About this Webinar
This live event explores effective strategies, grounded in research, for making transitions smoother and more successful. We will share insights into:
- Research-backed methods for smooth primary to secondary school transitions.
- Practical tips on supporting Year 6 and Year 7 students’ successful transition.
- Hear from a school leader on Year 6 transition support.
- Unlock the potential of Peer Support for Year 6 and 7 transitions.
Transcript
Samuel O’Leary, Wellbeing Education Consultant, Peer Support Australia: Welcome to our webinar ‘Supporting Change’. Over the next half hour or so, and hello Kacey, we will be talking about the transition from primary to secondary school. My name’s Sam O’Leary. I’m a Wellbeing Education Consultant here at Peer Support Australia. And I’m joined today by a special guest, Kacey Constantine, who’s the Principal of Magnetic Island State School in Queensland.
I’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land. I’m coming to you from Cammeraygal Country and I’d also like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land where you all are and pay respects to Elder’s past, present and emerging.
And before we begin, I’d like to give you a brief overview of who we are.
We’re a national not-for-profit organisation. Our vision is through wellbeing all Australian students reach their full potential. Promoting wellbeing is at the core of what we do. And with that in mind, we’ve put this webinar together for you today to address how you can support student wellbeing through the crucial and challenging transition period.
So thank you all for joining after a busy school day. On the screen now is an outline of today’s session. We’re going to start by taking a look at what the research tells us about the transition period. Afterwards, I’ll be chatting with Kacey to discuss what her school does to support their Year 6 students and she’ll tell us a bit about what her school does to foster relationships and their wellbeing framework.
After which, we will briefly discuss Peer Support Australia’s resources and how they specifically help with the transition from primary to secondary school.
So to start off with, I thought it would be appropriate to see what the research tells us about what is going on for students during this time and what the evidence says schools can do to support their students during transition.
When discussing the transition from primary school to high school, it’s important to understand the context and challenges that make this period so important.
When talking about this topic, it’s easy to assume that transition refers to a short period of time. Often people might think of it as just the end of Year 6 and the beginning of Year 7 or perhaps just the first days of Year 7. However, transition should actually be considered as a much longer period of time, at least all of Year 6 and all of Year 7 and some studies would suggest schools should consider Years 4 to 9 as the transition period.
Research has shown that students who have difficulty with the transition period are more likely to become disengaged, to have poor academic results, and are at increased risk of failing to complete school. Effectively supporting the students during the transition can also help to prevent some of the disengagement that comes during the dip in the middle Years of high school.
The transition from primary to secondary school comes at a period of vulnerability. Mental health problems are beginning to emerge for students and there is an increased risk of student mental ill health if the transition is not supported effectively. For this reason, during this period, it’s crucial to build protective factors for young people and to reduce risk factors. Half of all mental health problems are apparent by age 14, with symptoms often beginning in primary school. And whilst it is a period of vulnerability, it also presents an opportunity for schools to help put students on the right track.
The transition period is also occurring at a pivotal moment in a young person’s development, which we’ll take a closer look at now.
Transition comes at a crucial stage in development where external influences carry significant weight. Puberty takes centre stage, triggering a series of changes in physical, biological, social and emotional aspects. Children start expanding their horizons beyond their family circles, experiencing substantial personal growth in this life phase. As you can see in the diagram on the screen taken from the ‘Childhood to Adolescent Transition Study’, the Year 6 to Year 7 transition is occurring in the midst of substantial other changes in brain development and puberty. This phase of life has been described as a developmental switch point, which carries risks for students disengaging from school.
When examining their impact on the brain and behaviour, peer relationships hold greater significance during the middle Years than any other life stage. During this period, students re-evaluate their connection with their parents and increase their interaction with peers. However, problems with peer groups are common at this stage and can lead to further loss of learning and increased mental health risk, friendship problems and difficulty adjusting to high school frequently cause further loss of learning and increase the risk of mental health problems.
Certain groups are particularly vulnerable during this time. Dr Andrew Fuller, who has worked closely with Peer Support Australia, noticed that early maturing girls, low achieving boys, and students with more diverse needs, are amongst those at greatest risk.
One of the most crucial factors affecting transition is a student’s sense of belonging. Research has shown that belonging is positively associated with higher levels of happiness, self-esteem, improved coping skills, and lower emotional distress. Further research also shows a strong sense of belonging is inversely related to insert incidents of disruptive behaviour, bullying and risk-taking behaviours. Conversely, students with a limited sense of belonging may experience isolation in school – leading to academic underperformance and ultimately dropping out of school.
Analysis from the New South Wales Department of Education’s ‘Tell Them From Me Survey’ shows that a student’s sense of belonging has the greatest decline between Year 6 and Year 7 and this decline is greatest among students from a low SES background and amongst Aboriginal students.
Additionally, analysis shows that the biggest indicator of having a positive sense of belonging in Year 7 is whether or not you had a positive sense of belonging in Year 6. The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, who conducted this analysis, have said and I quote: “The findings from ‘Tell Them From Me’ in New South Wales highlight the importance of primary schools fostering a strong sense of belonging in their senior students, prior to the transition to secondary school”.
On your screen now you can see different measures of student engagement and how they track over the years.
Around 90% of students report a positive sense of belonging in Year 6, but this begins to fall steeply from Year 7 and continues to fall until Year 9. Other measures of student engagement also drop over this period, but none as much as a sense of belonging. As well as belonging, the other factor that is crucial to ensuring a successful transition is peer relationships.
As previously mentioned, peer relationships are more important during the middle years than in any other life stage. This is also the period when students are developing their self-identity and peers have great influence on this.
The ‘Childhood Adolescence Transition Study’ involved over 1,200 students in Victoria and was conducted over a period of years and had identified that amongst Year 6 students, the number one concern about moving to high school was losing friends. Homework and getting lost, were numbers two and three.
Analysis of New South Wales ‘Tell Them From Me’ data reveals that one of the key indicators of how well a student will transition is whether or not they have positive friendships and relationships in Year 6. Data also reveals the close link between students’ sense of belonging and their peer relationships. Year 7s who report having positive friendships are more than 3.6 times more likely to report a positive sense of belonging than their peers who do not have positive friendships.
And this effect is shown here on this graph, where positive peer relationships are clearly the indicator most strongly correlated to a positive sense of belonging. Notably positive teacher-student relationships and positive advocacy at school are also very significant.
Based on analysis from student survey data, and from the established research, the Centre for Education, Statistics and Evaluation has come up with suggestions for what primary and secondary schools can do to support change.
For primary schools, they suggest that they foster a sense of belonging. And at the primary level positive relationships with teachers have a big influence on belonging. Strengthening peer relationships is also vital. Programs such as Peer Support Australia can help with this. Schools should also teach social and emotional skills as well as ensuring that they implement anti-bullying interventions. Students who have been bullied at primary school are less likely to transition well. Schools should also explicitly prepare students for transition with a school transition policy and initiatives in place, and families should also be part of this process.
For high schools, it’s important to collaborate with feeder primary schools. This includes sharing wellbeing information about [at] risk students, aligning curricula, and ensuring primary students will be familiar with the new environment they will enter.
It’s also vital to support peer relationships in Year 7. As seen, if you want students to feel as though they belong and to thrive in high school, they need positive friendships. Of course, Peer Support helps with this many schools also do things like host a Year 7 camp at the start of Year 7 to assist students to form peer relationships in those early days.
Strong teacher-student relationships are also important for Year 7 students. Having a strong pastoral team including a Year Advisor, homeroom tutors, as well as ensuring teachers have time to get to know their students, are all important.
And it’s also important that parents are kept informed with information about their child’s transition and also have a chance to get to know the child’s school and teachers.
Our colleagues at Victorian SRC, conducted research and surveys of Victorian students in Year 6 and 7, to hear what the students themselves had to say about what they found most helpful for a successful transition to high school.
Students said what they want and need are the following. Support networks pre-, during and post-transition. Help to manage the academic workload. And we know that homework is a huge concern for students entering high school.
They want their schools to help them foster friendship, and students want their schools to minimise the unknown for them. In a conversation with a school recently a teacher said that one of the most common fears of their new Year 7s was having their heads flushed down the toilet. And it’s important that schools help bust some of these myths that really can terrify students before they start high school.
Students also said they want their schools to give them information about what to expect, and they want schools to tackle bullying effectively.
Shown here is a graph from the same report from VicSRC. This is showing results from students when asked about things that supported them during their own transition. And the top factor that students self-identified is support from peers, followed by pre-transition activities, and support from teachers.
When asked what schools can do to support transition, Year 6 and Year 7 respondents identified peer support as the top thing that schools can do to help them. And peer support in this context, meaning both general support amongst peers, as well as structured programs like Peer Support Australia.
So that’s a summary of the research. It’s now my great pleasure to formally introduce and welcome to the webinar, Kacey Constantine. Kacey is the Principal of Magnetic Island State School in Queensland –a gorgeous school of 135 students. Kacey has over 20 years’ experience as an educational leader. And we’re delighted to have her here today to share some of what her school community does to support change for their senior primary students, and to foster wellbeing in the school.
Kacey, thank you so much for coming along this afternoon. And for joining us from beautiful Magnetic Island. I’m sure there’s lots of teachers tuned in who just saw those pictures who are a bit jealous of your workplace. So it’d be great to hear from you about what your school does.
Kacey Constantine, Principal, Magnetic Island State School, Queensland: Thank you so much Samuel. I hope everyone can hear me clearly all the way from the Island.
So hi, everyone from Magnetic Island. We’re traditionally known as Yunbenun. We’ve learned proudly on Wulgurukaba Country, on a beautiful island just off the coast of Townsville in Queensland. Our First Nations people would proudly welcome you to our school by saying ‘wadda mooli’ which is how you greet people in the local Birrigubba language.
So Magnetic Island State School’s a small school. It’s just over 130 students at the moment. And our school recognises the importance of positive relationships and placed that as the most important part of teaching and learning at our school. We call ourselves a ‘positive culture for learning school’ and we use the PBL framework to support what we do.
We’ve been a PBL demonstration school as part of that as well. And our school – our positive culture for learning, our restorative practices, our inclusive practices, and Peer Support – are integral to the learning and wellbeing of all of our students. We strive to be seen as a leader in staff, student and community wellbeing and received a Regional Commendation Showcase Award for ‘improving community engagement through our positive culture for learning’.
Our learning and wellbeing framework, which includes our whole-school beliefs around the importance of positive relationships, sits in front of all of our curriculum documents, school policies and our procedures.
Peer Support is one of the main drivers for the development of positive relationships across our whole school. It’s used across the school as an organisational tool. For example, when we do a whole-school planting activity in our school gardens, or our NAIDOC activities, or our Validation Day activities, the students will move through those activities in their Peer Support groups. For Book Week our leaders share their favourite picture book with their groups.
Our Peer Support groups support our positive culture for learning by reinforcing the focus of the week each week. And Peer Support at Magnetic Island is embedded in our whole-school culture. It’s been a part of what we do here for over 20 years.
Our Peer Support Program’s also given us the opportunity to respond to the information that we collect from the school opinion survey and the ‘Queensland Students’ Engagement Wellbeing Survey’ by modifying modules, lessons and whole-school activities according to those identified needs. A great example of this is that the Queensland wellbeing surveys showed the students are not feeling accepted by others. Our school data was reflected with the same state data. So this year we’ve focused our Peer Support lessons around acceptance, inclusion and caring for others.
I’ve been lucky enough to have been the Principal of this amazing school for the last six and a half years. And I have an outstanding staff who all share a passion for supporting our students to be the best humans that they can be – to have a sense of connectedness, a sense of belonging, a positive sense of themselves, and strategies to support their resilience when they leave our school to travel to the mainland for their high schooling.
And what is interesting about our little school as our students will have to catch a ferry to high school together but then separate to attend a variety of different high schools. At the end of the day, though, they all sit in their primary school friendship groups for the trip back to the island.
Transition for us starts at the beginning of school. It is fundamentally about supporting positive relationships. But the skills and knowledges learned and reinforced through our student leadership is fundamental in supporting our smooth transition to high school.
Our Year 6 students are explicitly taught strategies to support communication including active listening, conflict resolution, how to engage with students that might be a little different (might think differently), and how to help and support others and ask for their own help. They show compassion, empathy and kindness to their groups, but in turn, they develop a sense of ownership and pride. With their badges on they stand a little taller.
The value of Peer Support at Magnetic Island State School is strongly evidence through the words of the Leaders themselves. I went to seek their thoughts on their readiness to transition to high school and the impact of their Peer Support leadership and their feedback said at all. I’d like to share it with you.
They said: “It helps us when we’re making new relationships and forming new friendships.” “It improves our organisational skills – and we’ll need that in high school.” They said: “Different ways to talk to others and different strategies to problem-solve organisational skills and we’ll need that in high school”. They said: “Different ways to talk to others and different strategies to problem solve”. “It helps us with communication.” “Supporting relationships in high school and with our families to de-escalate fights or disagreements.” “Supports us to be respectful, responsible and safe.” “Helps us to make friendships with younger people and will help us with relationships in the workforce.” “Strategies to help out in the wider community.” “We know what it feels like to help groups, we develop empathy for the teachers, and we know how to co-operate for them.” “We can use what we know to encourage others to behave.”
So that was great feedback that I received from the students on how Peer Support impacts them in their readiness for transition.
Samuel O’Leary, Wellbeing Education Consultant, Peer Support Australia: Thank you, Kacey. It’s so wonderful to hear from the student voices themselves. And I think what’s particularly wonderful to hear is how you really embed that culture of Peer Support in your school. And how you use Peer Support not just for the Peer Support sessions, but for other things like during Book Week and other social events and activities to really, you know, foster those relationships between students that we know are so important. Thank you so much for sharing that information with us.
For those watching Kacey has also shared with us some wonderful wellbeing frameworks and curriculum information. And if anyone has particular information, or questions for Kacey, we’ll be sending follow-up communications after this webinar. And we can get you in touch that way or we can pass on questions as well. So thank you very much, Kacey.
For the final part – thank you – of the webinar today, I’m going to discuss how the Peer Support Program can help to support students in both primary and high schools during the transition period.
So to begin with, I’m going to share a short video from one of our member schools – Robertson Public – it’s a small school and regional New South Wales. And the video focuses on how the Peer Support Program helps ready their Year 6 students for change. So I think that this will cover off some of the similar things that Kacey’s students said at Magnetic Island State School and it’s always nice to hear from students themselves. So the video goes for about two minutes. I’m just going to share that now.
[Video plays]
Kristine Wilson, Assistant Principal, Roberston Public School: So I’m Kristin Wilson. I’m the Assistant Principal at Robertson Public School. So I really think the Peer Support Program helps our Year 6 students get ready for high school it equips him with a lot of leadership skills and strategies that will support [them] when they’re in high schools, especially things like organisation.
So running a Peer Support lesson, you’ve got to be really well organised. And I think as they go into high school, they’re going to need those organisational skills on an everyday basis there.
It gives an opportunity to learn to communicate with other people. And communication in a high school, especially for our students who come from a small rural school, to give them an opportunity to communicate with other people, so when they get to a high school, they have more confidence to talk to other teachers, the other students that are around them. So great for organisation, great for communicating, collaborating with other people, teamwork with a variety of students from different ages and backgrounds.
Bridie, Peer Leader: I’m very excited to start high school. Yeah, I’ve learnt a lot of new things for high school like people are going to be kind and I’m going to be learnt to be more organised, because a couple of weeks I haven’t been very organised. But it’s good to be organised with other things. And yeah.
Gordon Parrish, Principal: Being a Peer Support Leader in a primary school does give them a good foot in to starting high school with a lot more confidence. When those kids that often would have been made perhaps a little bit in the background, have had the chance to come through, and shine and find strengths that they’ve got, that perhaps they didn’t know they had. And that helps them in transition into high school. Makes them a lot more confident as individuals. Gives them some strategies on how to solve any issues or perhaps some conflict in the future – how to deal with tricky situations. And it helps them navigate their way into high school and have a better transition.
[Video ends]
Samuel O’Leary, Wellbeing Education Consultant, Peer Support Australia: So as we’ve just seen from the school and staff and students at Robertson Public School, being involved in the Peer Support Program as a Peer Leader in Year 6, can help develop valuable skills that assist with transitioning – including organisation communication, collaboration, and confidence. I’m just going to go back to our slides here now.
So in addition to the benefits to students from being involved in the Peer Support Program as Leaders, and from learning and practicing the social and emotional skills that are covered, there are also additional resources that help students with transition. At the primary level, there is the Supporting Change mini module. And some images from this can be seen on the slideshow now.
This mini module includes four sessions designed to be led by a Year 6 classroom teacher that helped to prepare students for high school.
Additionally, many primary schools also make use of the Passport to Belonging. This resource includes a range of activities and ideas to help students develop a sense of belonging to their school and their community. And as we’ve discussed belonging is a huge factor influencing transition.
At a secondary level, the core Peer Support Program is a key element of many schools’ transition policies.
All Year 7 students participate in Peer Support during Term 1. And in addition to learning valuable social, and emotional skills, Year 7 participants also get to meet and make new friends in their Peer Support groups. And they get to form a bond in connection with their Year 10 Peer Leaders.
Many of our member schools also utilise their Peer Leaders to help with open days and orientation days, and then other ways that help to make new students feel safe and welcome when they join.
In addition to the core program, member schools can make use of the Framework for Orientation. It is a resource we’ve developed that can be completed by new Year 7 students during an orientation day or at the start of the school year and contains a range of activities that help students to get to know their schools. Some example activities are on the screen now.
So that brings us to the end of today’s webinar. Thank you again to Kacey for joining us and sharing valuable insights. As mentioned, we will send all registered participants follow up communications. So if you do have any questions for us or for Kacey, please do get in touch. We’d also love to hear from you. If you have any other feedback about this webinar, or suggestions for future topics.
Included here is a reference list. We can also make the recording of this webinar available to you and we’ll send out a link to the recording in the next couple of days. So thank you all for coming along to this afternoon’s webinar. Hopefully you found that useful.
Thank you very much Kacey. And I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their afternoon. And hopefully you can get some beach time in on Magnetic Island Kacey. Thanks very much, everyone.
Kacey Constantine, Principal, Magnetic Island State School, Queensland: Thanks very much, Samuel.
Samuel O’Leary, Wellbeing Education Consultant, Peer Support Australia: See ya.
