Transition from year 6-7 at Church Stretton School

At Church Stretton School we have a well-established programme which makes the transition from primary to secondary as smooth as possible. 

We are very pleased that staff from Church Stretton have been able to meet year 6 teachers to learn as much as possible about each child. This takes place during the summer term to allow us to gather as much information as possible. Meeting students in their primary school allows your son/daughter to tell us bit about themselves in their own words.

Using all the information we gather will allow the pastoral team to divide students up into four Houses (Caradoc, Hazler, Lawley and Ragleth); students with siblings already in school will be automatically placed in the same House. It is our experience that students settle quickly into their Houses and add new friends to their circle. In any year there will be several students who are the only entrant from their particular primary school and parents can be reassured that our experience is that they too settle quickly.

Many students from our feeder primary schools have already visited the school for workshops in Food, Design, STEM and Sport; giving them a taste of life at Church Stretton. During the transition process, students are invited into school for a New Intake Day where they meet their Head of Year and experience a range of student workshops throughout the day. 

Additionally, parents and students are invited in to a New Intake Evening to receive further information about starting school. This includes information such as the school day, Go4schools, uniform, rewards route etc. 

Students will be placed into teaching groups using the information we receive from Primary Schools before completing some baseline assessments towards the end of the first half term. The results from these and ongoing assessments will then be used to help monitor whether tudents are in the best teaching groups for the rest of the year.

On their arrival in September, students quickly come up to speed with our procedures and everyday expectations. Tutors and mentors help the students in their new school helping them to settle quickly. In October an evening is arranged for parents to meet tutors to discuss how their children have progressed and settled in the early weeks and to help resolve any issues that may have arisen. . A full parents' consultation evening is arranged for subject teachers to meet parents and discuss progress in individual subjects and reports are issued in June. 

To mark and encourage positive attitudes and individual achievement students are awarded House points. These could represent work done well, superb effort or particular successes. As the number of House points reach milestones such as 50,100,150 and so on prizes are awarded.

As with other years, year 7 students are encouraged to take part in extra-curricular activities such as sports team practices and games, school productions and the School Council. Taking part enriches their daily life at school.

Pastoral care is all important at Church Stretton and Tutors monitor their tutees, meeting them each day during registration.

The end of year 7 is marked by the issue of a full written report from each subject teacher. This report is used to plan ahead to the transfer of students into year 8.

Links

CSS Send Transition 

Transitioning to secondary school

Supporting school transitions

Documents