Year 6 into Year 7

Message from Mr Bradnick and Miss Hardy

Dear Year 7,

We hope you have all had a lovely summer! It’s not long now until you will making your way to us on your first day. With so much going on at the moment, we wanted to make sure that you have all of the information you need for your start with us. So, we have emailed your all a letter from Ms Price, our Principal, which details all of the plans we have put in place to help your first few days go as smoothly as possible.

We know that for many of you it has been a long time since you have been into school. It is completely normal that you might feel a bit nervous about starting with us, especially as we were not able to have our Taster Days in July. We want to reassure you that we will be following a robust risk assessment in order to keep you all safe and have lots of activities planned to help you get to know your new teachers and classmates quickly.

We wrote out earlier in the summer and invited you to join the tutor group you have been allocated to. If you are not sure who this is, please get in touch with us by emailing y6transition@rsaacademy.org or you can get in touch on one of the numbers below. We hope that you have been visiting our page to see the introduction videos from all of your new staff – who are so looking forward to meeting you all! You can also find the Parent Information Booklet and lots of other helpful links and documents you might need below. You can also get your parents to follow us on Twitter and Instagram by searching for @rsay6transition.

We have heard so many lovely things about you all from your Primary School teachers and we cannot wait to meet you all properly. If you are worried about anything or have any questions, please get in touch!

Kind Regards,

Mr Bradnick (Year Team Lead) and Miss Hardy (Head of Year)

Message from Mr Bradnick – Year Team Lead – Year 7 

For many students, secondary school is a significant step in the process of growing up and becoming more independent. We want your move to be as exciting as possible, but it is also a big change and it is not surprising that parents and students often feel anxious. We hope that our transition programme will make your transfer from primary to secondary education as comfortable and informative as possible. This section of the website will be particularly important for you to be able to find useful information easily. 

Whilst, as a community, we deal with the situation regarding Covid-19, the communication we have virtually is more important than ever.  We want to get to know you as well as we can, so we are going to be setting a number of challenges and activities over the coming weeks so we can get a better idea of what you are like, and so that you can get to know us too. You can get an adult to contact us via Twitter and Instagram too, by following @RSAY6Transition. 

I am talking to your Primary school teachers to find out as much as I can about you in order that we can support you through your transition, and in further into Year 7. If you have any questions or queries, then please get in touch with us by emailing Y6transition@rsaacademy.org. We will be happy to help you and find out more about how we can make your transition as smooth as possible. 

We look forward to getting to know you better. 

Stay Safe and Be Kind! 

Adam Bradnick 

Year Team Lead – Year 7

Student Information 

• We have recently sent out a pack which included a Gratitude Diary here and a letter explaining how to use it.
• Have a look at the videos below to meet the Team. We can’t wait to meet you all in person!

Meet Your Team

Frequently Asked Questions

• Will my first few weeks at RSA be fun?
  • We are hoping to make at as fun and engaging as we possibly can. Because of the guidance issued from the Government, we are looking at doing things differently to our usual start of the year. We hope you will be able to spend more time getting to know your tutors and your tutor groups through a variety of fun activities. We will be sending out details of these activities as they are confirmed.
•  Will we have to do work on our first day?
  • Before we start our proper learning, we are hoping to spend some time letting you get to know your new friends and how to find your way around the building. We know that students learn better when they feel safe and comfortable so we will be working on this over the first few days.
• Who will my new teacher be at RSA?
  • You will have many new teachers who you will be able to get to know through the videos we will post on this page. The most important one will be your tutor who you will be checking in with every morning and will be the person you can talk to if you need any help and support with anything.
• Will I be able to choose my own seat in lessons?
  • This will depend on the lesson. We have seating plans in our classes to make sure that you can learn most effectively. Although, in some situations, you may be allowed to chose who you work with.
• How much homework will I get?
  • When you first start with us, you will probably have a similar amount of homework as you have been receiving from your primary schools. Homework will be set differently across different subjects. Some may homework might be a half termly project, others might be a piece of extended writing or online activities. It will be around half an hour for each subject.
• How many people will be in my classes?
  • This will depend on your class. Tutor groups will have around 26 students but in practical subjects, there may be fewer students to allow everyone to be able to take part.

Parent and Carer Information

Below you will find links to information we have sent out to you:

• Parent Information Booklet – this includes details of uniform, suppliers and equipment expectations.
• School Lunches – As we are no longer able to accept cash in the Academy, please use this link  from the 1st September to set up a School Gateway account so you can top-up your child’s account online. When your account is active, you can log on here.
• If you think your child might be eligible for Free School Meals, then please apply through Sandwell Local Authority website.
• Letters – all of the letters we have posted to you so far are here.

If you are worried about your child’s mental health during this transition period, there are some fantastic resources to be found at Kooth and Sandwell BEAM. Of course, you can always contact us with any worries or queries using the email address y6transition@rsaacademy.org and we have lots of advice on the safeguarding section of our website, found here.