to book it into your school.
Blessings and peace to you,
Charlotte
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