P7 Transition

Welcome

Dear Parents and carers,

The entire team and I at Liberton High School are delighted to be welcoming your child to our school community in this forthcoming year. We understand that along with your child feeling excited about new subjects, new teachers, and finding out who will be in their new classes, they may also be a little apprehensive or anxious about the changes that lie ahead when moving from primary to secondary. Our transition process is designed to alleviate any worries and address any concerns that you or your child may have, in advance of them joining us officially in August.

We are pleased to be offering a 3-day visit for all Primary 7 pupils from Tuesday 16^th – Thursday 18^th June. This allows young people to become familiar with our school building, to be introduced to many of our teachers, and to learn about the routines of our school day here at Liberton High School.

In addition to the 3-day visit, we have already been working in partnership with our primary colleagues at your child’s school, and we continue to gather all of the information needed to make sure that we know your child and are able to support your child’s learning and wellbeing from their first day at our school. We aim to make the transition as smooth a process as possible for your child and for you as parents and carers.

We are all very proud of the success of our school and are dedicated to serving the needs of our community. We are determined to ensure that every single young person will have the very best start in life; go on to achieve excellent qualifications and ensure that they are best placed to realise their dreams and aspirations.

The experience of moving from primary to secondary school is a key milestone in the lives of our young people, and it should be exciting and enjoyable. I look forward to meeting our new learners, and to seeing them forming new friendships that may last a lifetime, engaging with their learning, and becoming active members of the Liberton community.  I very much look forward to working with you to get it right for your child and our wider community.

Kind regards,

Alison Humphreys
Headteacher

August 2025 – June 2026
Ongoing process of information sharing between Liberton High School (LHS) and Primary Schools in our Learning Community about P7 pupils.

LHS Pupil Support teachers attend Child Planning Meetings for pupils with Additional Support Needs (ASN).

October – November 2025
LHS P7 Open Evening for Parents and P7 pupils
Tuesday 7th October
5-7pm

September 25 – March 26
Regular Friday morning visits by groups of P7 pupils to take part in taster lessons put on by LHS subject faculties – organised by Cluster P7 Transition Teacher.

Range of LHS Curricular lessons begin at local Primary Schools for years P6 and P7 continuing throughout the year.

Programme of Enhanced 1:1 Transition visits begin for pupils with significant Additional Support Needs (ASN) and supported by Additional Support for Learning Service

What will my classes be like?

We will be making up classes when the City of Edinburgh give us our provisional allocation list early in the new year. We have been working with your P7 teachers to find out about you as a learner and as a person. This shared information is crucial and allows us to fully support you as you move into secondary school. In addition, we have asked all our P7’s to complete a ‘Pupil Profile’ to help us get to know you all a little better. The Profile has been designed specifically to capture your voice, allowing you to share your information, ask questions and identify people you feel that you work well with. We will use this work – alongside information shared by teachers – to create classes for next session.

All pupils will be placed in a “non-practical class” for classroom-based classes like English, History, Geography (up to 33 pupils) and a “practical class” for subjects like Science, CDT and Music (up to 20 pupils). Therefore, your time will be split across your practical/non-practical classes each week.

Mrs Marshall
Depute Head Teacher – with responsibility for Primary Transition

School Uniform

We are very proud of our school dress code. It offers our school community a sense of belonging and togetherness. It also promotes a climate for learning and achieving.

Almost all young people attend Liberton HS every day dressed in uniform. We try very hard to maintain this and work in partnership with parents and young people to make sure dress code is adhered to.  In advance of the new ‘Liberton High School Learning Campus’, which is due for completion in early 2026, we undertook a consultation around what pupils and families would like as our school uniform. This is what was agreed:

What will my timetable look like?

The day starts at 8.30 and finishes at 3.30, except on Fridays where we finish at 12.15 There are 7 periods on a Monday to Thursday and 4 periods on a Friday.  Each day Monday through Friday begins with a ten-minute House class. This is where you will begin your day with your House teacher, ensure you are registered as present and receive all information for the day before you begin your first curricular class at 8.40am.

In S1 you will continue with you Broad General Education. This means you will have a wide variety of different classes delivered by different departments across the school.

Guidance Teachers & House Groups

Why am I placed in a “HOUSE Group”? And what is a Guidance Teacher?

This may be something you have experienced in primary school. House Groups are another way for you to belong at Liberton High School and give you an added identity. There are currently three House groups at Liberton – Tay House, Dee House and Forth House. Each House is led by a Guidance Teacher who will stay with you until you leave school, providing you and your family continuity. House groups are a way for us to look after you and will provide you with opportunities to work alongside others in years (S1-6) in various House events. Where possible we will aim to try and place you in the same House as siblings who attend LHS as the Guidance teacher will already have a well-established relationship with home. For most, the Guidance Teacher will be the key point of contact between the school and home. Guidance teachers are part of the Pupil Support Team, and they have responsibility for pastoral care of pupils in their House. Guidance Teachers also meet their classes for Personal Social Education (PSE) class each week to build a relationship and work on key areas to support you in achieving your absolute best during their time at LHS.  This will include supporting engagement in learning, wider achievement opportunities, promoting positive relationships, wellbeing and attendance in order to provide a framework for success during your time at Liberton High School.

Guidance Teachers at LHS

Tay House – Miss Jacobs, Mr Margill
Dee House – Miss Binnie-Tkacz
Forth House – Mr Mackie

*We also have a fourth Guidance teacher Miss Hand who works with our S5 and S6 pupils.

Support for Learning

As part of the transition process our primary colleagues have already passed on information about the specific learning needs of P7s. If your child has had support for their learning this is likely to continue but may look different in a secondary setting. There are many different forms of support available. If you have attended Child Planning Meetings the chances are our SfL team will have met you already. All our teaching staff have access to a central database containing all learning needs, barriers and strategies to support learners. This is updated with all our new S1 information each year and regularly throughout the year as we build up more information or as needs change.