‘Spring 2016 when I was a Year 7 student I applied to become a Buddy. Having personally made the transition from Primary to Secondary school I wanted to reach out and help the Year 6 students who were about to go through what I had experienced’, said Bethany.
From 39 original applications, 24 Year 7 Buddies were recruited, trained and then served for a whole year helping Year 6 students to prepare for transition and to find their feet throughout their first couple of terms at Emmanuel. This year, for the second year running, a smaller group of experienced Buddies were promoted to Senior Buddies, who not only help with the recruitment and training of the new Year 7 Buddies, but also handled other Buddy projects as well.
That’s where Holly, Bethany, Dylan, Nathan & Nassr were a year ago! Since then, they have developed their leadership skills even further and have proved an invaluable team. During the two Induction days, each Year 6 student is offered a choice from a wide variety of Enrichment activities and Senior Buddies play a vital role in the equitable allocation of the lunchtime activities, taking into consideration any students who didn’t get their first choice on day 1! Nassr commented, ‘it makes me sad when we haven’t been able to give all the Year 6s their first choice of enrichment activity’, which just goes to show how seriously our Senior Buddies take their responsibilities! The Buddies also create registers, posters and stickers so everyone knows exactly where they should be!
I make sure I meet regularly with the Senior Buddies to gather their views on how the organisation of our Transition events and Buddy training can be improved. They have come up with some great ideas which have really enhanced the Buddy role!
It has been a real joy and privilege to work alongside such dedicated and professional young leaders and we couldn’t have offered such a great Buddy support without them – Mrs Hill (Student support Mentor – with responsibility for Transition).
