Mr Burton: Hello there year six my name's Matthew Burton, or Mr Burton, if you wanna use my teacher name and I'm gonna talk to you today about the big jump that's coming in the next few weeks and months for you, which is the transition from primary school to secondary school. The most important thing that people think about when it comes to school is safety, and every single member of staff at any school whether it's primary school, or secondary school or anywhere else, just want you to be safe and wants you to be happy.

Now people will be worried about Covid-19 and the effect that coming to school could have, But what schools can do what schools can do, and are doing is they are putting in measures and putting things in place to keep it as safe as possible for you to be in the building. For example, it could be that you'll arrive at a different time to the people. It may be that they've got markers on the floor outside to make sure you're socially distancing from other people. It might be that lunchtimes and break times are staggered so other year groups take their lunch and break at different times But when you are in school, whether that's now, at year six, or whether that's in when you enter the grand old world of secondary school, you need to make sure that you're doing your bit. And that comes down to hand washing, it comes down to social distancing, and it comes to making sure that you are sensible and you are safe, and you can minimise the risk and help to make sure that things are very, very safe for everybody.

Now primary school, as you well know, is probably quite a small school. Secondary school can be much, much, much bigger. On the face of it, you might take it that, well, if it's big I'm going to get lost and yes, you probably will probably will in your first few weeks, you may get lost, you may go down the wrong corridor. If you're trying to get from music, say to P.E you might get lost on the way and get a bit worried about it. Make sure you ask questions. People are there, people are kind, people are helpful and they want to help you get from A to B.

Another thing people worry about and people ask about is uniform. Now your uniform will be different, you may have gone from a jumper or no uniform to a blazer and a uniform, you feel like you're going to like a wedding every day or something like that. But it's nothing to be worried about, you'll look smart, you'll look the part, so make sure that you wear it with pride and you wear that badge with pride and you show everybody just how much of a fantastic ambassador you are for that school that you're wearing the uniform of.

People do worry about bullying and bullying is something that does happen, you know I won't sit here and say it doesn't happen, because bullying does happen, and it's really, really sad. The best thing that you can ever, ever do when it comes to bullying, is if it happens, or you feel like somebody is doing something to you that's making you feel in a way that you want to feel, you need to tell somebody. I suffered from bullying myself at school and the minute that I told my form tutor about it, I felt a million times better straight away, and she was fantastic and amazing and sorted it out and don't feel embarrassed, don't feel like you've done something wrong, because that isn't the case at all.

Now transition is a really important part of starting secondary school. Now because of Covid-19, obviously, that's different this year and we can't do the same things that we might usually like to. So schools are doing things like online videos they might show you around all the departments and take you on a journey from one area to the other area. You may get videos through introducing you to your form tutor. You may get phone calls from various teachers in the school to say hello and welcome and have you got any questions? If you don't ask that question that's gonna bother you, it's gonna worry you. Make sure you ask it. And whether that's emailing into the school or getting your parents and carers to ask the question and ring reception. So do not suffer in silence, don't think it's a stupid question, it's daft, it's whatever: no. Ask the question and, without a shadow of a doubt, schools will absolutely fall over themselves to want to tell you exactly what you need to know.

Finally, I just wanna say good luck! Be resilient, be kind to yourself, work as hard as you possibly, possibly can and it will come good eventually. Do your very best, because that's all anybody will ever, ever ask of you in any school up and down the country. Good luck with it, and I'll speak to you soon.