Rising year 7 Help & Support
Welcome to The Downs School & Sixth Form
Welcome to this section of our website which contains lots of useful information about starting secondary school and all about life as a Downs School student.
My name is Mr Gifford and I am the Transition Leader and Deputy Head of Year for Year 7, which means I am the person responsible for making sure that you have all the information you need before you start with us. I am really looking forward to meeting you at your school or here at The Downs School before you start in September.
It is important to ensure that the transition from primary school to secondary school is as smooth as possible and that you settle well into The Downs School. To help with this we will organise a variety of transition events for years 5 and 6 pupils. They will then be followed up with rising Y7 induction days. These visits give pupils a taste of the school environment and allow you to take part in aspirational experiences. We have listed these on our transition timeline:
Transition Timeline for Rising Year 7 (September 2024 Entry)
There will also be opportunities for parents/carers to visit the school, such as open mornings and the annual open evening.
We recognise that moving to secondary school can give rise to concerns and lots of questions, rest assured we hope to provide you with the information needed to help prepare for this important phase in your life. I would encourage you whether a parent or pupil to look around this section of our website as well as other pages- which should hopefully answer some if not all your questions. However, if you still need something you want to ask, please do e-mail us at the following address and we will get back to you transition@thedownsschool.org
The school website is updated regularly, and details of forthcoming events will be posted online for you to take part in.
In the meantime, please have a look at the following links which gives you some information that may prove useful.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/tags/zh4wy9q/starting-secondary-school/1
I look forward to meeting you.
Kind regards
Mr Gifford
Transition Leader and Deputy Head of Year for Year 7
