St Swithun's Sevens

SEVENS AN INNOVATIVE, RESEARCH AND EXPERIENCE-BASED SEVEN-STAGE PROGRAMME TO HELP YEAR 7 BOARDERS THRIVE

INTRODUCTION

Our year 7s don’t merely survive their first year of boarding, they thrive: academically, socially, physically and mentally. Our specialist programme, run by staff with decades of experience in prep and senior schools, celebrates what year 7 children are capable of. Rather than being underestimated and humoured as the youngest girls in the school, our year 7s are valued and given the scope to apply their talents. Our expectations bring out the best in them. At the same time, their very natural anxieties about joining a new school are acknowledged and a whole carousel of research and experience-based strategies and daily, one-to-one personal care are deployed to help them settle in, build positive friendships, organise themselves, and just ‘do stuff ’.

Our year-long programme improves our year 7s’ knowledge of the world and their leadership skills. It develops their independence and resilience in preparation for moving on to their senior boarding houses. Most importantly, it teaches them how to build on success, celebrate achievement and live a healthy and fruitful life. It creates an environment where girls can make mistakes and learn from them, recognise and celebrate their own strengths and those of others and develop positive emotions and relationships.

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ST SWITHUN’S SEVENS

Seven stages of success make up our annual programme for Year 7s. But the support for a smooth and happy start to their boarding life begins before girls even join the school. House staff share their expertise with parents through a comprehensive parent handbook which provides suggestions, strategies and activities to carry out at home to prepare the girls for their transition to St Swithun’s.

Parents also take part in our New Girls’ Day where they can start to build their own friendships and networks.

The handbook is fabulous; it’s been my go-to the whole year. You have thought of all the little things before we even realised we needed to know them.

It’s so reassuring to feel we are in such experienced hands.

Parent

The seven stages of the St Swithun’s Sevens programme are not linear. Their introduction is layered in, but once started, each stage continues to run for the duration of the year and elements of all seven are still running at the end of the summer term.

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STAGE 1: SETTLING IN Our experience tells us that all pupils and their parents are most anxious about making friends, finding their way around school and the potential for homesickness. These are recognised as normal concerns and addressed in a sympathetic and reassuring way in our settling in stage. Our staff have specific training in helping year 7 girls to navigate these issues.

The girls are very busy in the early days in house, which serves both to distract them from any nervousness about boarding for the first time, as well as providing them with the opportunity to experience a breadth of new things and make friends. In the evening, each girl spends time individually with a member of the house staff, talking, confiding, processing and offloading feelings about the day, much as they would at home with their parents. This very individual, personal care is an ideal way to identify and prevent incipient worries becoming a problem. It is supplemented with techniques for achieving perspective: 25 Minutes to a Calmer You is an effective, experience-based strategy for alleviating homesickness and breathing techniques are used to regain equilibrium. In the first month, parents receive an e-mail every evening from the housemistress about what the girls have been doing throughout the day.

Each girl receives a beautifully handcrafted calendar when she arrives in the autumn term. Not only does this provide a visual guide to help girls who are missing home to pace themselves until the next family visit, but it is an opportunity for group activities such as writing in birthdays and other events which the girls then look forward to celebrating together.

Teddy Talks are used throughout the year to pre-empt issues such as homesickness. They are an opportunity for staff to suggest ways to navigate the challenges faced by girls of this age.

Thank you so much for your regular updates, your attentiveness to the children’s needs, your enthusiasm and your professional care. It is very much appreciated by my wife, myself and, most assuredly, our daughter.

Parent

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STAGE 2: FRIENDSHIPS Our programme to support year 7 girls in building positive friendships employs many of the principles of positive education and positive psychology. It is based on helping girls to identify their own character strengths and to recognise and acknowledge the strengths of others. The approach allows girls to build on these strengths, celebrate successes and learn from making mistakes in a supportive environment.

In the boarding house, activities are organised with girls from several dorms grouped together to achieve cross-pollination of friendships.

There is a weekly celebration of good deeds and kindness called the Jar of Dreams. Girls can nominate each other during the week and all nominations are read out with prizes including fairy lights.

There is also the Gratitude Postbox where girls can write down and post what they are grateful for in their friendships. These initiatives not only promote friendships but also create an appreciation of the power of positive actions and a sense that kindness is a strength.

Dinner party etiquette and the art of conversation are taught and then practised at end of term social events. House staff suggest ice-breakers and conversation prompts, and the girls are invited to find other children or staff members, including members of the school’s senior leadership team, to engage in small talk.

The practising of traditional manners is also at the forefront of what goes on in house. Good manners are reinforced in a humorous and kind way. Not only does this help to foster positive friendships in school, but it has also had a beneficial impact on family relationships and has produced some very good feedback.

Dinner party etiquette is the most fabulous innovation. I was a happy recipient of the girls’ conversation skills at last year’s end of term supper. I hope that we might continue this throughout the school.

Headmistress

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STAGE 3: ORGANISATION

One of the key objectives of the St Swithun’s Sevens programme is to prepare girls to embrace the opportunities available to them in their senior boarding houses and to lay the groundwork that will enable them to become independent and continue to thrive. The girls learn how to look after themselves and throughout the year they will be shown how to do their own laundry, manage their personal finances and make their beds, as well as how to organise their homework and work out what to take to class and back each day.

When they first arrive in the boarding house, girls are helped to find a place for all of their belongings. Thereafter every week there is a tidying competition which grows in cheerful competitiveness, fun and inventiveness as the year goes on. Dances, chants and disco balls have all become additions to this weekly team working challenge in the past. In addition to the much-coveted prizes, the weekly tidy-up is one of the things girls remember most fondly when they leave the house.

I am much better at managing my own time and prioritising than I was before, and I am learning how to be responsible for myself in a really fun way.

Year 7 boarder

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STAGE 4: DOING STUFF

Throughout their St Swithun’s career, there is a huge range of activities, clubs, trips and speaker visits to keep pupils busy in the morning before school, at break, at lunchtime, after school and at the weekends. Year 7s are welcomed and encouraged to take advantage of whole-school opportunities and are recruited by enthusiastic club members at the co-curricular fair which takes place in the autumn term. In addition, gap students in the Year 7 boarding house organise a special activity every day. With the emphasis on fun and interaction, girls might play cards, have a water fight, chat while they knit or play hide and seek.

At the weekend the girls are taught to cook simple meals in preparation for moving up to their senior boarding houses where they will gradually gain more independence. Omelettes, cheese croissants and bacon and eggs are popular features of the repertoire and the girls learn how to prepare them in the homely house kitchen.

Noodle nights are part of the folklore in the year 7 boarding house and girls regularly pop over from their senior boarding houses to recapture the fun.

I am overwhelmed at how St Swithun’s prepares girls for the modern world. I have seen a massive growth: confidence, resilience, independence and the courage to take on new interests and activities.

Parent

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STAGE 5: GAINING KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD

With so much activity in house, easy access to more opportunities in one place than they will probably ever have again, and an understandable focus on adapting to a new environment, our Year 7 boarders sometimes need a little help in maintaining and increasing their knowledge of what’s happening in the world.

Regular features like Word of the Day, Book of the Week and the very popular Woman of the Week are supplemented by discussions about current affairs and news stories led by knowledgeable and experienced house staff. International Days are also celebrated with food, traditions and culture from around the world.

I love your Woman of the Week feature, which is a great way to bring some not quite obvious names to attention. My favourites were St Princess Olga of Kyiv, and Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Parent

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STAGE 6: HEALTHY LIVING

Establishing the good habits to live a healthy and active life are layered into the St Swithun’s Sevens programme. School nurses, working out of the health centre, are part of the broader pastoral team supporting Year 7 boarders and providing the education to help them make good choices and to understand how their bodies change. The focus in the autumn term is on providing pupils with knowledge about nutrition and exercise. Throughout the year the experienced team makes a series of visits to the boarding house to provide gradually more sophisticated information as well as expertise on an individual basis including advice and support when periods start.

Cooled water is always on hand in house and healthy snacks are the first choice for communal celebrations, as prizes or to reward good behaviour. The girls are encouraged to exercise through fun initiatives like man hunt, fun netball, a dance or a water fight, in addition to curriculum PE and games lessons. By the end of the year, they will also have learned the importance of relaxation as part of a healthy lifestyle.

At times it seemed like your personal mission was to ensure the health of our daughter and we can never thank you enough for continually investing in her.

Parent

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STAGE 7: LEADERSHIP

There are leadership opportunities in the Year 7 boarding house from day one. The head and deputy head of house are genuinely important, coveted roles which are integrated into the smoothrunning of the house. Selection is made on the basis of a rigorous application and interview process.

Head of house works with the house staff on helping to make sure all the girls establish positive friendships. In practical terms this involves organising birthday celebrations and checking that everyone is included in activities and conversations.

The deputy head of house is the right hand woman of the assistant house mistress. This role focuses on the more domestic side of life in the house such as making sure mobile phones are handed in on time, organising the tidying of the dorms and checking that lights are off and blinds down at night, and that beds are made in the morning.

Opportunities for leadership are layered into the house structure throughout the year and are the final stage in increasing the independence and resilience of Year 7 boarders in preparation for moving on to their senior boarding houses.

Allowing the girls to challenge themselves in such a safe environment and in such good care is invaluable to their growth and self-belief.

Parent

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THE SEVEN STAGES OF SUCCESS The Year 7 programme at St Swithun’s is built on the experience and professional training of the housemistress and head of year, both of whom have considerable expertise in bringing out the best in Year 7 children in both prep and senior school environments.

Their philosophy combines a research-based approach, best practice implementation, tried and tested strategies and individual attention and care to every child, every day. The Sevens programme sits within the broader context of first-class pastoral care at St Swithun’s which embeds physical and mental well-being in the curriculum through innovative programmes and a professionally-qualified team.

WHAT DO PARENTS SAY ABOUT ST SWITHUN’S SEVENS?

It was heartening to observe her joy at seeing you when we arrived back at LeRoy. Thank you for welcoming the girls so warmly.

She is always so happy to be back with her friends when we drop her off.

You have enabled her to spread her wings and learn new skills wrapped in fun, laughter and security.

I want to thank you for creating such a wonderful place where my daughter spent the happiest year ever. To say she has enjoyed her time says nothing. She has loved it.

I hope you realise how much of a positive, caring, kind and supportive influence you have had on our family.

Thank you for your wise leadership.

St Swithun’s girls have a lot of opportunities to develop compassion for others and to broaden their viewpoint.

We love to see this.

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St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, SO21 1HA 01962 835700 office@stswithuns.com www.stswithuns.com Registered Charity Number 307335