A SUPPORTED TRANSITION FROM THE BUSH TO THE CITY

THE TRANSITION to secondary school is a significant adjustment for any child, even more so when it involves relocating from home in the country to boarding school life in the city.

For this reason, St Margaret’s offers a transition program for incoming Year 7 students involving regular communications (which start the year prior to their move), a bigsister buddy program, sleepovers, events, activities and boarding house closed weekends. The transition program is designed to establish a sense of belonging for new boarders and their families and welcome them into the tight-knit community.

In addition to these wellbeing initiatives, students are also supported in their academic transition. A huge advantage is that St Margaret’s teaching staff work in the boarding house each evening to assist students with their homework, study and assignments. In addition, communication between teaching staff and boarding house staff is key to monitoring each student’s academic progress.

St Margaret’s educators are also highly skilled at deploying differentiated teaching strategies, which greatly assists boarders transitioning from varied learning experiences.

St Margaret’s Wellbeing Coordinator in Boarding, Hannah Calcino, says place identity has been identified as a key factor in a student’s transition to boarding school life.

“Boarding school transitions for rural students are most successful when they are able to form a positive place identity with their new environment. Place identity is how you, as an individual, fit within a community and how you find value in the community.

“Fostering a sense of community is vital to supporting the wellbeing of all boarders. We host events, dinners, activities and closed weekends to aid in building the boarding community, while encouraging relationships with day girls, which also helps to expand boarders’ connections outside the boarding community. These relationships are fostered through boarder–day girl sleepovers and the annual boarder–day girl long weekend.

“We are also quick to encourage our boarders to embrace the sporting and extracurricular life at St Margaret’s to enrich their learning, extend their friendships, and help them establish their place identity and settle in,” says Hannah.