As the school year starts, teachers face the challenge of helping students to navigate the transition to a new class and sometimes to a new school. This period can bring a mix of emotions, from excitement to anxiety. Understanding how to support students during this time is crucial for their mental health and wellbeing. Our resources aim to equip schools with the tools to foster a nurturing environment, ensuring every student feels safe, supported, and ready for the changes ahead.
The importance of nurture in education
Nurture is key to a student’s wellbeing, providing them with a sense of safety and security. Classrooms should be safe spaces with consistent adults, structured routines, and an environment where students feel valued. Listening and responding appropriately to students’ needs reinforces their importance and helps them to develop emotionally and socially.
Understanding transition
Transitions are a normal part of life, and they happen frequently. For young people, these can include moving to a new class, a change in routines, or experiencing significant life events such as family illness or bereavement. These transitions can affect students emotionally, intellectually, and physically, often triggering challenging behaviours. It is important to recognise and support students through these changes and to help them build resilience.
What is transition?
• Saying goodbye
• Family illness or bereavement
• Navigating events such as birthdays, drop down days
• Moving home
• Changes to the normal routine
• Different member of staff
• A new pupil arriving in class
• New class, new teacher, new class set
Start of year transitions
The start of the school year is a significant transition that all students go through. Educators can use this time to nurture students and prepare them for the next phase. This involves recognising the range of emotions that students might feel, from joy and pride to anxiety and stress.
Activities to support transition
Here are some activities to help students during transitions:
• Transitional objects: provide comfort items that can ease the change.
• Timetables and schedules: help students understand the new routines.
• Memory books: encourage reflection on positive experiences.
• Buddies and mentors: introduce supportive peers in the new environment.
Adopt a strengths-based approach to transition
At Amazing People Schools, we use a strengths-based approach to transition. This method helps students to recognise and use their strengths, which builds resilience and adaptability.
Here is how using some key strengths can support your students:
Adaptability: Encouraging flexibility helps students to adjust to new situations, boosting their confidence.
Creativity: Engaging in creative activities releases feel-good chemicals and helps students to find new solutions to challenges.
Open-mindedness: Being open to new ideas and perspectives enhances happiness, fostering better relationships.
Resilience: Building resilience allows students to bounce back from setbacks, reducing stress and the impact of negative experiences.
Practical resources
By nurturing students during transitions, we can help them to thrive, not just academically, but also emotionally and socially, ensuring a smoother and more positive shift into the new school year. Providing students with a toolkit of strengths is essential for navigating these early transitions. Our resources focus on three key phases: early years to year one, transitioning from primary to secondary school, and moving on from compulsory education at 16.
These teacher-led resources guide young people through activities that help them to explore the strengths they have developed in previous years. Pupils are encouraged to find evidence of these strengths for themselves. They also look ahead, considering which strengths might be needed for the next phase of their lives. Additionally, students explore stories of role models who have used these strengths in their own lives. For those leaving primary school, activities are included to help them identify and discuss which strengths they will need to tackle the challenges of secondary school.
By specifically supporting these key transitional phases, teachers can foster a nurturing environment, ensuring every student feels safe, supported, and ready for the changes ahead.
Take a quick look at what else we offer: Discover Amazing People Schools Or try our free, no-obligation resources.How can Amazing People Schools help your school?
