Transition Day Ideas for Primary Languages
Written by: Emilie Woodroffe, Director of Specialist Teaching.
This week, transition days are taking place in schools up and down the country. In primary schools, Year 6 pupils are spending time in their new secondary schools, meeting their form tutors and teachers, and discovering new subjects through taster lessons.
Meanwhile, the rest of the school is also experiencing transition day. Classes move up to meet their new teacher and begin looking ahead to the next academic year, finding out about new topics, exciting trips and all the experiences that await them.
If you're a specialist languages teacher teaching on transition day, how can you embrace the transition theme in your lesson? Here are a few ideas.
1. Pack your suitcase of learning
Reflect on the year by asking pupils to pack a metaphorical "suitcase of learning" with the things they want to take with them.
What were your favourite songs? Topics? Activities? New words and phrases? What are you most proud of learning?
This is a wonderful opportunity for pupils to reflect, celebrate their achievements and share their learning with their new teacher. It also helps end the year on a positive note by focusing on success, confidence and memorable learning experiences.
Pack your suitcase of learning at the end of the paragraph: Download the Transition in the Suitcase editable PDF.
2. Quizzes
Create a retrieval quiz using content from across the year. Include a mixture of:
vocabulary recall
grammar and phonics
sentence-building
mixed retrieval from different topics studied throughout the year.
3. Try a new language
Keep things exciting by introducing pupils to a language they haven't learned before.
Encourage them to become language detectives by spotting similarities between languages, recognising familiar words, identifying patterns and making links with the languages they already know. This reinforces the idea that learning languages is about developing transferable skills and curiosity, helping pupils see themselves as linguists rather than simply learners of one particular language.
PLN schools have access to ready-made transition quizzes in French, Spanish and German.