As we have done in each of the past five years, we met with all of our youngest students in December to discuss how their transition to high school has gone. We identified the things students were wondering or perhaps anxious about before coming to Richmond Secondary School and how they are feeling after their first three months of Grade 8. Students also completed a 20-statement survey that included some open-ended questions at the end.  Some interesting results:

95% of Grade 8s strongly agreed or agreed that "they have made a successful transition from Grade 7 to high school".

99% of Grade 8s strongly agreed or agreed that "they feel safe at Richmond Secondary School."

97% of Grade 8s strongly agreed or agreed that "learning and doing my best are important to me."

In the open-ended section, students were asked "What does resilience mean to you?" and "What strategies do you use to be resilient?" Responses revealed that most of our youngest students are familiar with the word, many understand the concept, but some struggled to identify strategies or are unclear on how to develop their resiliency.  Examples included:

It means to keep going, even if things get dark. I do this by reassuring myself that I can do this if I feel like I am struggling.

It means to stay with it. I organize my time carefully and I have made a study chart. This helps me a lot.

Resiliency means not to give up and believe in yourself. I try to reinforce positive self-talk to build my resiliency.

Resiliency means to get back up. If you do not do well on a test, do not get extremely discouraged, but try to improve the next  time. I try to remember this every day that I come to school.

Resilience to me means the ability to withstand the pressures that may come your way in the academic, social and other realms found in schools. To me, time management is key to being resilient to academic pressures. I do not have any strategies in the social realm.

It means to ask for help when you need it and not give up easily.

Resiliency is to not give up. If something is not going well one way, then try a different way. 

Being resilient means to not give up on yourself. I am not really sure how to do this, as school is hard sometimes and I feel like giving up.