It is nearly the end of the school term and school year. For some of your children that also means finishing primary school. I am at the latter stage where my youngest is going to be joining my year 9 son at secondary school. He is very excited for the end of school but a little nervous at the same time. Your child’s emotions may be very mixed too. It is a big change for these year six children who have to say goodbye to several of their friends as they will no longer be at school together. The familiarity and safety of primary school is going too. No more small playground, getting driven to school etc.
Getting Children Through The End Of School
Before parents get stuck into getting their children ready for secondary school we need to get them through the end of term. They will be sad to leave friends but happy that the end of term is not very testing and there is not much to do. What parents can do:
Parents need to try and make themselves available to talk to children about their feelings and help them get the most out of their last few days/weeks.
They can help them to look forward to what is happening at school every day and not get too wrapped up in petty stuff (friendship issues).
Some children will have high emotions – they may be sad and have low mood as they don’t want to leave primary school. Other children may not care anymore about their behaviour and get into trouble more. After all what is the school going to do about it if they are leaving? Help your child to see that they do need to keep up their good behaviour in the remaining weeks and that they will need to behave like this at their new school.
If they have low mood talk about and diarise all the amazing things they have gained and done at primary school and how they are going to stay in touch with old friends.
The end of year six should be amazing and you will want your child to leave on a high. Carry and support them through it and be positive yourself about them leaving. These are just a few things you can do to support your child through the end of primary school. How is your child feeling about the end of primary school? I’d love to hear from you – leave a comment below or via my social media channels.
If you feel that your child is finding it hard to let go of primary school and look forward to secondary school please get in touch with me so I can help.
