By CATHY BINKS, head of Year 7 at St Mary's High School, Blackpool.

THIS September St Mary's opened its doors to 222 Year 7 pupils.

Although they seemed rather apprehensive on their first day, they have soon settled in and anxious faces have been replaced with an abundance of smiles and happy greetings such as: "Morning miss, it's great here."

We take great care at St Mary's to ensure the transition from primary school to secondary school is as smooth and easy as possible for our youngsters.

The children had already spent a day with us prior to the summer holidays and met with their tutor group in addition to sampling some lessons.

Since their arrivals, looking very smart and grown-up in their brand new blazers, they have been given special care and attention by the staff.

Their form tutor is the one who sees to their everyday needs and helps to allay some of the fears and worries they have in high school.

The pupils have their own play area which fosters a feeling of security for them and for the first couple of weeks the subject teachers collect the pupils from this area and escort them to class so they don't need to worry about getting lost.

Towards the end of September we will have a Year 7 Friendship Day where the pupils will take part in a variety of activities along with their tutor to enable them to form friendships and build up their confidence and self-esteem.

This is always a most enjoyable day - a real turning point for our youngsters.

Above all, our aim is to ensure that all our Year 7s have a happy, secure and trouble-free start to secondary education.

The look on their faces, one week into their new school, tells me we are successful in achieving that goal.

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