Helping Our Children Transfer To Secondary School

When it comes to helping children move on to secondary school, parents need support not just at the time of transfer but at the time of decision-making earlier in the school year. We hope that the advice below will give you some support at this significant time.

• Issues to consider in making choices
  
• How does being a Christian affect the decision making process?
  
• How the church can help in such decision making
  
• Suggestions for running a 'Choosing schools' event
  
• What God thinks

The new Education act has committed the government to parental choice. So what does this mean, you might ask.
What has changed?

• Parents have greater access to school results and league tables. Academic achievement is often seen as the benchmark for choosing schools.
• The range of secondary schools is growing with most schools claiming a subject specialism and trust schools emerging as a new model.
• The role of the Local Authority is expected to change from that of a provider of educational services to one of ‘champion for the needs of parents and pupils in getting the school system they want and need’. This means that parents are expected to know what they want and need.
• Every Child Matters is the initiative that is the driving force behind recent education legislation and the extended school day agenda. (This seeks to provide care for a child from 8am to 6pm on schools days and enables agencies that provide services to children and young people to work closely together.) But for every child to matter, every parent needs the same opportunity to make an informed decision about their child’s schooling. Churches, with their commitment to social justice, have an opportunity to support and equip parents who might find it hard to comprehend the system and make a reasoned choice. This could mean that fewer children are left with the school places discarded by educated/more socially aware families.

What are the factors to consider in making the choice?

• Location and transport
  
• Friends going to same school
  
• Being happy
  
• Academic achievement
  
• Behaviour
  
• Siblings already there
  
• Faith school
  
• Make up of students attending (faith/ ethnicity/ mobility )
  
• Special educational needs
  
• Specialism – language/drama/science/technology

Any less obvious factors?

• How the school delivers its Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development
• How the school prepares pupils for life in our multi cultural world

Are Christians making decisions in the same way as those of no faith? Should they be assessing the evidence differently?
Our choices will depend on what we want to get out of life.  If our main goal is academic success we will want our child to attend the school that will deliver the best results; if it is sporting achievement we will go for the school with the best record; if is making the largest amount of money – well who knows?
Christians believe that our goals in life should be determined by more than the drive for success or fame; that happiness, satisfaction, the good of the community and living God’s way are also important. Christians will want to take these into account when they make any choice and the choice of school is no exception. Those who are not Christians may also want to consider whether simply going for success or fame will be the best route – might it be better to go for that which will bring out the true potential of the person concerned and make for true happiness and fulfilment?
Christians will want to base their decisions to two factors.

• Their love for God
  The Bible says we have been made in the image of God and this means that we ;will only achieve our true potential and greatest happiness by going his way;  The writer of Psalm 19 had discovered that (Psalm 19:7-11); There are many  examples of people in the Bible who choose to obey God rather than follow  their own instincts and achieved far more for God - Abraham, Moses, Daniel, and ;Jesus himself would be examples)
  Of course, all parents have to be wary of fulfilling their own ambitions through their child or wanting their child to have an identical experience to their  own. Each child is undoubtedly influenced by parents, both genetically and  through nurture but they are individuals in their own right. Parents must allow  their children to be the person God made them to be! 
  
• Their love for other people
  The apostle Paul had a lot going for him – great education, good family background, good standing, but he reckoned that the most important thing of all was serving God which motivated his love for other people. His letter to the Christians in Philippi is full of love and concern for them, which included longing for them to be like Christ. Paul made it his goal to please God (2 Corinthians 5:6-10), and encouraged others to do so (Colossians 1:9-14). Christians are to work by a different set of values (Romans 12:1,2). They are in the business of serving others, as Christ did (Philippians 2: 1-11). Christians are encouraged to love others as they love themselves (Luke 10:25-37), and to look after those in particular need. 

Some churches have offered support to church members who are making choices by praying for them and offering pastoral care. But there is also an opportunity to serve the wider community by hosting an evening event in the early autumn/late summer to discuss relevant issues and questions. The aim is to show that it is important to consider all the available opportunities when making this choice. This should not be an attempt to canvas for a particular school or way of choosing the next step but allow parents to consider the issues before they visit the schools, so their visit can be an informed one. If appropriate, it would also be possible to build into this event more guided help on how to fill in the transfer forms.

As schools and local authorities differ the evening session needs to be tailored to meet the requirements of the local area. A brief trawl of web sites seem to indicate that most local authorities produce adequate guidelines on how to fill in the secondary transfer forms though no guidelines on what to look for.

• Promotion
  Make sure that this is widely advertised through the local primary schools, library and community venues and groups. Present it as an opportunity to discuss how to make that very important choice. It should be aimed as all interested parents/guardians and Year 5 pupils if held in the summer or Year 6, if held in September – however, some parents get into gear at the end of Year 4!
  
• Format
  Informal groupings of tables which will hold either one family or two families. Nibbles and light refreshments available on arrival OR time built in for pizza/fish & chips supper.
  
• Possible programme

Arrival
On arrival parents to complete a light hearted questionnaire on their school life (name/type of school, type of admission {11 plus}, type of national examinations undertaken or available {11 plus, GCSE, CSE, A level, 0 level, etc.)
Their child marks the parent’s answers against the current system available to their child to see what, if anything, is the same now as it was for their parent!  Each similar answer gets ten points. For example, a parent who went to a middle school would only get ten points if middle schools still exist in your area. A parent who did not do SATS would get no points. A parent who went to a faith  school would only get ten points if this is a possibility for their child.

What each school offers
Because each area offers different types of schools it may be possible to invite representatives of each school to talk about their school or use this part of the session to highlight where the schools are and using a prospectus explain what the schools offer.

Making choices
Sketch: Highlight the different criteria families use to make their choices in a non-threatening but clear way. For example, you could create a comedy sketch with a family talking about how to choose the best school- (this could be done  with two/three actors).
Priorities: Highlight the factors that children might use to make the choice such  as where their friends go, like or dislike of the uniform, journey time, alleged amount of homework. Parents often use discipline, behaviour, ethnicity, academic achievement as indicators. All these factors need to be considered. In family groups, parents and children could identify what is important to them.  They could be given a set of options which the child first puts in order of  importance and the parent then does the same. What differences were there? Why was this? Was anything missing in the original list? Encourage them to talk together as families. This could be over a meal. Feedback: As appropriate

If this is held on church premises you can briefly explain how as Christians we make choices, based not just on success alone or on happiness alone but on what God wants. He wants the best for us and has made us unique. See above. If you are meeting on school premises you will need to modify what you say about God’s involvement in the process unless it is completely clear in  the advertising that this is an event put on by Christians, in which case, people will expect you to say something about God.
Prayer:  People expect Christians to pray, so publicly pray for these families as they make their decisions. If you mean it, you could promise to pray specifically for these families on the open evenings.
What next?: You may want to tell people what other appropriate events are run  by the church in your community. This might include an event for Year 6 children during the summer holidays – see below.

An It's Your Move event
It’s your move is the book that Scripture Union has published for many years, available in the summer term for those about to move onto secondary school. Over 20% of the year’s cohort are given the book, either supplied by the school or a local church. Schools are very good at ensuring the children are prepared for the transfer but there is still scope for an extra event in the summer holidays which could be aimed at church children bringing their friends to an event or advertised more widely. Games, food and a chance to talk about how everyone feels is probably all that is needed.

Scripture Union also runs several short It’s your move residential breaks for those about to transfer to secondary school. For more details of It’s your move, visit  OR .

Prayer for parents and children over the summer
Regular prayer support on an individual and group basis is important at this time of change. Make sure this happens in your services over the summer. And keep checking once the new term has started that parents and children are OK!