Transition into Secondary School

Secondary school has a very different feel to primary school, and families might sometimes feel disconcerted by these changes. Other than it actually being different from what your child has experienced previously, it may also be a very different experience to the one lived by parents and carers in their own high school experience. In addition, the high school experience is not always depicted positively in film and television, and this can lead to a nervousness in both children and parents. Being aware of what some of the changes will be in advance will hopefully help ease any concerns. So what are some of the main differences between primary school and secondary school? 

Multiple Teachers and Classroom Movement 

In secondary schools the students have a wider range of subjects with specialised teachers for each. This means they might have as many as 10 different teachers in the first semester and then a change to some of those teachers in the second half of the year when they undertake different subjects. Many of these subjects take place in specialised facilities, such as the Science Centre for Science, the Stadium, the PE and Sport and the Hall for Music. This means there will be much more movement around the school than in their primary school. 

Homework and Study 

Unlike primary School, there is a much greater emphasis on and expectation around the completion of homework and study as a regular part of the daily routine. In ultimately preparing our students to be organised, independent and self-managed learners, it is important that they build skills to complete work that is out of the classroom and essentially unsupervised. Homework provides the vehicle for this to happen. One of the things that can be challenging to adjust to is that there is not always the same turnaround time for the completion of work. Sometimes the students might be given a project-style task that sees them allocating homework time over a couple of weeks whereas, at other times, there might be a short answer question task that is due in the next lesson. 

Homework Guidelines

Homework is an integral and important part of your overall education. 

The purpose of homework is to:

• Encourage you to develop the skills, confidence and motivation to study effectively on your own
• Consolidate and reinforce the skills and understanding developed at school
• Extend school learning (for example through additional reading)
• Provide opportunities for the involvement of parents and carers in the management of your learning and enable them to stay informed about the school work

Homework can include the following activities:

• Reinforce and consolidate classroom learning
• Provide opportunities for you to practice skills being developed and content covered in class
• Develop topic summaries
• Develop a work ethic and foster self-discipline through the development of independent study habits
• Provide a link between school and home

There are three specific types of homework:

• Specifically set tasks designed to follow a class learning activity or prepare for a learning activity
• Incidental homework that may involve/include completion of class work
• Self study that may involve you reviewing your learning, preparing study material or developing topic summaries. Different ways of study include: reading, mind maps, practice questions, self testing, peer testing, topic summaries

Increased Clubs, Committees and Extra curricular Opportunities 

There is so much that the students can be involved in Middle School. Many of these are clubs or committees which the students are able to involve themselves in without families necessarily being involved. There are other extra-curricular offerings which are sometimes outside of school hours or during lunchtimes. Involvement in these activities are recommended in order to promote their broader growth, strengthen their connection to the School, and assist them to make connections with other students across different year levels. 

Communication 

At Macleod College, communication may be different from that experienced by families in the primary school context. Generally, we will continue to communicate with parents/carers regarding programs and events that the students are involved in, especially if they require decisions in which parents/carers need to have a voice. Formal communication with parents and caregivers will usually be via email. Our COMPASS communication system provides a useful source of information for parents, via the calendar, the weekly update and in posts about particular events. Teachers will continue to contact parents/carers, either by phone or email, if there are issues relating to learning that requires parental involvement. It would be unusual, however, for parents/carers to be contacted (in the first instance) in relation to uniform infringements, minor disciplinary matters, outside the classroom, friendship disputes or routine visits to student care. 

What may also be different, is the amount of direct communication with the students. It would be common for a teacher to communicate with a student directly via email (or in person) to follow up various issues such as those mentioned above. Students will also be communicated directly about things that they can be involved in or that will affect them during the school day – such as lunchtime activities, changes to the timetable or what is needed for a particular class or activity. 

We set about deliberately developing independence in the students through this process, encouraging them to take increasing responsibility for themselves and their belongings. 

Parents/carers can assist, by encouraging your child to develop routines of checking their email and their planner at the end of a school day to ensure that everything is ready for the following day. 

Independence 

One of the most challenging aspects of the transition to secondary school for some parents and carers can be “letting go”! Part of the secondary school experience is to enable students to be increasingly independent, and this starts from Year 07. 

Some of the ways in which parents/carers can support the development of student independence in partnership with the School include: 

• Encouraging your child to speak directly to teachers or the Year Level Student Manager if they are experiencing a problem of any kind. 

• Not accompanying your child to their locker or waiting for them within the school grounds.

 • Establishing routines at home to promote independence with organisation and homework. 

Please note, one area where we know that students are NOT yet ready for independence at Year 07 is in the management of their devices. Unfortunately, the adolescent brain is not yet sufficiently developed to exercise good decision-making when it comes to switching off, disengaging from online messages, turning off notifications or resisting various applications. Your child will continue to need their parents/carers to monitor and regulate their device use, including regular checking, removal of devices from rooms after a particular time, internet filtering and other regulatory measures. 

Reports 

Secondary School reports may look quite different to those from Primary School. They will include marks and grades for various assessment items in many subjects. Students will see their reports before their parents, and will be expected to engage in discussion about them with teachers and parents/carers at Parent Student Teacher Conferences. It is unlikely that anything in a report will be a surprise for a student, as teachers will have been having communication with students as the term has progressed. The main focus of reporting at Macleod College is Learning Behaviours, those actions which we know promote academic growth, such as being organised, taking notes and completion of homework. More information will be provided next year about how to engage productively with the reports.