Gareth Crispin thinks that Get Ready to Go and It’s Your Move equip families to talk honestly, prepare practically, and pray together as children start or move schools
Starting school for the first time and moving to secondary school are both key moments in the life of any child. Some can’t wait, maybe it’s their character; maybe they’ve seen older siblings running off and having a great time. Others, however, are nervous, some scared even.
How can you prepare your children for what is to come? How can you help them with any concerns and questions they might have? There are of course a range of things you can do and resources you can tap into. Whatever else you do there is of course no substitute for asking your child openly and directly how they feel and what they are thinking and that’s one of the strengths of the resources from Scripture Union (SU).
Your children may or may not have similar experiences to you so let’s be careful about how much of our past we pass on into their present
SU have been producing It’s Your Move for those moving to secondary school for many years but they’ve now also created a sister booklet for those starting school, it’s called Get Ready to Go.
Get Ready to Go
This booklet does what it says on the tin. The idea is that you go through the booklet slowly with your child helping them to draw things they should expect and think about, such as what the classroom, playground, cloakroom and toilets are like. Many children will have already been in the schools they’re starting in and many more will be visiting soon and filling out the booklet is a great way to begin to help them reflect on how they feel about the schools they’ll be starting in.
It also leads you and your child to think about the journey to school. We might see this just as a commute and your child may have done the route many times over with older brothers or sisters, but other children may well be thinking more deeply about how they will get there and what it will be like. It could be a source of concern or excitement.
The booklet is beautifully produced with lovely drawings and an excellent series of questions to ask and issues to discuss
The rest of the booklet works through the basics of a school day from arrival through what they might cover in class time, to assemblies, lunchtimes and play, but also raises issues such as what happens if you hurt yourself.
The booklet is beautifully produced with lovely drawings and an excellent series of questions to ask and issues to discuss along with places where your child can participate. It ends with a prayer and some useful advice for parents.
Read more:
6 things Christian parents can do as the very first day of school arrives
6 questions for Christian parents to ask their children as they approach the new school term
Two ways Christian parents can help prepare their children for a big school move this September
It’s Your Move
SU have been producing It’s Your Move for many years and that shows, in the right way. It has been revised on an ongoing basis and so doesn’t read as out of date but instead they’ve used their experience to produce a great engaging resource to help you year 6 child get ready for senior school.
I love the inclusion of the voice of young people in the booklet. Having survey hundreds of pupils from years 7-9 there is lots of interesting insights and advice from these young people. Naturally there is a lot about friends, losing old friends, making new friends or even worry about not having any friends at all. The inclusion of the voice of young people means the real issues are given a central place.
As we all know, expectations and preparation are key to successful navigation of life and that is one of the real strengths of It’s Your Move
As with Get Ready to Go plenty of time is given over to the basic logistics of what to expect at school and in the process of getting ready and getting there. As we all know, expectations and preparation are key to successful navigation of life and that is one of the real strengths of It’s Your Move – it helps young people think through in advance what to expect and how to prepare.
I know from my own experience that something my three lads found tricky was adjusting from being in one classroom with one teacher to moving around a big school site trying to find a new classroom each time and adjusting to a different teacher who might have different standards and ways of relating to the class. It’s Your Move deals with questions like this head on. The detailed sections on how to make friends and understanding bullying are also key and really well put together.
One of the great strengths of these SU booklets is the way in which you can give them to any child starting school or moving to secondary school
One of the great strengths of these SU booklets is the way in which you can give them to any child starting school or moving to secondary school. The reason for that is the very careful selection and phrasing of any distinctly Christian content. So there are a few proverbs here and there, some prays and testimonies. The slight downside is that there is more to say about living as a Christian at school which you will need to add in as you go. What is in these booklets is great – you will probably feel you need to go further.
Before you go off and get you and your child copies of these (which I really hope you do) it is of course important to think back to your own experience of starting or moving schools yourself all those years ago. How did it go for you? And how will your experience frame how you see your own child’s next steps? Your children may or may not have similar experiences to you so let’s be careful about how much of our past we pass on into their present.
