March 2025 update:
On January 31st 2025, we held a Transitions Strategy Event at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery. The key aims of this event were to:
Support the #P-S WELLS research team to engage with existing and prospective external partners to bridge the knowledge-practice gap, in understanding existing barriers and facilitators in implementing “gold-standard” transition provision at the school, Local Authority and national level to begin co-producing a cohesive national Transition Strategy.
Serve as an opportunity to showcase our background, share our collaborative #P-S WELLS findings and in essence “proof-of-concept” through this networking opportunity, which will serve as an opportunity to support recruitment for future follow-on activity.
The event had over 50 attendees, from schools, universities, Local Authorities, and national partners. It has been pivotal in harnessing ideas for regional and national transitions strategies, and in helping us procure sign-ups for the next phase of our research.
Testimonials from the event and about engagement with P-S WELLS:
“Our partnership with #P-S WELLS has enabled us to understand more systematically the challenges our children face at transition. Our partnership has opened up mulit-agency conversations about approach to transition across Liverpool” (Deputy Headteacher, Liverpool)
“The majority of pupils in our setting arrive with us following exclusion from school. Once validated, we plan to use #P-S WELLS with all our pupils when they arrive with us to capture their views and inform the individual work we do with them to support their transition either back into the mainstream sector or on to specialist provision. This work should also inform our induction process which happens at a very challenging time for our pupils and families.” (Alternate Provision Head Teacher, Bolton)
“It was brilliant to hear what other local authorities are doing in terms of transition. I will take back information I have gained today from other professionals and share with my LA”. (Event attendee)
“I think this was one of the most useful conferences I’ve been to in a while. The fact that it is all working towards something tangible is key to this”. (Event attendee)
“ I would love to work alongside some of the attendees I have met to today and look at potential future projects”. (Event attendee)
September 2024 update:
We wanted to share with you some very positive recent media coverage P-S WELLS has received, which we are very happy for anyone reading to share more broadly across our partner schools, and within your networks, to continue momentum in terms of the fantastic interest and engagement in the project.
We have received significant interest in our P-S WELLS project, and sister intervention project Talking about School Transition 5-7 (TaST 5-7) from both a national and international perspective, which is detailed on the Manchester Institute of Education impact page here, kindly put together by advisory group member Dr Craig Skeritt: https://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/research/impact/supporting-childrens-emotional-wellbeing-over-primary-secondary-school-transitions/
Finally, on Wednesday 4th September, we were also invited to contribute to the “Family Chat” panel discussion on BBC Radio 5 Live. The conversation was focussed on “back to school” with an emphasis on primary-secondary school transitions, and we shared some recommendations for parents, children and teachers based on emerging findings from the P-S WELLS and TaST 5-7 projects. You can find the audio recording here:
Of particular note is that our approach to supporting children’s emotional wellbeing has been recognised by the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, and has been referenced in policy guidelines for the DfE (2024), NICE (07/22) and Health Scotland (01/20). In line with this, we have been invited to present evidence from the P-S WELLS project, at the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservative party conferences, on their “Learning to live well: how can education policy support children’s wellbeing and mental health?” this month. We would like to thank advisory group member Suzanne Booth, and the team policy@manchester for making this possible.
You can find out further information about our party panel discussions here: https://www.policy.manchester.ac.uk/events/party-conferences-2024/
And even watch the first panel discussion, which was held at the Liberal Democrats conference on Monday 16th September 2024 in Brighton, here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rdknOxg7dfA