Supporting the transition from Primary to Secondary

This year, we are also introducing these transition experiences for our Year 5 students to give them a full year to acclimatise to their new environment and to support our parents to be well informed about this milestone in their children's school career.

"The transition from Primary to Secondary has always been a major focus at LCIS, and our Year 6 students benefit greatly from this early preparation for moving into this next stage of their learning journey. We have noticed that our students in Year 5 are increasingly interested in getting to know the Secondary environment, too, and we hear from parents who wish to understand what to expect from our Secondary education early so that they can make an informed choice, and support their children in preparing for this major step. As a result, we have worked with our Secondary colleagues this year to offer some really fantastic learning opportunities to our children at Secondary levels, and they love it! "

One of these experiences challenged our Year 5 and Year 4 student to explore the subject of Geography with Mr Kevin McDaid, Geography teacher in our Secondary school.

Taking Secondary Geography to Primary

"In Primary, the curriculum focuses on the ‘basics’ of geography -  map skills, countries and continents, or volcanoes - but does not yet go too deeply into this richly diverse subject. With this in mind, I left my classroom in the Secondary section to expose Years 4 and 5 to some Geography that they may not be familiar with. The World Trade Game teaches students about some of the realities of world trade – the inequalities, the challenges and the fact that countries are interdependent."

"The aim of the game is simple – to produce as much money as possible in ‘factories’ by producing paper shapes that each have different values. Countries such as the UK and the USA start the game with everything they need – scissors, rulers and pencils so they can produce shapes at ease. Other groups that represent developing countries such as Kenya and Ghana begin the game with raw materials – in this case paper – but lack the means to turn them into valuable products, meaning they need to trade with other countries to get what they need."

"The Primary students reacted brilliantly to the task – working well as teams, negotiating with other countries and showing excellent levels of resilience when the game didn’t go their way. They asked insightful questions afterwards and showed a real understanding of some of the realities of global trading relationships. I very much enjoyed the opportunity to open some of our younger minds about the depth of geographical studies, and I hope to continue the journey with as many of them as possible when they move upstairs to the secondary section."

Top tips to support your child's successful transition into Secondary school