Communicate With Staff

Ask For Transition Support

If you are worried about how your child will cope in the lead-up to their transition to secondary school, you could speak to your child's current primary school to ask for support. They could organise individual or group work on preparing for the transition, including activities in the curriculum that will help your child with the transition.  

Sharing Information

To help the process of new teachers getting to know your child, you could share a one-page profile which is a document containing information about your child's needs, likes, dislikes, capabilities, difficulties, and what causes them anxiety. Sharing information like this with the school enables the SENCO to distribute it to all your child's new teachers, which can help them plan transition activities and look out for your child in the first term. 

Speak to the SENDCo

Primary schools and secondary schools should work together closely and share information about children who are moving up. 

In the case of neurodivergent children, it's useful to get in touch with the school Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) to introduce yourself and make sure they know all about your child. 

Every secondary school should have a SENDCo, who is a teacher with specialist training whose job is to provide extra support to young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities. In bigger secondary schools there may be several special needs teachers, or a team of support staff who can also help. 

With any children suspected or diagnosed as neurodivergent, the SENDCo is the key person and should be an invaluable source of help. 

Find out more about one-page profiles here

Use Visual Supports

Visual aids can help young people who take some time to understand instructions, need help to tell you how they are feeling or find it difficult to organise themselves. 

Examples of useful visual supports for secondary school include:

• Photographs - Photos that you might take during your planned visits can help to reassure young people and help them become familiar with areas they'll be visiting during the day, like the cloakroom, their classroom, and the dining room/canteen.
• Visual Timetables - Creating a visual timetable using visual symbols can help young people visualise the structure of their first few days in school. Having colour-coded lessons, or lists of equipment written down on lessons with specialist tools can help your child to know what to pack in their school bag, or visualise what's coming next.
• Communication Tools - Tools to help students understand and progress with their studies include laptops, tablets or coloured papers to make worksheets easier to read. Other examples of ways to communicate needs could be traffic light cards a student keeps on their desk to indicate they need support with a task. 
• Calendar Countdown - Some neurodivergent children benefit from visual aids to help them know when to expect change. Using a calendar to count down to their first day of school can help them understand time over the holidays when activities can be less structured. 

Visual supports can help your child to understand what will be happening and reinforce verbal communication. They will need to be used more than once, particularly if the change is going to take place over a prolonged period of time.  

Supporting Change 

New Routines

Getting children prepared for the new routines they will encounter in their first weeks at secondary school can start before their first day. Start to practice their evening and morning routines by:

• Practising checking and packing their bag the night before school. 
• Starting a consistent bedtime routine, which could be switching off screens an hour before bedtime, reading or listening to a podcast and going to sleep at a good time. 
• Beginning a consistent morning routine by having a healthy breakfast and encouraging your child to get up and get ready at a similar time as you will when they begin school. 

Managing Anxiety

If you are concerned about your child’s anxiety regarding their move to high school, allow them to ask questions about their concerns and explain how the change will benefit them. You could try:

• Setting aside some time to try and teach some relaxation techniques like box breathing, or mindfulness activities 
• If they find communicating their feelings difficult, you could try a book or box where they can write or draw any concerns  
• You could also create an anxiety plan or a social story to explain what your child should do if they are anxious.  

Helping to Get Organised

Although organisational skills can be challenging for all children to some degree, some neurodivergent conditions have particular differences in areas of self-management, such as:

• Understanding a new timetable and learning the way around a new school
• Noting down homework accurately, and completing homework
• General increased reliance on personal organisational skills

Children starting secondary school may not be used to the increased independence required to complete regular homework, use planners and bring along the correct equipment. Some solutions to difficulties with personal organisation could be to:

• Consider ways that children can complete homework. Ask the school if your child can type it up on a computer, dictate assignments into a dictaphone or you could act as a scribe. 
• Set up a routine in the house for all young people based on the 'homework first, play/leisure second' principle to ensure they consider their homework before getting distracted or engrossed in something time-consuming. Each school should have guidelines on how much time young people should be spending on homework each day. 
• Communicate with the school if your child spends more than the recommended amount of time on homework and still isn't completing it. You can let the teacher know by popping a note into their homework planner or writing an email, or letter. 
• Consider after-school homework sessions if your child is struggling at home. Many schools run drop-in sessions where staff can support children to complete their homework after school. 

Preparing to Make Friends 

Making friends can be difficult for neurodivergent young people for different reasons. Some common challenges include:

• Preferring to spend time alone
• Finding it difficult to have conversations without interrupting or speaking out of turn
• Communication issues like not understanding abstract phrases or taking instructions literally
• Poor concentration or forgetfulness

Practising social skills and being open about different forms of communication can be approaches that help young neurodivergent people navigate social settings. For example:

• Modelling greetings and questions - By making a habit of practising greetings throughout the day, and modelling good listening skills such as turn taking you can encourage your child to practice these in school. 
• Notice body movement and levels of sound in different surroundings - Practicing different behaviours in different settings can help young people understand neurotypical social rules, for example, louder voices and more energy in parks and playgrounds, and calm bodies and quiet voices at the library. 
• Reading and responding to signals - Neurodiverse young children can sometimes find the variety of ways we communicate tricky, especially when so much is communicated using more than just words. Practising recognising common nonverbal signals that other people face or bodies might be saying in conversations. 
• Joining clubs or activities - By trying out activities linked to your child's interests, they will be able to meet more people and have some support and structure in their social time. After-school clubs can be a great way to meet new people within a more familiar setting.

Celebrating Diversity 

Embracing an open attitude to the ways people communicate, learn and behave can help to encourage children to be open about who they make friends with and feel more comfortable in social situations. 

Focusing on your child's strengths, interests and talents can build their self-esteem and confidence which will help them as they move into a new environment with new people. 

You can identify your child's strengths by:

• Considering your child's interests - Try writing down what they like to do for fun. It could be sports, computer activities, puzzles, reading, Lego, dancing or caring for pets. 
• Watch your child - Observe them in different settings, like at school or clubs to see what activities they are naturally drawn to. 
• Ask for feedback - Speak to your child's teachers, coaches or tutors and ask if they've noticed any strengths.
• Listen to your child - Talk about the hobbies and activities that make them feel good about themselves.
• Watch interactions - Pay attention to how your child relates to others, they might be great at taking turns, being empathetic, or being patient. 

You can build on the strengths and interests to help young people develop friendships with others they have something in common with. For example, if your young person likes computers, they might find it easier to relate to another child interested in computers or coding. 

Practical ways you can encourage strengths include:

• Making a strengths book - It could include information about what your child likes, is good at, is currently learning and what they want to be in future. 
• Strengths Cards - You can buy or make your own cards which illustrate different strengths, qualities or abilities. The idea is to spread out the cards and choose one for themselves, and one for each other member of the family. Then you can discuss talking about the strengths and when or how you've seen them in people. 
• Social Stories - These stories explain social situations to some neurodivergent young people and can be used as a way to celebrate your child's successes. For example, create a visual story of how your child was resilient during a challenge. It offers a positive record and helps your child understand their strength and values. 
• Drama classes - Structure drama sessions can help your child to learn about relationships with their peers in a familiar and controlled way which can be helpful if they find unstructured break times anxiety-inducing. 
• Physical activities - Sports or physical activities can help young people to master new skills while practising develop team-building and cooperation. It can also burn off excess energy which can help keep some neurodivergent young people regulated. 

Medication Changes 

For children who regularly take medication during the school day, the move to a new environment can make it tricky for several reasons:

• Not knowing who to ask or where to go
• Multiple teachers who are less likely to remind them
• Pressure from friends to do other things during lunchtime
• Lack of time

It's useful to discuss this with your GP to find out how the change could affect your child, and pass on information to the new school Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) who will help make a plan. There are lots of options to be able to support your child taking their medications for example:

• Reminders from their form tutor, who will be their key person for any worries day-to-day and someone they'll check in with at registration
• A hall pass to let your child go to find support staff if they forget their medication or to allow them to get their medication when corridors are quieter