​ 5 Important Factors Parents Should Consider for Year 7

The jump from primary school to Year 7 is a significant one. Why?

A smooth transition from Year 6 to Year 7 is essential for your child’s development as they start a new stage in their life. As a parent, it is important to take the initiative to understand, assess and reflect on what kind of school you want to send your child to.

Your child’s school should offer the right opportunities to help them grow and develop from their pre-teens through to becoming a young adult. 

Here are 5 factors to consider when choosing Year 7 for your child.

1. Assisting Your Child’s Transition to Year 7

Ah, Year 7. A big stepping stone in anyone’s education. Possibly one of the biggest as children continue their journey to maturity. By the time your child enters Year 7, they transition from childhood to early adolescence. Your child will start to develop strong habits, embrace their learning, value their education and continue to form their attitude about school and life.

When you’re looking for the right school, it’s important to see if the school also understands the significance of this is a big transition for your child. More importantly, they believe in supporting your child's transition into Year 7 by carefully planning and ensuring it is as smooth as possible.

2. Implement Personalised Learning

Personalised learning is an educational approach that aims to customise the learning process based on student’s strengths, interests and challenges. When a school embeds personalised learning into their teaching practice, it shows that they understand your child is unique and how important it is to cater to each student’s learning style

Whenever you hear a school talk about personalised learning it usually means that:

  • The pace of learning is adjusted
  • Learning objectives, materials, and tools are tailored to your child
  • Each lesson is based on what your child knows and suits your child’s learning style

Education isn’t just a “one size fits all” - it’s an individualised learning journey for your child.

3. Wide Range of Elective Subject Offerings

As your child begins to grow into the early adolescence stage, they are beginning to understand and identify their pathways and aspirations into the future. 

Year 7 may be the first time your child will be able to sample electives, so it is important that your child’s school offers a wide range of elective subjects such as food technology, design technology, creative arts, performing arts and much more. This allows your child to experience a variety of subjects to find out what they are passionate about.

4. Holistic Pastoral Care

Strong pastoral care focuses on creating an environment and culture that nurtures and develops your child socially, academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually. As your child transitions from Year 6 to Year 7, pastoral care plays a pivotal part in their development process.

If your child's school has high-quality pastoral care, you can rest in the fact that their well being and growth as a person is cared for holistically.

5. Structured Student Development Programs

A good question to ask yourself when choosing a school is: does this school have strong programs in place to assist my child’s development right from the beginning of Year 7?

This is a crucial factor because students are given structured programs that help them develop skills, explore passions and allow them to grow in the different areas of life. Some programs focus on one aspect such as academic progress but others have a more holistic approach - focusing on academics, social development and/or being a responsible and compassionate contributor to society.

Depending on your family's values and principles, it is important to ensure that the school you choose has student development programs that focus on the areas you believe are important. 

At Grace Lutheran College, your child will be supported in their transition from Year 6 to Year 7. 

Our holistic pastoral care approach combined with our unique GEL program focuses on caring for your child’s well being and their personal development. This provides your child with the right opportunities to reach their full potential and helps them to develop a love for learning in all that they do.

To discover more about Year 7 at Grace Lutheran College, follow the links below.

Grit, Growth & Grace