Transitions – CAMHS

For many children and young people who are Neurodiverse, changes and transitions can be difficult to manage. If your child is worried about going back to school following Coronavirus, or is apprehensive about moving up to secondary school, here are a collection of useful websites with resources that may be able to help.

Going Back to School

Stars are a team of autism specialists who offer advice and training to mainstream settings. Working in early years settings, primary schools and secondary schools.

The Specialist Training in Autism and Raising Standards (‘STARS’) and ‘Do-IT Profiler’ websites have visual resources (e.g. Social Stories) for children and young people going back to school following Coronavirus.

STARS are accredited by the National Autistic Society.

Post Covid-19 School Resources

Survive, Revive, Thrive

We also recommend looking at your child’s school website, as many of them have information explaining what going to school will be like in light of the different measures they have put in place, for example see link below:

Thorogate School Website

The National Autistic Society has lots of helpful resource and information about starting or switching schools:

The National Autistic Society

Mentally Healthy Schools run by The Anna Freud Centre have made a coronavirus toolkit to help with children managing transitions:

Mentally Healthy Schools

Moving Up to Secondary School

The transition from primary to secondary school is a major change in any young person’s life. It may involve travelling to a new area as well as other changes, such as:

Larger class sizes
Different teachers for different subjects
A new building
New timetables
New routines, e.g. at dinnertime’s

Here is a sound map designed to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder get used to the different sounds they might hear around the school:

Autism Spectrum Disorder Sound Map

We also recommend looking at your child’s secondary school website, as many of them have web pages that are dedicated to transitioning, for example:

Dinnington Transition Portal

Some schools have also uploaded ‘meet the teacher’ videos onto their websites, for example:

Maltby Academy Year 6 Transitions

Other schools have also uploaded virtual tours of the school onto their websites, for example:

Wingfield Academy Virtual Tour

Jessi’s Story: Starting Secondary School with Autism

The video below tells the story of a young person with Autism who has an extraordinary way of dealing with her emotions about starting secondary school:

Watch: Jessi’s Story: Starting Secondary School with Autism