School's out in eight weeks for summer holidays. For some it means an entirely new chapter in life. The move from primary to secondary school can be a daunting prospect, one minute you are a big fish in a small pond and then you become a minnow in a huge ocean.
| Boys are glad to go but girls tend to be a bit weepy, they don’t want to change to secondary school. |
Amy Magowan Green, 12, who started Lagan College last September said, "you're ready for the change in a way but you're still dreading it." At primary school "you have your own classroom teacher and you can secure yourself with things you know."
Primary 7 teacher Alice Comiskey agreed the transition can be difficult because "they find it strange going from having the same teacher that they know very well to a whole range of teachers and lots of different subjects."
"In primary school you blend from one subject to the other, whereas in secondary school, you have to move from classroom to classroom." She added "boys are glad to go but girls tend to be a bit weepy, they don't want to change to secondary school. I think boys tend to think that they're cool and they can cope with anything whereas girls are more honest with themselves."
Ciara Leathem, 13 who is going into third year at St. Rose's said her last day at primary school was "dead sad, dead emotional, everybody was crying, even the wee boys." One of the hardest things about starting secondary was "finding the way around the school and remembering the names of your teachers," she said.
Michael Hinds, 11, a first year at St. Colman's said, "People going into first year should be happy," although he admitted on the last day of term people shed tears. "I cried too because most of the people I went to primary school with were going to other schools, so we weren't going to see each other much again."
Feeling small and unimportant was another common difficulty. St Rose's pupil Victoria Murray, 13 said the move can be a bitter-sweet experience. At primary school "you were the highest and then in first year you are the lowest and sometimes it's quite hard on people." Yet both agreed that moving on to secondary school had helped them mature.
George Workman, a senior Education Welfare Officer said worries about moving to a big school are often rooted in being alone and not making friends.
"When they are the only one from their primary school then they find it difficult," he said. "I think that some boys and some girls will find the whole change difficult particularly if they don't make friends."
About the team
This article was produced by Ciara Leathem 13, Victoria Murray, 13 and Amy Magowan Greene, 12. It was published in Fortnight, a Northern Ireland current affairs magazine.
