The fact that the government has encouraged Year 6 students to get back into school as a priority so they can prepare for the transition to secondary school shows how important this moment in their lives is.
Usually, Soulscape is there to help prepare all the future Year 7 students in the Wokingham area through our Mind the Gap project.
This year, some Year 6 students in the area have gone back to school, others haven’t, and visitors are not allowed. How are we going to deliver Mind the Gap this time?
We’re dialling in to Year 6
The schools in the area have been amazing at working with us and thinking up creative new ways to help students through the Y6/Y7 transition. Some schools have been making videos for Year 6 to watch, answering their questions and showing them around the school, in lieu of the normal induction days.
And they have helped us find a way to deliver our Year 6 workshops to 12 local primary schools. We are dialling in by video call to run the interactive workshops, with the class teacher helping to facilitate.
The local secondary schools have recorded some interviews with Year 7 teachers and current Year 7 students, sharing their experiences and tips – these are really appreciated during the workshops.
Year 6 is now generally split into four ‘bubbles’ in each school, so over June and July, Michelle and her helpers are running the workshop four times for each primary school, and also running two or three more dial-in sessions for the Year 6 students from each school who are still learning at home. That’s a lot of workshops – but we love it!
Something for parents too
This term, we usually run one or two evenings just for Year 6 parents, sharing the combined knowledge and experience of Soulscape staff, youth workers, teachers and teenagers on the transition to Year 7. This year we can’t do it in person but we’ll be arranging some virtual sessions for 20 parents at a time. Watch this space for details.
