Transition Summer School Adventures

August 2015

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Year 7s enjoy the challenges and activities at Winmarleigh Hall.

Thanks to another highly successful Transition Summer School programme, our new Year 7's are confident and looking forward to their first day at King James.

Students first attended King James for two days in July. They spent time getting to know one another, our staff and our new building by taking part in a number of fun activities and competitions, ranging from a Treasure Hunt and team building games, to sports activities and building a Time Machine.

This was followed by a three day residential visit to Winmarleigh Hall Activity Centre in Lancashire for 50 students and 7 staff. There, the group took part in Raft Building, Zip Wire, Sensory Trail, Challenge Course, Jacob's Ladder, Giant Swing and problem solving activities, and enjoyed a sing along around the camp fire. If getting wet and muddy, laughing and overcoming fears was the goal, the group achieved all three!

To complete the transition process, three further activity days took place in school in August, which helped to re-establish and reinforce friendships formed earlier in the holidays. This new split-schedule worked extremely well and new starters agreed that they were both excited and relaxed about attending on their first day.

We want parents and carers to feel involved in their child's education too, and pride ourselves on the positive relationships we currently enjoy. As an extension of our Transition programme, and to promote this among our new parents, we invited the families of Year 7 students to a special Transition Open Evening, which provided an opportunity to meet form tutors and support staff, take a tour of our school, discuss enrichment options and register for the host of online services we offer. Feedback from the event was extremely positive.