Our Academy » Transition
Transition: forging strong and successful partnerships
At St Wilfrid’s Academy we understand the anxiety that Transition can cause for some of our students. We have successfully piloted and will be now continuing, our Year 7 Access group, which enables vulnerable students to settle in easier by spending 50% of their timetable in one class with one teacher and the rest of the time moving round to lessons as a traditional secondary school model. Assessments have shown an increase in all students reading ages sometimes by two chronological years. The quality support that is provided in the Access group means that individual students get personalised learning programmes and targeted intervention where needed.
If any parent would like to find out more please contact Mrs K Hardman at KHardman142@stwilfrids.learningfutures.org.uk
Each year pupils from approximately 75 Primary schools from Blackburn, Darwen, Burnley and the Ribble Valley come to St Wilfrid’s.
Our aim is to ensure that the transition to High School is made as smoothly as possible for all our pupils. We achieve this in the following ways:
We are continuing to develop close links with our feeder schools and our staff have been providing outreach work such as Worship, Music, RE, Maths and Modern Foreign Languages at many of our schools.
Our Primary school Head teachers are invited for a working lunch at St Wilfrid’s where we meet and share information along with meeting past pupils and learning about their progress.
Our Year 7 students write to their previous Primary schools to keep their friends and teachers informed of their progress.
We hold concerts where we invite pupils from our Primary schools to watch or to perform.
We visit all our pupils at their Primary school to welcome them to St Wilfrid’s.
We spend time with the class teacher and pupils to learn about their academic, social, emotional needs and their plethora of talents.
There is an Induction Evening in June to welcome and inform parents. At this event parents and pupils are able to make the first contact with their Form Tutors.
In July the pupils attend our ‘Sampler Day’ where they learn about life at their chosen High School. On this day they are able to meet other pupils and teachers and ‘sample’ a few lessons.
We also hold a Singles Sampler day to support pupils who are the only ones coming to St Wilfrid’s from their particular school. Transition is a crucial time in a young person’s life. We strive to give a “wrap around care” approach to enable this phase to be as smooth and supportive with high challenge and low anxiety.
Our pupils first two days in September are spent doing activities to help them become familiar with their environment and their Form Tutors. We have found that by using this approach our pupils find it much easier to settle into their new school.
During the first half term we have an Information Evening where we can share procedures, experiences and ideas with our parents.
The Year 7 Student Support Team work closely with the Form tutors to provide a network of support for our pupils and parents.