“In the last year of Elementary we see many ghosts among the students, from the beginning of the course, many of them we have also created adults, because we tell them that they have the last year, they go to the adult school and that everything will change, the exams… and that doesn’t do them well,” says school director Julen Urkia Dunboa. “They will go from being the biggest in the center or cycle to being the smallest, which often gives them fear and concern,” adds Sergio González, director of the school Toki Alai. “We have to live the moments of each stage, and in the face of the new situations we all have expectations, change always brings concern, but the changes sometimes come well, it is a matter of lowering the pressure in that transition, pressure that often comes from the academic environment, thinking that they will have academic difficulties,” concludes ESO director Otsanda Tolosa Toki Alai.

All three have interviewed Aitziber Zapirain in Antxeta Irratia (listening to audio in this link) and explained the project they have developed in collaboration: Students from Dunboa and Toki Alai Elementary Schools jump to the Toki Alai Institute that hosts the ESO (among the three schools there are about 1,300 students) and have a plan to mitigate this transition. “The students themselves tell us that they feel very protected in elementary school and that they are afraid to change the ESO, but they relax with the actions we do, little by little we get the goal”.

Bridge work between large and small students

The project focuses mainly on bringing pupils from different schools into contact and the mix is two-way: the students from the institute attend the two primary schools and the youngsters from the last grade of primary school approach the institute. 2, among others. The students of the ESO will tell the stories created by themselves to the Elementary classes, explain the games of robotics, prepare the Christmas postcards together, direct the works of the Elementary students the ESO ones, participate in the so-called exchange groups (each week the EP students meet in different groups and in them incorporate an ESO student, responsible for the corner) and the students of ESO. They emphasize that actions and relationships are fed throughout the course, from the first quarter to the last, understanding that the transition is short if left for the last quarter.

“FP students know more mature students, start the first relationships and are being very enriching experiences; when you make a first visit to the school and you go out listening to say ‘something like a jail you imagined from the outside’, but get inside and relax,” says Julen Urkia. The students of the ESO “care for themselves, when you make them protagonists get involved and give everything. Those of the second ESO also work with those of the first ESO, tell their experiences, in the reception plan,” adds Otsanda Tolosa. The three directors confirm that the result is being very good.

Of course, the relationship develops not only among the students, but also among the teachers, tutors and supervisors of the three centers. “In the face of this process that young people will experience, it is also necessary to transmit this information among adults and to explain and analyze each student’s casuistry, in order to respond well to future needs, even so that one teacher can turn to the other at the time as necessary,” explains Sergio González.

What about the transition of newcomers?

“We talk about the adaptation and transition from Primary to Secondary, and it is also very important to have a good reception plan with the newcomers to the city, to build bridges,” says Otsanda Tolosa. In Irun there is a lot of citizen transition and the reception should go beyond school, the city council should be a strategy to welcome these families. Many of our students have large backpacks, and sharing and knowing these experiences and bibliographies is very important, and also becoming aware of all that cultural diversity, because we all form a community.” Dunboa and Toki Alai are in the program of incorporation of centers with a high vulnerability rate, so they have “more and special” resources. “Irun is the reality of the city and our responsibility is to work with it, to provide good service and to help all families,” Urkia said.