Like every year group at Dixie, we’ve been transitioning to our new year group recently. Only this year it’s different. We are starting at the Senior School. So, how do we feel?
HOLLY: If I am being honest, I was feeling really nervous about leaving the Junior School and starting in Year 6 at the Senior School. However, we have had some brilliant transition days and now I am feeling excited, and I can’t wait to move up.
JOEL: I’ve been feeling nervous and a bit anxious about moving to the Senior School too. We know the Junior School and have loved it. This is a big change. Recently though, as Holly said, we have had some good transition activities that have made me feel so much better. I’m now just looking forward to it.
So what’s happened?
Our transition started a few months ago, when we had a Geography Day and learnt orienteering skills at Bosworth Park with Miss Entwisle from the Senior School.
Mr Mellors, Head of the lower school has visited us several times over the last few weeks and taken the chance to get to know us and we’ve got to know him. We’ve had a visit from some current Year 6 pupils who we remember from their time at the Junior School. They told us all about it, what to expect and how good it was.
We have had lots of opportunities to meet the new teachers, see the Senior School and try out new subjects. On Friday morning a few weeks ago, we visited the Senior school for a look round and a practice lesson. We used the laser cutter in the DT room to make the outer design for our electric cars.
We had a Science Day at Barton Road with Senior School teachers and Year 6 pupils. During the Science Day, we had an “Eggscellent” day. The theme was eggs – we had to build a structure to see how high we could hold a picnic egg, make a sling shot to see how far our egg would travel, and lastly, we had to wrap real eggs up in different soft materials or make a parachute and throw the egg in the air to see if it would crack. Our teams’ eggs didn’t break.
We had a Maths Morning where Sixth formers visited us from the Senior School. They helped us work in teams to solve maths puzzles.
Our highlight was the move up day last Thursday. We did lots of fun activities such as quick cricket in PE, made truffles in HE, made monster keyrings in DT, and played excel battle ships in IT. The snacks and drinks were delicious – especially the pain o’ chocolat. Joel even bumped into his buddy from when we were in Reception and she recognised him. We also met Becky who did some zoom baking classes with us in lockdown.
We understand from our teachers that this has has been planned as the start of a new approach to Year 6 called The Dixie 6:
“It’s quite different from previous years and is a genuine transition to the Senior School. It sits perfectly between Junior and Senior education – neither exclusively one nor the other, but with the best elements from each.”
