SERVICE DETAILS
What is Positive Transitions?
Positive Transitions supports children, young people and their families in the transition from primary and secondary school across Edinburgh and the Lothians. The service is designed to support them to feel valued and understood, improve their self-esteem and peer relationships, and enable them to fulfil their potential.
Our work with children and young people began in 2014 when we consulted over 700 young people about what it’s like to live in Edinburgh. The transition to secondary school was one of the biggest challenges young people faced, and the area we chose to focus on first. Our work was established as the ‘Positive Transitions’ service in 2016.
Interventions
Positive Transitions spans across a wide range of interventions that offer support both on a one-to-one basis and through group projects. We provide holistic support and youth work that aims to support not just children and young people, but also their parents, carers and families. We do this by working directly with schools, teachers, families and other agencies to identify and offer the most suitable and appropriate support, as well as collaborating with social work and arts therapies programmes in universities across Scotland.
Youth & Family Work...
We support children, young people and families through one-to-one support and sessions that are designed based on the experiences and input of young people themselves. Themes range from art, sports, music, science, transitions and more!
Befriending...
Befriending matches young people with a befriender, providing them with a positive role model and a safe environment to chat and engage in activities based on their interests, including arts, crafts, science, cooking and games.
Family Support...
We support families and help young people to engage with family, schools and the community. We host social work students on placement from universities across Scotland who consider the needs of the young people, and how best to support them.
Arts Therapies...
Arts Therapies provide opportunities for young people to explore and express their emotions through the arts. We host students on placement from universities across Scotland who provide a supportive environment in which to use a range of materials and artistic methods.
Action-research
We've partnered with the University of Edinburgh on a multi-disciplinary participatory action-research project on positive school transitions.
Using our learning from delivering Positive Transitions, the project will evaluate and reflect on what makes a positive transition, with the aim of creating a model of practice that can influence and improve pupil transitions into secondary school across the country. Findings will also enhance theories on school transition, and explore intersecting issues such as class, ethnicity, gender, culture and disability, to ensure any practice model meets the needs of all children and their families.
Find support...
Make a referral to Positive Transitions
If you want to make a referral to Positive Transitions get in touch today! Whether you're a parent, carer, school or young person, you can contact us about making a referral. Together we'll discuss specific requirements and identify the right support.
Please note that we're currently receiving a high volume of emails and that response times may be longer than usual.
Make a referral by emailing positive.transitions@peopleknowhow.org.
Collaborate...
Work with us to ensure positive transitions
If you're a school, individual, organisation or community group interested in collaborating with us, we'd love to hear from you. Whether you want to chat about delivering Positive Transitions in your school or learn more about our action-research project, please get in touch.
Contact us at https://peopleknowhow.org/contact-us.
