Moving up from elementary school / primary school can feel like a massive change. 

You will be moving from a small school that you know well to a larger one, where you are starting fresh. This is an exciting time, but one that can often leave us feeling a bit worried.

In our ‘So Ready’ camp, we spend four days getting to know ourselves and each other. it is a space to develop friendships and have a laugh together, but also to do some thinking about ourselves. 

In the real world, I teach students in the last year of elementary/primary school, and so I spend a lot of time helping my classes get ready for the next stage in their lives. When they come back to visit me, they are often full of stories about how much they like it, but also sometimes share things they wish they had thought about a little more. We will talk about those things in 'So Ready!'

In each class, we have some social time and Q and A (which can be anonymous if you have anonymous questions), and we will also do some activities linking to each daily theme.

Day One  - My Values, Strengths and Being Organised
Day Two - Friendships, Relationships and Growing Up
Day Three -  Learning and Being Yourself
Day Four - Confidence, Curiosity, Creativity

(more detailed info below)

Across the week, I am going to encourage you to keep a journal. You can keep your writing private if you would like, or you can share it with me, or with everybody. I believe that writing/cartooning/drawing/comic booking (however you want to express yourself) can be a great way to think things through.

More than anything, I want to give you a chilled out week that you will find funny and enjoyable. i want you to feel even more ready for whatever is coming next in your life, by knowing, understanding and loving yourself.

*For this class, any children outside of this age range will not be permitted. It is just for students aged 10-13 who are moving up to new schools. Any children who are signed up outside the age limit will be refunded. I may open a class for younger children.

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Day One - Values, Strengths and Being Organised

After saying hi, we will explore our values - values are the things which matter to us deeply in our lives. Our values are very important to us, and tend to stick with us throughout our lives. We will look also at strengths - what skills and characteristics do we have that support us. We all have many values and strengths, but don’t often take time to think about them in this way. We will also explore the benefits and challenges of being organised, and share some tips.

Day Two - Friendships, Relationships and Growing Up

We will begin by discussing some of our thoughts about friendships as we move schools. What kind of friendships matter to us? How can we meet new people? We will look also at the other relationships - we don’t need to be everybody’s friend, but how can we just ‘get along’ with people We will also look at the role of adults in a school, and how you can relate with them. We will explore too about growing up, and how we think this might change our friendships and relationships.

Day Three - Learning and Being Yourself

Nobody is perfect, and nobody loves learning all the time. We will explore the stuff we like learning about most, and will talk about our passions and interests. How can we keep investing our energy and intelligence in these things, whilst also ensuring we are learning all the other stuff we might be being taught. We will look at what it means to ‘Be Yourself’ - when does a desire to fit in become a problem for us?

Day Four - Confidence, Curiosity and Creativity

Our final session is about making sure we feel as good as possible about this new stage in our lives - change happens, and it will happen throughout our lives. We cannot always control it, but we can control some of our reaction to it. We will talk about what it means to be confident, and how we  can build confidence in ourselves and others. We will do a big Q and A, where we can explore some of your hardest questions together (anonymously if you like, with you sending me a Direct Message in the chat). And finally, we will explore creativity, and how self-expression can help us in so many ways in our lives.