Preparing for Year 7
Transition to High School
A new school. Different teachers. Different classrooms. A timetable. More independence. New friendships. Changing routines. And a lot of questions about what happens next. For some students, the hardest part of starting high school is simply not knowing what to expect.
The Transition to High School Workshop helps students make more of the unknown visible before their first day. Across two practical days, students explore the routines, expectations, social situations and organisational demands they may encounter — while developing strategies for what they can do when they are unsure or need support.
Less “you’ll work it out when you get there.” More “let’s look at what might happen — and what you can do.”
When the Unknown Feels Like a Lot
“What Will High School Actually Be Like?” Is a Very Reasonable Question
Adults often know the basic answer — there will be teachers, classrooms, subjects, homework, lunchtime and other students. But that doesn’t answer the questions a Year 6 student may actually have: how do I know where to go? What if I can’t find the classroom? What happens if I’m late? Where do I go at lunchtime? What if I don’t know anyone? How do I ask a teacher for help? What if everything feels too loud?
Rather than dismissing these questions with “don’t worry,” the workshop gives students opportunities to explore possible situations and consider what they could do.
The workshop makes routines and expectations more explicit without asking students to mask — there is no expectation of forced eye contact, suppressed movement or performing confidence. Students do not need to disclose a diagnosis or explain their personal support needs to take part. The aim is to give students practical information, strategies and opportunities to prepare in ways that are useful to them.
Who This May Suit
Could This Workshop Be a Good Fit?
This Workshop May Suit a Student Who:
Is preparing to transition from primary to secondary school
Has questions about what high school will be like
Likes knowing what to expect
Would like practical preparation for routines and organisation
Wants to explore strategies for navigating friendship or peer changes
Would like to identify people and places they could go to for help
Wants to think about what might help in different school situations
Prefers practical, visual or activity-based ways of preparing
To Take Part, Participants Should Also:
Be preparing to transition from primary to secondary school
Have goals relevant to transition preparation
Be able to participate safely in a small-group environment with appropriate supports
Be willing to engage with practical activities at a level appropriate for them
A diagnosis is not required — it is not required to experience uncertainty about transition to high school.
What We Explore
Four Areas Students Get to Explore
Find Your Way
Understanding how high school differs from primary school
Reading a timetable
Moving between classrooms
Understanding changing routines
Preparing for the first days and weeks
Manage the Practical Stuff
Books, equipment and belongings
Homework and assessment expectations
Planning and organisation
People, Friendships & Break Times
Navigating breaks and lunchtime
Meeting new people
Maintaining existing friendships
Joining conversations or groups
Friendship changes
Responding to peer challenges
Know Where to Get Help
Asking teachers for help
Identifying trusted adults
Working out what might help when something feels difficult or unclear
Managing uncertainty
Knowing what to do when unsure
Make It Personal
The Most Useful Plan Is One the Student Can Actually Use
See It
Sample timetables
Visual planners
Plan It
Checklists
Organisation systems
Explore It
Social scenarios
Role-play
Work It Out
Problem-solving activities
Individual transition planning
Where consistent with delivery, individual transition planning may help students bring together things they already know, things they still want to know, people they can ask, strategies that help them, and supports they may want to discuss. It is a practical preparation tool, not a clinical treatment plan.
For Schools
Planning Transition Preparation With Your School
Schools know their incoming students, their transition processes and their own environment better than an external provider does. For that reason school delivery should not simply reproduce the clinic workshop unchanged — the two-day format above is what we run at Mascot, not what a school has to buy.
We work with schools to keep the core transition content while planning the practical detail together: the student cohort and year level, group size, the timetable, your existing transition processes, available facilities, and any supplementary parent/carer information that would be useful.
Where appropriate, schools can also discuss incorporating relevant school-specific transition materials — a school map, a sample timetable, or information about where students can go to ask for help — so that preparation connects with the actual environment students are walking into rather than a generic one.
This is not a replacement for your orientation day, transition program, learning-support planning or wellbeing systems. It is designed to sit alongside them, giving students more time to explore the questions those events do not always have room for.
Planning for the Move to High School?
For families
Looking for an upcoming Transition to High School Workshop for your child?
Enquire About the WorkshopFor schools
Considering transition preparation for a Year 6 cohort or a group of students?
Enquire About School DeliveryNot sure which applies? Book a free consultation.