August - September 2015

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87 Aug-Sep15
EDUCATION
Moving Up
The transition fromPrimary School to Secondary
is an exciting time, but it can also be daunting
for even the most confident students. We sat
down with LAURA HILL, Lower Secondary
Coordinator at Yew Cheung International
School, to find out how it helps students adjust
to moving up.
What are the biggest changes the students face?
Challenges can be experienced by any new student joining
a new school. Some students may be concerned about
the social aspects, and other students may be concerned
about meeting so many new teachers at the start of the
new year; but this is something we are very much aware
of at YCIS, so we address it as soon as our new Year 7
students arrive. They benefit from a comprehensive Y6-Y7
Transition Programme that begins on their very first day
and runs throughout the entire academic year.
Do you start preparing them in the final year of
Primary?
We very much value the close relationship between
Primary and Secondary, and we liaise throughout the
year to ensure that Year 6 students already feel prepared
for Secondary life.
Firstly, our dynamic Secondary teachers provide taster
lessons for Year 6 students from April to June. Some of
these take place on our Secondary campus and some are
based at Primary; either way, students get to experience a
typical Secondary school lesson with learning objectives
and goals. They get to know teachers they’ve not met
before and they get to ask lots of questions.
Secondly, some Year 7 students visit Primary in May,
along with the Lower Secondary Programme Coordinator,
to hold an interactive question-and-answer sharing session
aimed at Year 6 students. In addition to this, we invite a
small group of Year 6 students, who seem particularly
nervous about the transition, to visit our Secondary school
and take part in some campus-navigating activities way
ahead of their peers – these are our Forward Scouts.
How does the school help them to adjust?
When our Year 7 students arrive in August, they are
greeted by a welcoming team of key Lower School
staff, which includes the Year 7 Head of Year, the Lower
Secondary Programme Coordinator, our Counselling and
Learning Support Head, and Year 7 Form Tutors. We opt
for a gradual approach to Secondary school life. Instead of
regular lessons, for the first three days of school, students follow a
Beginning of School Transition Programme. Some of the activities
that take place during this time include ICT projects using their
newly purchased MacBooks, digital citizenship workshops,
locker organisation tasks, All About Me presentations, school
map-reading challenges, and Making Friends ice-breaker tasks.
What support is available to them in the first years of
Secondary to help them with the transition?
Once settled into Secondary life, student support doesn’t stop. As
part of our Y6-Y7 Transition Programme, Year 7 students benefit
from workshops and fun bonding activities throughout the year.
The Year 7 camp proves the most popular of these activities. Our
Counselling and Learning Support Division lead social skills and
anti-bullying awareness activities in October. We also deliver a
Holistic Education Programme as part of Tutor time each morning
and Personal, Social and Health Education classes, which include
assemblies and extended Tutor time presentations on important
issues or key skills.
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