Mary’s Youth Club runs a Junior drop-in for young people aged 10-13 (currently on Mondays).
Mary’s is always welcoming and friendly, and the junior-only space supports young people in making new friends and trying new things in a safe space that’s accessible and low-risk. It removes the barriers and pressures that younger members can sometimes experience in an environment with older and more established members. The younger cohort can ask questions, have discussions and get information in appropriate language that caters to them and their peers.
The Junior Drop-In spans school years five to eight in school. A time where stress or worry is likely to form in the run-up to and during their SATs exams. And those in year six, soon to transition from primary to secondary school, face a significant change in their lives.
Members seek reassurance on both milestones from staff, leading to group discussions on how we can approach these challenges and changes positively.
Young people feel heard and understood by seeking ideas, feedback and advice from their peers and working through them collaboratively. They create their own support system and recognise a shared understanding amongst them all.
A positive example of this drop-in supporting young people with transition is with Tommy, Johnny and Lucy, friends who now attend the same secondary school. Tommy and Johnny joined Mary’s through the junior drop-in and soon became friends with Lucy. Lucy was already a member but attended a different local primary school.
Johnny and Tommy joined the youth club at the same time through a partnership with a nearby school. They were introduced to the centre with a lot of other classmates, which helped them to feel settled quickly. As a group, they fell into the swing of things, sharing the highs and lows of their day and their interests inside the school and out, and were all bouncing off each other, eager to share just one more anecdote.
However, Johnny and Tommy are very relaxed in their manner, preferring gaming and arts to sports; they dislike competition and sometimes become frustrated with the energy of others from school; they looked to the Junior Drop-In to explore new friendships with others that shared similar interests to them.
Johnny and Lucy attended other sessions outside of Junior Drop-in, so quickly became friends when they discovered they were both about to do their SATs and had started considering which secondary schools they’d go to.
Their friendship group developed with Tommy through the junior drop-in and they started collecting each other from school on their way up to the youth club. They were delighted to discover they would all be attending the same secondary school. Lucy said she felt better and less worried about the transition because “[she] knew Johnny and Tommy would be there.”
The summer holiday programme at Marys allowed these three friends to stay in touch and experience more things together, from roller coasters to camping. Their supportive friendship has given them confidence in new experiences.
Now in secondary school, they continue to attend the junior drop-in and enjoy seeing their friends who are still in primary school and filling us all in on what life is like in the ‘BIG’ school.
Members often describe Mary’s as a family, because we eat together, and seniors take a nurturing approach to the juniors, happy to walk them home once the evenings get dark. Through the activities at Mary’s, they know some young people in the years above them at school, and this has made the transition easier, knowing they aren’t far from a friendly face.
