Top tips for supporting a young person transitioning to a new school

Photo from Mortal Fools X Natural England Showcase at NCEA Duke's Secondary School. Our Youth Theatre Practitioner Kate is shown presenting the event in a pink shirt, alongside a young person. Photo Credit: Von Fox

It’s that time of year again when schools, families and youth workers are all busily preparing for the new school year. It’s an exciting time, filled with new possibilities and many young people can’t wait to get back and see their friends once again and return to the lessons they enjoyed!

But getting back to school can also bring big changes and anxiety. For young people transitioning to a new school or college, it can be particularly tough as they need to navigate the new lessons and expectations of what is often a larger and more complex setting, find their place and make new friends.

This is a topic that comes up a lot in our youth theatre and has been a particular focus of our Stage 2 Ashington Youth Theatre group for our recent Sounding Board project, so we wanted to share some insights we’ve gathered from our young people and staff and some top tips and resources to support young people facing a transition!

Photo from Mortal Fools X Natural England Showcase at NCEA Duke's Secondary School. Photo Credit: Von Fox

Our top tips

1. Do something fun!

Make time to do some fun activities with young people; something enjoyable that helps build a connection through play and a shared experience. We’ve found that it’s so much easier for young people to talk freely and honestly about what they are feeling when they’re absorbed in an activity, whether that be writing, drawing, playing a game, baking or simply going for a walk.

If you’re looking for ideas you can find many free creative activities on our website and YouTube channel:  

Creative Wellbeing Micro-Workshop for Children was created by Mortal Fools Associate Animator Sheryl Jenkins and Associate Writer Danielle Burn. This mini-workshop encourages you to get out and about, take a moment to relax and try out some easy creative activities. Click here to check out the Creative Wellbeing Micro-Workshop for Children
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Our Creativity for Wellbeing activities have been created by guest artist Sofia Barton. They are relaxing, playful, simple and fun, encouraging self-expression. Click here for the Creativity for Wellbeing activities.​

Photo from Melva workshop at Hawthorn Primary School, Photo Credit Von Fox

2. Have a few go-to conversation starters up your sleeve:

Every good conversation starts with creating a supportive space where it feels comfortable to share. Our Youth Theatre practitioner Kate recommends having a few go-to questions that you can use to start a conversation about their new school and their feelings around it.

Many young people moving schools are involved in a transition day or induction day so this can be a great place to start. You could ask about what activities they did, whether they met any new teachers, whether they are in any of the same classes as their friends or whether they made any new friends.

And if you’ve got a young person, that struggles to talk about their feelings and experiences, you could create a visual collage to represent their transition day – featuring words, colours, textures, pictures that help represent their experience on that day.
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“By creating a safe and supportive atmosphere and exploring the positives you often find the conversation that follows is much more fruitful!”
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– Kate, Youth Theatre Practitioner

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Photo from Mortal Fools X Natural England Showcase at NCEA Duke's Secondary School. Photo Credit: Von Fox

3. Focus on their interests:

Think about what makes them happy, talk to them about their favourite lessons and support young people to explore their interests. You may want to chat about how their new school can help them learn more about their interests and meet like-minded people who are equally passionate.

Lots of high schools have a wide range of after-school activities from fun sports teams to creative art, theatre and film clubs that they may want to look into when they are settled into their new routine. Sometimes young people, just need a little helping hand to go over the threshold to engage with something new, so providing emotional support and a safe space to figure some stuff out can help in enabling that to happen.

“At Mortal Fools we describe our work as “person-centred” recognising that young people, just like us adults, are their own individuals! When having open conversations with young people try not to censor their thoughts and feelings whilst keeping the space safe.”
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-Kate, Youth Theatre Practitioner

Photo from Melva workshop at Hawthorn Primary School, showing an activity page where a student has written and drawn lots of things that make them feel good. Photo Credit Von Fox

4. Validate their feelings:

Moving schools is a big change, and it’s important to let them share the reality of where they are at and try to let go of any preconceived ideas; it’s completely normal to feel a whole range of emotions or conversely to feel totally ready!
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It’s important in these moments, not to use a sweeping statement like “it will be fine” or to jump in and try to make it all better for that young person. Sometimes just holding space, acknowledging the feelings and guiding them through processing their emotions, is the key! Let them know that whatever they are feeling is okay. 

5. Get organised

It’s a good idea to work together with young people to prepare as much as you can before the school year starts, to remove some uncertainty. Creating an action plan with the young person can be so helpful, and identifies tangible steps in “getting ready”, so your young person feels like an active participant in their own life. You might want to try out their new route to school together, look together at any information on the school’s website for new students, create a getting ready for school playlist together and if needed get in touch with the SENDCO at their school to make sure they have the right support in place.

We’ve created a Getting ready for school playlist as a starter for ten.......you can listen to ours here!

Photo from Melva workshop at Hawthorn Primary School, Photo Credit Von Fox

Resources that might help:

We have lots of films, resources and activities available on our website which are brilliant for supporting young people through times of change:

Melva is an award-winning mental health intervention that can help young people manage all sorts of changes in their lives through a creative, fun and approachable digital platform. School licenses can be secured for free for many schools in the North East whilst families can access the MELVA interactive game for just £9.99. Click here to find out more about Melva.

My People is a series of short films created by Mortal Fools Ensemble Young Company, following a group of young people navigating the reality of friendship in the modern world. Click here to watch the My People films.

Our Wellbeing Resource was co-created with young people and includes a wide variety of wellbeing and mental health support organisations, friends of Mortal Fools, inspirational influencers, courageous activists and colourful content creators. Click here to access the Wellbeing resource.
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Keep your eyes peeled for our Sounding Board Digital launch this autumn with vibrant films, catchy songs and fun activities, to encourage you to express yourself and make your voice heard. Find out more about Sounding Board by clicking here

Sounding Board Graphic. Designed by Swaddle Creative

 
"if you work through fear you realise you can do anything!"
​- Youth Theatre Member on Sounding Board Digital

Despite the uncertainty, it’s important to remember that moving schools presents some really exciting opportunities; young people often have more freedom, meet new people who they really connect with and develop their interests with a wide range of classes and after-school clubs.

We’ll leave you with these encouraging words from our youth theatre practitioner Kate and her group:

“We explored how transitions feel in our youth theatre groups who described it as both “terrifying and wonderful” at the same time! We reflected on the times we have overcome these changes, including many young people already moving schools, and we want to remind people that “it's scary at first but once you get used to it it's really fun!”

-Kate, Youth Theatre Practitioner

Photo from Mortal Fools X Natural England Showcase at NCEA Duke's Secondary School. Photo Credit: Von Fox