Video: From Primary to Secondary

[Text on screen]: 	
From Primary to Secondary
Knox City Council Youth Services asked secondary school students for their thoughts on:
1.	Major Differences 
2.	Orientation day
3.	Travelling to new school
4.	Worse things
5.	Best things
6.	Tips for parents and guardians
7.	What I wish I knew going into secondary school

[Hand written text on screen:] What are the major differences between primary and secondary school for you?

Young Person 1: More opportunities definitely; a bigger range of subjects, subjects; more freedom and responsibility; just being in a bigger environment; and having to follow different school rules

Young Person 2: With Primary school the teachers had less pressure on us, about homework or just school work and High school we’re expected to do more and take responsibility for actions that we do.

Young Person 3: Mainly in Primary school you know everyone yeah, but you’re like the top, Grade six, you’re like don’t look at me like that Grade fourer, I’m in Grade six – don’t take me on.  

Young Person 3: But when you get to Secondary school you’re like a Freshmen, the ‘newbees’ everyone picks on you cause you’re the ‘newbees’ 

Young Person 4: I think the most major difference is probably the responsibility.  When you’re in Primary school they’ll always remind you so you know there is always something to back up on, but in High school it’s sort of like you have two reminders and that’s it 

Young Person 5:Well pretty much for myself, when I moved from Primary to Secondary school, just the changing of classrooms and the different environment, introduced to new people, a new group of people, socially you’re changing your groups and generally just a different environment, like learning environment.

Young Person 6: Well for me the major differences are that you get heaps of homework in Secondary school compared to Primary school, and also there are many different teachers that teach you in Secondary school, cause in Primary school there is only like one or two teachers.

[Hand written text on screen:] So how was “Orientation Day”?

Young Person 1: Orientation Day for me was fun, scary and exciting all at the same time.  And I found that it was a great opportunity to make new friends, just get to know the place and your surroundings and yeah just get a feel for what Secondary school is really like so you don’t freak out on the first day.

[Hand written text on screen:] How did you find travelling to your new school?

Young Person 1: During high school my mum would take me to school in the morning but I would have to walk home because there was not after school program to go to, so its fun and I am getting the exercise.

Young Person 2: It was a lot different, five minute walk down the road to Primary school but once I got to High school, it was a half hour walk, so I thought, yep catching the bus next time [laughs].  So yeah, I caught the bus and trying to figure out all the bus routes – mum helped me out with all that.

Young Person 3: Well it was my local school at the time, so I caught the bus after school and on the first day I actually got on the wrong bus and almost went out to Mt. Evelyn and so [laughs] I was a bit paranoid after that but a while that it gets a lot easier.

[Hand written text on screen:] So what are the worst things about starting secondary school?

Young Person 1: The worst things for me probably would have been having to work the little combination lock, [pause] homework definitely, and just being able to find your way around school for the first few days. 

Young Person 2: There’s more pressure from teachers about handing in homework or getting just our class work done.  Moving classes – Primary school we’d stay in the one classroom and we would have all our classes there but in High school we have to keep changing rooms. You get used to it [laughs].

Young Person 3: I think like the homework and cause like there is so much, like you’re not really prepared for it, but it’s not that bad but when you’ve got so much from like all different teachers, like you’ve got 8 teachers giving you separate different homeworks and you’re like ‘Woah’ [laughs].  And also like you don’t know anyone and you might have loads of friends but they’re all in different classes and in your class like you might have 1 friend in this class. Not cool! [laughs].

Young Person 4: Well for some people it is the responsibility because they like having things to fall back on.  For me actually I think it was getting up so early, I really don’t like, I am not a morning person.

Young Person 5: I think the lack, when you’re in Primary school your nurtured a lot more and when you start Secondary school I think for the first couple of months you’re just finding yourself socially which is one of the most important things.  

Young Person 6: Well the worst things in Secondary school, obviously is a lot of work load and that um, you get heaps of homework and you have to spend a lot of time and effort for the work which means less time for leisure activities.

[Hand written text on screen:] So what are the best things about starting secondary school?

Young Person 1: Best things about starting Secondary school would be definitely making new friends, having different timetable and just different subjects compared to Primary school [pause] and just a new environment and a new place.

Young Person 2: The best think would probably be meeting people, get the whole new, new area and everything, new people to talk to, different sorts of personalities to Primary school as well you all sort of meld to each other in Primary school.

Young Person 3: I liked the canteen, it was really cool, it had like everything you needed you could buy like everything there, it was really cool and you did have your friends there even if you weren’t in any classes with them.

Young Person 4: The best thing is that there are a huge variety of activities for you to do.  Such as camps and sports so that’s really, really good, and like there is also many different subjects as well, that you don’t get to do in Primary school.

[Hand written text on screen:] Do you have any advice for parents and guardians of future year seven students?]

Young Person 1: Just when students get home, I know that a lot of my friends tend to not tell their parents that they have certain assignments and homework, and then they don’t bother doing it.  So it would be good if parents could actually just check with their children, you know just keep on top of their homework and everything.  And just for homework time, just make sure, like ‘cause I have a little sister and she is really noisy, I need her down the other end of the house so I can actually concentrate on my homework.

Young Person 2: I’d say help them out with their first year of high school because it’s hard, not knowing what to do because you’ve never been there before.  Parents might remember what it’s like being the youngest in the school again, and just help them with their homework if they need it.  Or even if they don’t tell you they need help ask them if they needed help and encourage them to go in clubs at school or bands.

Young Person 3: Mainly like my mum was all like…‘Oh how was your day? Tell me everything’ and when you’ve had a huge day, especially the first day you don’t want to really go over it again, so like you’ve been shocked, you’ve been scared, you’ve been overwhelmed, been upset whatever, you don’t want to keep talking about it.  Usually you’re really exhausted too, so yeah like maybe like if they’re not really talkative it’s okay [laughs], it’s normal, they’re just trying to figure out everything out in their head.

Young Person 4: Definitely just get to know what your child liked, what their learning styles are like, choosing an appropriate school for their learning ability and that sort of thing, then just be really supportive, cause especially Year 7 & 8 you’re really going to want to help your kids out [laughs].

Young Person 5: Well I guess you have to, if you have a school in mind, you should definitely go and have a look at it and see if your child really likes it or not.

[Text on screen:] What I wish I knew going into Secondary School

Young Person 1: I wish that I knew when I went to Secondary school that I didn’t have to worry about every little thing, and I was particularly worried about getting detention, but  I soon found out that I didn’t need to worry about that, because I haven’t had one yet!

Young Person 2: Mainly to choose for your educational purposes as in, I went to a school basically because it was a close one, my friends were at it, what else do you need right and I wasn’t happy there.

Young Person 3: Probably just to keep my options open.  From a young age I decided that I wanted to follow a certain career path, and then decided like halfway through year nine I didn’t want to do it and I thought “oh know what have I done?”, but it didn’t really matter because you can change your subjects and you end up doing what you want to do.

Young Person 4: I wish I knew that Secondary could be such an exciting and wonderful experience, because even though there may be more work, I used to think that it was really boring and dull but it’s actually it’s the kind of the opposite.  Cause you get to meet new friends and you can do many sports and do plays as well, really large plays, so that’s a really, really enjoyable thing, cause there’s so much opportunities for you to experience and discover  many wonderful, wonderful activities for you to do in Secondary school.

[Text on screen]: This film was commissioned by Knox City Council. www.knox.vic.gov.au/KnoxSchoolsExpo
School facilitated productions contact: Play Animation: Film and Animation for Education
www.playanimation.com.au 
greggbrownnn@gmail.com 
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copyright: Play Animation 2015