In early 2023, Dr Lucy Newby and Dr Paul Gray were commissioned by Manchester City Council to undertake a new research project exploring young people’s experiences of starting secondary school in Manchester.

The research project aimed to explore the pressures and challenges faced by young people during primary to secondary school transition. It also sought to identify what types of support young people felt would be most beneficial to them. To learn more about young people’s views and experiences of secondary school transition, the research team ran a series of creative workshops with Year 8 pupils across three secondary schools in Manchester.

In the first set of workshops, young people completed a series of creative ‘ journey maps’ to reflect on the ‘high and low’ points of their secondary school experiences. Together, they identified a diverse range of challenges associated with moving from year 6 to Year 7. These included conflict over behaviour, developing relationships with new teachers, worries about academic performance, peer conflict, safety concerns, and issues with mental health and well-being. Whilst each young person’s educational journey was complex and highly personal, most young people reported struggling to adjust to the secondary school environment. A majority of young people felt that, overall, moving from Year 6 to Year 7 had resulted in a less enjoyable and less safe educational experience.

Young people were highly aware of their support needs in the first two years of secondary school and clear about their wish to actively participate in shaping future support policies. In the second set of workshops, they formulated recommendations for Manchester City Council on the interventions they felt could help to support young people with secondary school transition.

Key recommendations from young people included:

• Embedding the right to participate in the design and delivery of all support interventions.
• Supporting strengths-based behavioural approaches at secondary schools and avoiding sanctions
• Enhancing existing nurture provision to support emotional regulation
• Providing counselling and/or mentoring for young people
• Supporting young people to deal with conflict both within and outside a school setting.
• Supporting young leadership on mental health
• Manchester City Council will be taking forward the recommendations in creating future support policies.

For more information on the project,
contact: L.Newby@mmu.ac.uk