Year 7 students have begun their training to become ‘happy, confident, intelligent warriors’, as part of their Transitions course.

This programme aims to support our youngest students to respond to cognitive changes with confidence and resilience.

Head of Year 7 Nelly Loi-Fong is leading the course, and weekly lessons are being held, with a particular emphasis on literacy and public speaking – the skill sets necessary for academic, personal, and social engagement and learning.

The course is closely linked to the ICHK Approaches to Learning, offering students opportunities to develop these skills, along with a growth mindset, which is key to our 5+1 pastoral model.

The transition from primary to secondary school is a critical time that is considered to be challenging for students due to environmental adjustments, psychological distress, and developmental changes. This transition generally requires students to move from a familiar and flexible school environment to a larger and more intimidating educational setting. It also means that they need to establish new friendships at a time when peer acceptance is extremely important.

The ICHK Transitions programme has been specially developed to emphasise our school's commitment, through the 5+1 model, to the work of educational theorist Kieran Egan. This states that children slowly climb through five different ecological zones as they journey to adulthood. In each zone, they come to understand the world in different ways.

As students move from primary to secondary, they shift into a newly configured experience of what Egan terms the ‘Romantic’ phase, which gradually morphs, during Year 8 and especially Year 9 into the ‘Philosophic’ phase.

Nelly’s role is to support our youngest students as they strengthen and consolidate their romantic disposition towards cognitive activities, and begin to establish a more philosophic engagement with knowledge.

Over the past week, Year 7s have been exploring what transition means, drawing metaphors for their move into secondary school and thinking about images and symbols which come to mind.

Metaphors speak directly to our imaginative faculties, bypassing our rational brains. In using metaphors to understand the world, students extend the way they see the world, refreshing and enlivening their perception. Helping students identify and overcoming limitations of fixed categories and often clumsy everyday human language, metaphors, in a magical process, offers a form of a more 'higher' holistic cognition.

They have produced some amazing work, likening their journeys to a hike, a piece of a puzzle, a dirty diamond and a bouncing ball. They have contributed to classroom discussions and talked about how they make improvements, experience highs and lows, work through difficulties and celebrate achievements.

Over the next few months, the students will be exploring their identities and personal histories, thinking about how they see themselves and how others perceive them. The concepts of empathy, kindness, and courage will be key features.

With this course, ICHK continues to evolve the school experience, pushing the boundaries and expectations with regards to what secondary education should offer young people, and ensuring that it best prepares our students for the years ahead.