Year 6 into 7 Transition

Dear Parent/Carer

We are very excited to welcome you and your child to Barnwell School.

Transition from primary school is a very exciting but also nervous time in a young life. At Barnwell we endeavour to make the transition as smooth as possible, by providing plenty of bespoke opportunities for Year 6 students to integrate into our community.

From the moment you accept us as the school of choice for your child, we work closely with the primary schools to get to know them as an individual and provide the appropriate level of support in place to help them settle quickly.

This transition process does not stop in the September of Year 7 however. We continue to work with all of our students until they become confident and independent citizens.

Please take the time to read the information provided, enjoy our media clips and feel free to contact the school if you have any queries. In particular, have a look over the "What Do We Do" section below, as COVID-19 may mean the transition process is a little different this year.

Regards

Mr M Roberts

Head of School

Welcome messages from Mr Fitzpatrick and Mr Roberts

Introduction from Mr Reavell

Middle Campus Walking Tour

Middle Campus Aerial Tour

Click to watch our Middle Campus and Aerial Tours!

Transition: What do we do?

The Covid19 restrictions and Lock Down may mean the transition process is a little different this year.

Meeting the students - Video conference Q+A

Over the next couple of weeks we have set up video conferencing sessions between Barnwell and each of the bubbles in each of our feeder primary schools. For those students in school this will be easily sorted for you by your teachers. For those of you not in school at the moment, there may be the chance to join in with one of these sessions, please get in touch with your class teacher to set this up.

Responding to your online forms

Thanks to everyone that has now completed their online forms, we have been busy using this information to set up friendship groups ready to start allocating Colleges and form groups. Some of you, on you online form, as well as telling us who you wanted to be with, also said there were people you wanted be away from. Hopefully your current teachers will have started talking to you about this, if you are not currently in school, either we will be in touch or your primary school will be in touch very soon about this.

Getting ready for Year 7 - Booklet

We have produced a booklet titled ‘Getting Ready for Year 7’; you should have received this via email recently. This booklet is designed to get you ready for joining us in Year 7, it isn’t something we are going to collect in and mark, but purely information and activities to allow you to get yourself a little bit more familiarised for life in Year 7 at Barnwell.

Preparing for Learning in Year 7

Very soon there will be some Maths and English work coming out to help you get prepared for Maths and English lessons in Year 7. There will also be some other activities coming out from a range of other subjects to give you a flavour of the type of work you might be doing in year 7. All these activities will have a bit of competition with them and will, in September, earn you points for your College. Look out for all these activities when they come out and give them a go.

Video Tour and Introduction Videos

You will find the links to video tours of our middle school campus, introductions from myself, Matt Roberts (our Head of School), Tony Fitzpatrick (our Head Teacher) and some welcomes from some of our current year 7 students.

Allocations to Colleges and Form Groups

One of the things we have been most emailed about by parents (and students) is when and how you will find out what College you have been allocated to. We will be publishing college and form group information, by email, during the week beginning Monday 6th July.
College allocations are based on friendship choices first (the ones you made via the online form) and obviously taking into account conversations we have had with your current teachers… We try and get some sibling connections between Colleges but this often contradicts friendship choices and it is the friendship choices that ultimately win.

New Intake Evening

We will be holding a virtual New Intake Evening on Microsoft Teams on Thursday 9th July, we are confirming the last arrangements and will send out more information about this very soon.

Transition Live - Main Presentation

Introductions from the Heads of College

Ennis College - Mrs Brown

Hoy College - Mrs Jones

Redgrave College - Mrs Cowling

September

With still so much uncertainty of what September will look like, it is very difficult to plan precisely how things will actually look. We are working on designing a Fresher’s Week style series of events and activities ready for the start of the new academic year and planning to do as much of the work that we would normally have covered during the summer term, into this time.
For those students that would find it useful, we will also be offering support, as part of an extended transition programme, to almost last as long as needed but through the autumn term to Christmas anyway. We are very aware that this is a very difficult year for transition for these students.

Year 7 Adventure Weekend

With real disappointment, we have taken the extremely difficult decision to postpone this event at this current time. With so much uncertainty around everything, we felt this trip was something we were better off postponing until next summer. Apologies, I know this will be a disappointment to lots of you also, but we are still planning on running the event, just later in the year.

Key Staff:

Mr M Patching – Assistant Headteacher responsible for Wellbeing

Mr A. Reavell - Senior Leader responsible for Transition between KS2 and KS3

Mrs E. Brown – Head of Ennis College 

Mrs L. Cowling – Head of Redgrave College

Mrs S. Jones - Head of Hoy College

Key dates:

New Intake Day - To be confirmed.

Start of term - 3rd September 2020.  Other dates are listed on our Calendar.

All of the specific information you need to prepare for life at Barnwell School can be found by downloading the Year 7 Information Booklet below. This includes responses to many of the FAQs posed by students, plus uniform and P.E. kit details.

Please also find copies of our Consent Booklet, Home School Agreement, Instrumental and Vocal Tuition form, a Middle Campus Map and an example of a year 7 student timetable.