Starting Secondary School

Starting Secondary School can be an exciting but also a daunting time.  For many young people, moving from Primary School, meeting new people, making new friends, and starting new subjects in unfamiliar surroundings can be unsettling.

Change can be extremely exciting, but for those young people who stammer we understand this can be a worrying and stressful time.  However, we know from speaking regularly to our ASC Youth Panel that it needn’t be, and they had some real life tips for starting in your new school.

Before you Start/Day 1

With you parents/carers, speak to the school about your stammer, your worries and the support that you had in place that helped you at your primary school.  It’s important that your form tutor is aware of your stammer, and they can speak and work with your subject teachers to make them aware of your stammer, and how you would like them to support you.  The tips by the older young people on the ASC Youth Panel who are now at university is to:

“I think it’s important to tell people, especially teachers, so that hopefully if they have students who stammer in the future they’ll be able to help them better.”

 “The key thing is being open about my stammer. When you keep it in it becomes this huge thing, but when you tell people you realise how much it isn’t at all.”

 “People can help you, but at the end of the day you need to help yourself too. I choose to believe in myself.”