The most wonderful P7 pupils from Brechin’s cluster primaries joined me in the library yesterday to create comics; ‘slam diaries’ about pupils’ transition to high school – their very own Diary of a Brechin Kid! 😀

Taking their inspiration from Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Wimpy Kid stories, pupils put pen to paper to help them visualise their hopes and (understandable) worries about moving up to ‘big school’. Story-boarding about hilarious PE kit malfunctions, exploding hot dogs and demonic bunsen burners, ‘sleeping in’ on their first day, getting lost on campus, being given detention by Mr Bathgate, calling the teacher ‘Mum’, shrinking school uniforms, and getting ‘swirlies’, helped pupils engage in a dialogue about their transition.

Pupils focused their diary entries on feelings – about wanting to be popular and have friends; being rubbish at sport or embarrassed about boyfriends/girlfriends; their worries about being bullied and laughed at; looking forward to fun things like scaling the climbing wall and joining new clubs; wondering which new curriculum subjects they’d like best – sciences, computing, history..?!

In the plenary, S6 pupil Bryony R., talked with pupils about their concerns, reassuring P7s that a junior/senior pupil ‘Buddy’ system is in place, along with an excellent Peer Mediation programme. Bryony told pupils how much she’d enjoyed her six years at Brechin High, how many good friends she’d made, and how no-one had ever been given the ‘cheese touch’ – or a swirlie! 😉

I was very impressed with the creativity on display; all our P7 pupils were a credit to their schools! Can’t wait to see you all again in August!

I’ll be posting scans of pupils’ work anon – watch this space! 🙂

Art credit: ©2012 Wimpy Kid, Inc.