Welcome to High School
In this edition of the Anchor, we welcome the parents and caregivers of the 2023 Year 7 cohort. While it may feel like the end of the year is rapidly approaching, we are also very much thinking about new beginnings.
This week marks the beginning of the transition process for our 2023 Year 7s. We officially welcomed them and their families into the Endeavour community at the Welcome to High School evening.
Transition is different from change. There will be changes, of course, and they are being planned for right now by students, parents, and school staff. Things like uniforms, transport to school, the technology we use at school, teachers and the daily timetable are all predictable changes for our new Year 7s.
Transition is more about what happens in students’ hearts and minds as they experience these changes. This is not so easy to predict and is where we focus our energies.
A successful transition involves three types of adjustments. The first is social adjustment. Endeavour’s pastoral care model focuses on personal and social skill development. Vertically aligned Care Groups enable strong relationships to build between students and staff over the 6 years of the students’ time at Endeavour. Many Village and Care Group activities are student led and focus on belonging, fun and Village spirit. The Peer Support program at Year 7 connects the Year 11 students with our Year 7s in a structured way and is designed to provide peer-to-peer mentoring to the Year 7s. And our Year Level Leaders, Counsellors and Ministry Team work hard to support our students when they experience social or emotional setbacks.
Institutional adjustments must also be made for a transition to high school to be successful, and these can take time. We work hard to build our understanding of the learning, social and emotional needs of our Year 7s well before they put on the Endeavour uniform. We collaborate with their primary schools to gather important and useful data so that we can make informed decisions about things such as class groupings and adaptive education needs. This allows students to make their own first impressions when they start school, but it also allows us to be proactive and prepared to support them.
Core teachers take time to show students how to manage their books, pack their lockers and use their learning management platforms. New routines are built over time with the support of staff.
We know that children will successfully transition when they feel engaged and involved in their learning. Which brings me to the final transition adjustment: curriculum. When students feel connected to the curriculum and supported when they experience struggle, they will settle quickly. Core teachers and Care Group teachers explicitly teach our Year 7 students how to reflect on their growth, to set goals and track them. Project based learning is an important experience for all Year 7s, and a broad experience of elective subjects is built into the year.
As the year draws to a close, we send our best wishes to the 2023 Year 7 cohort as they enjoy their final months of Year 6. We hope they are looking forward with the same level of excitement as we are, to being in Year 7 at Endeavour College in 2023.
Next time we see them will be on their Transition Day in November, when they spend a day with us exploring the campus and building connections. We cannot wait to see them.
Louisa Mulligan
Director of Middle Years