New Year 7 Students settle well into secondary school life!

Southborough High School was delighted to welcome its new intake of Year 7 students earlier this week. With the biggest cohort of Year 7 students joining the school for over 10 years, it’s been wonderful to see so many new faces around the school.

Friendship Day

However, SHS worked hard to ensure that the transition was a smooth and timely one for our valued students, starting right back one Saturday at the end of March when we hosted a special ‘Friendship Day’ for future Year 7 students and their parents. Students got the chance to meet their new teachers, take part in exciting activities, become familiar with their new surroundings and, crucially, make new friends. As for parents, they were also given the chance to meet and chat with other parents over coffee, biscuits and cake!

Summer School

During the summer holidays Southborough also run a two week summer school for soon-to-be Year 7 students to attend. Whist not compulsory, many students took up the offer to attend and enjoyed taking part in a wide range of fun-based activities that formed part of a personal development and wellbeing activity programme. Activities included team-building exercises, cooking, bowling and other trips out. Students from different primary schools were able to mix and develop new friendships, thus reducing the usual anxieties of ‘will I know anyone in my class when I start school?’

Walton Firs

To be absolutely sure that every new recruit got the chance to settle in and make new friends before formal lessons started, all Year 7 students were invited to attend a day trip last Friday to Walton Firs Activity Centre, an award winning and popular provider of outdoor education services. An early-morning heavy downpour of rain didn’t put anyone off having fun (although it did make some of the activities rather muddy!) and the day proved to be a resounding success!

First week of formal lessons

Our new boys came into school all smiles the following Monday. Uniform was especially smart amongst the students, although they were very grateful to learn by Tuesday that permission had been granted across the entire school for students to forgo their blazers and simply wear shirt and tie, due to the arrival of a rather unexpected, record-breaking heatwave across the country!

The Griffin Reporter caught up with a number of our new students and it was clear that they were feeling settled and happy, something we value highly here.

Feedback was that many of our young recruits had already mastered the school floor plans and found moving from one lesson to another across four floors was ‘easy’! They loved the canteen food - special mention was made of the lasagne – lessons were interesting and they also enjoyed the outdoor space, including the new Astro area and outdoor gym equipment.

Suffice to say, our strong and able team of Year 7 tutors, Pastoral Officers Mr  Opoku-Acheampong and Mrs Tyson, together with joint Heads of Year 7 Ms Taylor and Mr Sowerbutts, will be on hand throughout the year to ensure that each and every student feels thoroughly supported in their first year here.

Welcome to Southborough High School, Year 7s!