Margaret Grant, guidance counsellor at the St. Michael's Secondary School, showing off one of the new chapters during the interview.
Give survival kit to graduating students
Guidance counsellor of the St. Michael’s Secondary School, Margaret Grant, has encouraged parents, primary school teachers and principals to give their graduating students “A Survival Kit” as a part of their graduating tokens.
Grant, who co-wrote the book “Entering Secondary School– A Survival Kit for Students” with Shauntee Walters, also a guidance counsellor, told The Barbados Advocate in a recent interview that she believed the book should be given to each student upon graduation, because it contains valuable information that could help with their transition to secondary school.
“We find that some schools only give it to their top students, but we believe that everyone deserves to experience the book in its entirety,” she said.
Grant revealed that having worked with children for a number of years, she realised that when primary school children transitioned to secondary school, they were not ready for the academic load that they were about to encounter.
“They are not emotionally comfortable; and then with all of these changes that they have to adapt to, both social and physical, a new system, and being separated from their friends and best friends, makes it hard for them to be comfortable enough to be focused on their work,” she explained.
Grant said that because of this restlessness, much of the work done in class “goes over their heads” and they are left behind, which means they would have to play “catch up” in class and eventually make their time at school a stressful one. She proposed having students use these books to help them combat their inevitable restlessness, so that they can have a seamless and successful transition into secondary school.
Grant revealed that since the first publication in 2009, they have had a new edition published last year.
“We added three new chapters in this new edition, because we realised they were important issues that needed to be addressed, such as bullying and making sure students understood the importance of saving their money from a young age,” she said.