SESSION PLAN: MAKING SUCCESSFUL TRANSITIONS

SESSION: MAKING SUCCESSFUL TRANSITIONS
Expected Progress: Young people are able to list strategies and actions to help them make successful transitions. / Description:Young people use hypothetical transitions to discuss fears and anxiety people might have about transitions and develop strategies, as well as specific actions, for making transitions easier.
Resources required:
Flip chart
Paper
Pens (multiple colours)
Action Planning Resource (optional) / LLN Opportunities:
Present personal point of view and opinions clearly
Listen to others in the group and respect turn taking rights / STEM Opportunities:
Exploring stability (physically and mentally) and forces (physical and mental/emotional) through icebreaker / Qualifications Opportunities:
N/A
DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY / RESOURCES / LEARNING OUTCOME
Introduction and Icebreaker
Challenge a (small) volunteer (A) to push another YP (B) over. Ask A to stand to B’s side and place both hands on their arm and push. B should stand with their feet together but be ready to stop themselves as they start to topple. They should find this fairly easy
Now tell them to try again but this time both stand with a wide (sumo) stance. As they struggle, you can encourage other volunteers to help
In order to push A over, B must unbalance them. When standing still, A’s centre of mass is directly in between their feet. If they are pushed to the side, their centre of mass is outside of their feet and they topple over. By adopting a sumo stance they effectively create a wide base and it is much harder to get their centre of mass outside of this area. They are much more stable. Can the young people apply this to their own lives? When going through transitions, things are not always in our control. What are some ways we could stay in control, or create stability for ourselves during tumultuous times?
Transitions
Explain to the young people that you are going to be talking about how to deal with changes and transitions. These are periods in a person’s life when lots of things, or even just one big thing,are going to be different. Transitions can be very distressing and lots of young people struggle with changes – some of the young people might remember having a difficult time when they moved from primary to secondary school. Transitions can be scary because they involve not only leaving behind a familiar situation where you might have been happy and comfortable, but also having to deal with learning a lot of new information very quickly and sometimes without the support you had before. Can the young people think of any times in life when we need to make transitions? These could be things they have experienced – moving to a new school, a friend moving away, family situations changing – or something that might happen in their futures – finishing education and moving into work, moving out of their parents’ homes, friends moving away to go to work or study elsewhere. / Identify examples of transitions and understand the challenges they present
Scenario
Give the young people this scenario: In a couple of days, your life is going to change. You will be going to a new school on your own and can’t take any of your friends with you. You can take your immediate family, but they are also starting new chapters in their lives, so they will have less time to spend with you and you will only see them in the evenings, at least for the first little while until everyone has settled in. At your new school, lots of things are different. You will be taking some difficult new subjects you have never taken before – a language you don’t speak and a form of dance you’ve never done – and these aren’t optional. Like you, the other young people like music, but they are all huge fans of a musician you’ve never heard of. Like you, they like watching television, but they haven’t heard of any of your favourite programmes. You know that there are people in the school who can help you, but no one has told you their names or where to find them and the school is big, so you’re not sure how to find out. You find it hard to fit in and so you are being quiet and not yourself, which makes you sad.
As a group, make a list of what is scary about this situation. What fears would the young people have? Do they tend to jump to the worst case scenario? What things in particular are the most scary – not having their friends, not having their families or being in an environment that is so different?
Once you have got a list of things that are scary about the situation, ask the young people if they could see any of them as opportunities. For example, if a fear is that they won’t see their old friends, an opportunity is that it’s a chance to make new friends. Ask them to circle or mark the fears that have opportunities in them. Are there more than they expected?
Explain that when a transition is coming up, it’s important to know what the scary things are going to be so that you can plan to minimise them and so you can find the opportunities they bring and stay positive. / Flip chart
Pens (multiple colours)
Paper / Identify challenges associated with transitions
List benefits to transition and change and be able to identify new opportunities
Ways of Coping
The young people should now understand that transitions are difficult for everyone but that they can be managed by planning ahead and staying positive.
Before any discussion activity, provide young people with time to plan what they are going to say. Explain that organising ideas in advance can help you express your opinion more clearly and confidently. Ask them to follow the below pattern when they give an opinion. They:
say what they think
give a reason or reasons for their view
give an example or examples
restate or repeat their view
Ask them to listen out for this pattern when they hear people expressing opinions on television discussion programmes.
Explain that there are strategies that they can use to make transitions as easy as possible. They just require a bit of thought in advance. Using the scenario described, get the young people to explain how they would use the following strategies:
Identify what support you have now and find out or ask who can give you that support in the future. (For example, if young people have a specific teacher or mentor in the current school who is really helpful, ask the new school if you can have a designated mentor to talk to while you settle in. This is particularly relevant for young people who access specific support for a mental health or addiction issue and might not have that support in their new school.)
Get involved in the decisions and don’t let other people decide everything for you. (For example, if the new school offers activities outside of class, learn about them and pick one to sign up for.)
Don’t burn all your bridges – come up with ways of staying connected with the good things that you had in your old situation. See the change as an opportunity to leave the bad behind and take the good with you. (For example, make plans to stay in touch with good friends)
Be prepared for the change by asking questions and finding out what to expect, so that there are no surprises. (For example, young people could visit the new school or talk to someone who goes there before making the switch)
Be optimistic and look for the opportunities – change can be good!
Can the young people think of any other strategies they could use to make the transition easier for themselves? / Understand and use strategies for planning for and dealing with transitions
Action Planning
Give the young people some time to think of some smart goals for dealing with a transition in their lives. This could be something in their personal life or at school. If they cannot think of anything, tell them they can think longer term and use examples like: leaving home and moving into their own flat, moving from school to college or college to FE/work/university/apprenticeships. Use the strategies they discussed to come up with a tick list of things to do to prepare for the change and things to do after the change, to adjust. If any of the young people are expecting to go through a transition soon, they could use the Action Planning resource in the Planning for Personal Development unit to come up with a plan for managing this. / Action Planning Resource (optional) / Create action plans for putting those strategies into place to make transitions easier.

1 (August 2016)