Luca Viscalpi, a Year 6 student at YCIS Beijing, spoke with us about the apprehension and excitement that come with the move to Secondary School life. His current teacher, James Sweeney, talked a bit about his background: “While he is French, Luca has grown up in a wide range of places including Taiwan, New Zealand, and China. His passions vary greatly from football goalkeeping with the local club to international politics. He is an avid reader and cites Tolkien as a great inspiration. He enjoys creating his own countries and worlds just as Tolkien did. Furthermore, he is a gifted linguist who can speak Chinese, English and French fluently. His open-mindedness and creativity within the classroom and on the playground make him an exemplary student and representative of YCIS Beijing.” Check out his blog below!

What about next year is most exciting to you?I’d say probably the new subjects like Design and Technology, the new Co-curricular activities, the EduCafé, and “Hang Outs” at the end of every month. There are also many more chances to show you’ve grown up a bit and some new exciting responsibilities. Also, I’m excited about the fact that Secondary School is different in many ways and will be a change of pace from Primary School.

What are you most nervous about?Definitely the difference in the quantity and difficulty of homework. Also I’m very unexcited about the other responsibilities that we have no control over, such as lateness; sometimes we have absolutely no control over when others arrive on the bus or the amount of traffic.

What do you think the biggest change will be? How do you think life will be different from Primary School?I think the biggest change will be the fact that there will be a ton of new opportunities and the fact that our classes will be in different rooms. Life will be different because of the amount of homework and the different classrooms.

How will you adjust to these changes?I’ll do my best to keep track of my timetable, console myself with the EduCafé about the horrors of the homework that are about to descend upon me and study hard. If I do that, everything should work out fine, especially since I know I’ll have as good of teachers in Secondary as I did in Primary.

What advice have you received from your friends and teachers on how to handle the transition?I didn’t really receive much advice as my teacher told me that I am ready for Secondary School. However, I did hear someone say that it’s basically like moving to a new school. You have to adjust to the changes of different classrooms and different teachers the same way you have to make new friends and adjust to your new teachers when you go to your new school for the first time.

What was your favourite part of the Transition Day experience?I would have to say the Science class. I liked the fun and exciting experiments. I know that we’re going to write the theory about the experiments we do in Secondary but frankly one of my sole motivations as a kid to go to school is that I get to carry out the more thrilling bits of Science class like setting our hands on fire. I would also like to say, though, that this is only possible because of the great Science Department at our school.