Challenges and Opportunities Associated With Secondary School Transition

The wellbeing and learning must be maintained as student’s transition take place from primary to secondary school. Transition to secondary school can be very challenging for adolescent especially, in social, emotional, and physiological changes and can negatively influence their learning. Transition to secondary school can be a time full of pleasure, anticipation, and new involvements and it can be challenging or worrying for many students. This essay will focus on the challenges and opportunities associated with secondary school transition for adults.

Challenges Associated Secondary School Transition for Adolescent

Adolescent undergoes through the pressure of making a proper modification because most students believe that their future depends upon their doing well (Simmons 2017, p 34). In this case, in each step they take, they keep wondering whether they made the right decision and whether there is a need to change their courses. Students are curious about what they will achieve after the completion of secondary school education. In this case, if their grades keep on fluctuating, they experience a lot of stress since they believe that their future depends on doing well in secondary school.

Finding friendship is another challenge associated with the transition to secondary school. In this case, students want to meet new aristocracies and make friends. Knowing who to trust and a kind of friend who will help you improves or work toward your goal is a difficult task (Romero, Master, Paunesku, Dweck, and Gross 2014 p.227). In secondary school, students choose friends based on personalities, common interests without realising that this type of friendship will not last for a lifetime. A student can meet a friend who will influence them negatively and as a result making it hard for them to attain the best grades.

Secondary school transition for adolescent is challenging since one is exposed to a lot of school work such as homework’s, writing essays, carrying out research’s, managing more massive and more complicated homework load, adhering to new and more complex timetable (Mandy, Murin, Baykaner, Staunton, Hellriegel, Anderson, and Skuse, 2016, p.12). Coping up with an inclusive choice of topics and adjusting to having altered teachers in diverse teaching space challenges many students and most of them end up giving up at the secondary school level. Additionally, changing a new school campus, getting to class on time with the right books and resources and in most case coping with new transport is also another challenge faced in secondary school transition for adolescents.

Some students miss their family, friends, and pets. They lose old routines and structures. This makes it hard for them to central their schedule and develops good study habits (Goldstein, Boxer, and Rudolph 2015, p.27.).  No family member, a parent who is available to force them to study, go to class and no one to tell them a good night sleep. In this case, they find secondary school very difficult for them especially, when the school does not live up to the expectation set by the brochures and admittances counsellors. Therefore, life becomes hard for them and scholars to skill their first low grades due to these challenges.

Opportunities Associated With Transition to Secondary School for Adolescents

Transition to secondary school enhances the full development of adolescent personality. This is influenced by the diversification of secondary school curriculum (Simmons 2017, p.36). In this case, a lot of practical subjects that and lessons are included since it is through them that a student’s personality is developed. The character developed to add an unforeseen dynamic to the classroom that requires a specific delicacy to handle. The personality development, student’s gain confidence and he or she are not shy, and as a result, an adolescent can improve and become more conscious in class. Additionally, personal development enhances student ability to interact in class.

            Secondary school transition facilitates desired education for the adolescent. Through the introduction of a different number of subjects in secondary schools, students have an opportunity to study subjects according to their abilities, aptitudes, tastes, and capacities. They have a chance to choose their desired topics that will enable them to join the next; the level of their education (Angela, 2018 p 14). This is achieved through the diversification of secondary school curriculum. According to researches, the adolescent has different tendencies, aptitudes, and inclinations and therefore different type of curriculum is needed hence an opportunity for secondary school transition.

            Through secondary school transition, students can fulfil their social needs. To meet the daily requirements of life (Monteiro, and Almeida 2015, p.108). To achieve this, there is a need for the members of society to take the role to enhance student’s social needs is completed within the secondary school environment. In this case, the member of society engage themselves in different type of work, such as planting trees, arranging the developments required in secondary school, coming up with extra social education such as encouraging students to keep on pursuing their subjects despite the challenges that they may encounter and promoting students on other activities apart from academic learning.

            Secondary school transition enables students to make a positive adjustment to their new schools and classes and maintain their wellbeing (Test, Smith, and Carter 2014, p. 88). The learning is coherent and continuous especially, in the degree in which student’s encounters difficulty following transition and the possibility of dropping out from school. A positive transformation enables student wellbeing and higher achievement in the future. Leaders and teachers ensure that students experience success in their learning to ensure that they remain engaged in education. Additionally, the leaders proactively address any likely threat to the wellbeing of students’ academic progress.

Transition to secondary school plays a critical role in preparing students to their career, which is a dangerous part of an individual life (Marks, Barnett, Strugnell, and Allender, 2015, p. 59). The secondary school gives the scholar a wider possibility and standpoint about education, and the choice of profession to make in future. Additionally, adults get a detailed knowledge about the intermediated courses, entrance exams, and college courses, which are prepared for the long run. Furthermore, the secondary school provides counselling that mould the behaviour of students as well as picking the guiding the students on choosing the right the right subject for that will help them pursue their career in the future. Therefore, the secondary transition for the adolescent to has a wide range of opportunities.

How can Teachers and Parents Support Them

The teacher can help secondary school transition for adults through the sharing of information. In this case, teachers from the perspective if a secondary school want to know more about new adults (Willis 2017, p35). To achieve these teachers creates more time with students and share some information with the students. Further teachers outline various challenges that students are likely to experience as they continue with their studies. As they share information, teachers give a solution to such problems to enhance smooth running in their secondary school education.

            Secondary school should maintain positive communication with parents. This will positively affect the manner in which parents handle their children. For instance, if a school keeps of communicating negatively about the performance of students more than recognising their effort will discourage the participation of parents by making them feel that they cannot help their kids (Hawkins, and Weis, 2017 P.18). Therefore, positive communication will influence parents to keep supporting their children and promoting them with materials that will improve their academic performance despite the type of grade the student get with the hope that they will develop more if they put extra effort toward their ranks.

Teachers should reinforce desirable behaviour in school whereby the early lessons within the year should focus on themes and values that are broadly desirable as opposed to culturally specific. They should involve saying sorry, teamwork, sharing forgiving each other and being polite (Baker 2014, p.37). Additionally, in the classroom, activities can be developed quickly by encouraging polite and cooperative behaviour through teachers’ encouragement and support. On parents, they should educate their children how to talk politely with people who are older than them and those who are below them. This will encourage positive behaviour within the school and to the society.

            Relatively, both parents and teacher should encourage students and still a definite sense of achievement (Ricard and Pelletier 2016, p38). This can be tricky but often only requires a form of well done, good work, in the classroom. This can be reserved for academic progress and as a result making it more effective when targeting specifics. Moreover, not all students will score a better grade some will score poor grades. In this case, teachers should encourage these particular students by showing them that there is still room for scoring higher grades and therefore, they should not give up on performing a poor grade. The teacher should look at the weak area of their subject performance and help them improve.

            By developing a parent’s teacher relationship, students will acquire real insight into the child’s personality (Wentzel, Russell, and Baker 2016, p.259). Teachers will pass data about how the student cope with a classroom setting and the additional services uncovered through different activities. Educators can keep parents educated about the syllabus, comprising of refrains, which can be easy to support at home.  Moreover, various talk between teacher and parent’s helps in maintaining the relationship encourage a more meaningful exchange of information. Keeping communication helps both parents and teachers to discover the weakness area of student’s performance.

            To sum up, Transition to secondary school can be very challenging for adolescent especially, in social, emotional, and physiological changes and can negatively influence their learning.  Adolescent undergoes through the pressure of making a proper alteration because most students trust that their future is determined by upon their doing well. This can be solved if teachers and parents maintain better communication that will help students overcome the challenges.

References

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