This is a practice exemplar showing how secondary and primary school staff worked collaboratively with external partners from the creative arts to increase family participation and engagement during the primary-secondary transition process.

The project involved 67 families from S1 and P7 in the Peebles High School cluster, including nine primary schools. 12 students in S1 and 10 senior school students acted as mentors to younger students. ​Families engaged in the themes around transition through a creative, participatory approach using drama performance, film making and family peer support activities.

​How to use this exemplar 

The video demonstrates working in partnership across primary-secondary and with external partners, using creative approaches to increase family participation and engagement. It could also be used to explore the themes of transition with students and their families in an alternative way. The video also gives examples of feedback from those involved in the project

The example leaflets and flyers demonstrate an approach to communicating creatively with parents/carers to increase participation and engagement.

Explore this exemplar

What was done?​

Making the Leap was a year-long project where 67 students in P7 and S1, identified by primary schools and from self-evaluation via ‘pupil attitudes to self and school’ survey, worked with school staff and eight creative arts practitioners to create three drama performances and a film. The creative process and performances helped address their questions, hopes and fears about moving to high school.

The layered structure of the project, which allowed students to gradually meet and work in a team with other students from different schools, firstly in their own schools, then in the high school, offered peer support and mentoring to build independence and skills for successful transition. Parents and carers were actively involved at all stages of the project alongside their children, attending open evenings, informal discussion groups and performances.

All families received their own personal copy of the DVD “Making the Leap” and an evening invite to a celebration of success for the premiere of the project film screening in a local theatre.​​

Why?

At Peebles High School there is a robust transition process for students and an enhanced transition process for those with additional needs. However, secondary school learning support staff identified in their Curricular Area Plan review, in relation to the school improvement plan How Good Is Our School 4 (QI 2.5 Family learning), that there were very few opportunities for P7 families to come together to share experiences with S1 families.

This project addressed the identified need to reach more families earlier in the transition process to help ease parental and student anxiety and to promote emotional well-being at a key time of change.​

Improvement questions​

• How do we further increase family participation and engagement at P7-S1 transition stage and extend it to the senior phase?
• To what extent do school staff link with family learning officer (or equivalent) to engage with families?​
• How can we extend working creatively with families to involve subject specialists within our school?​

Video

Download(s)

PDF file: Invitation to parents (160 KB)

PDF file: Invitation to pupils (180 KB)

PDF file: Quotes from pupils (73 KB)​

PDF file: Photos from the project (254 KB)​​