Back to School with Astrology: Transition Edition

Pupils born between 1 September 2006 and 31 August 2007 will be gearing up to start secondary school in September. The transition process from primary school to secondary school is exciting but can be a worry for teachers, parents and especially the pupils. Welcome to Back to School: Transition Edition!

I’m a real teacher. I’m also a real astrologer. And this is my real advice for parents and teachers who are preparing their children/pupils for the first year of secondary school.

That Transition Gap

Studies show that pupils who are new to secondary school experience a dip in academic performance.

All teachers are aware and expect the transition gap. Educational administrators scratch their heads continuously over the transition gap but don’t do anything about it.

For pupils leaving their familiar primary school, starting secondary school can be a bit of a shock to the system, just one cause of this dip. The other cause for this dip in academic performance is the lack of interface between primary school and secondary school.

Strong support networks need to be in place to help these children cope with this process to avoid lack of progress or even regression.

Astrology can tackle the transition gap by creating an awareness of learning styles and by addressing fears.

All Change: Transition

Here are just a few things new year 7s will have to contend with:

• A much bigger school building. Lots of opportunities for getting lost
• Far bigger cohort of peers. Lots of new friends and old friends feeling rejected
• More teachers. And they all have a different specialism and different styles
• More lessons and more opportunities to try new things
• A different uniform. For boys, it might involve wearing a tie and for girls it might involve wearing tights. Both items need some getting used to
• Being the youngest in the school.  Year 11s can seem pretty scary
• Taking public transport to school. The potential to get lost (or distracted) increases
• Homework. There will be more if it
• New rules—and many are different to what they experienced in primary school
• Deadlines, pressures, decisions and a need to be more organised
• For children with specific needs, it can seem like they have to start all over again

For parents, it can be an anxious time as well: how will their little one cope with all these changes?

For teachers, learning the names of hundreds of new pupils can add a new dimension of difficulties to an already demanding job. And that’s not even adding into the equation the challenge of learning what these pupils can do or how they learn! This unfamiliarity can contribute to the customary dip in academic performance.

Fortunately, a little astrological knowledge can help ease this complicated process.

Jupiter Return

At some point during the academic year, these learners will experience their first Jupiter return: Jupiter will return to the same point it was in their natal chart. And if you understand anything about Jupiter, then you will understand why teaching year 7s can be as mad as a box of spiders.

A Jupiter return simply means a person will welcome new experiences, take to new opportunities, will be optimistic about their future, fascinated with new belief systems and extra excited about growing up.

This pretty much means the transition process, from an astrological perspective, is entirely age appropriate and these children are ready for it. It just takes a little faith on the part of the adults to help them through it. The kids will be absolutely fine. Having said this, astrology can help take the sting out of growing if parents and carers are aware of developmental stages.

By the way, Jupiter returns for pupils start taking place just after the first half term of the new academic year. This helps explain why year 7s are such angels for the first few weeks and then start getting out of control as the academic year wears on as more and more pupils reach their Jupiter return.

Specific issues for this cohort

With most non-astrologers only being aware of astrology through Sun Sign columns in newspapers, it takes a bit of a leap of faith to understand one fact about Jupiter and the transition process: the pupils, for the most part, will all have Jupiter in Sagittarius and Saturn in Leo This immediately gives an astrological signature to the entire cohort.

To be more specific, Jupiter was in Scorpio from until 26 October 2005 and then moved into Sagittarius on 24 November 2006. So children born before 24 November 2006 have Jupiter in Scorpio and those born afterwards have Jupiter in Sagittarius. Therefore the majority of learners have Jupiter in Sagittarius Pro tip: put pupils’ names in your mark book by date of birth rather than alphabetical order).

Remember you will have 1/3 of your learner with Jupiter in Scorpio. These pupils thrive on research, “dark material” and life or death dramas (if you don’t give it to them, they’ll create them). Knowing which pupils have Jupiter in Scorpio and which have Jupiter in Sagittarius is really useful for drawing up seating plans. Pro tip: Ofsted LOVE it when you justify your decisions with consideration for learning style.

Saturn was in Leo from 16 July 2005 and remains in that sign until 2 September 2007 when it moves into Virgo. All children in this academic cohort have Saturn in Leo.

Jupiter for the Win

Sagittarius is a mutable sign and is ruled by the planet that rules adventure and learning, Jupiter. As all the mutable signs are ruled by Jupiter or Mercury, one could be lulled into thinking children born with Jupiter in these signs are a dream to teach. In my experience, I have found they are very sensitive about academic performance and are easily discouraged if they think they are not progressing as they should.

Sagittarius is also a fire sign. Think wild horses when teaching them. Yes they have a lot of energy but they also need a lot of training. They need to trust you to keep them safe. As a teacher, you need to know when to hit the accelerator and when to hit the brakes.

What excites these learners? A good argument! Get them debating about law, religion and travel. What bores them? Careful analysis, intensive scrutiny of minutiae details and staying in their seats and being quiet (although this might appeal to the Jupiter in Scorpio pupils). Shake up your lesson plans with lots of variety and try not to take anything this group says personally.

If you’re a parent, this is a great year to take your child on a foreign holiday, get them interested in speaking different languages and if you’re of the inclination (don’t let YOUR Saturn get in the way), let them explore their spirituality. If you really want your child to get the most out their free education, work with the school and don’t expect the teachers to raise your child for you.

Saturn for the Grounding

Saturn has a bad reputation as being the misery guts of the zodiac. But if you understand how he wants to be honoured, you can see he’s actually a good guy. Understand him and you understand success and achievement.

Saturn in Leo is a fixed sign and its ruled by the Sun. This is where putting your mark books in birth order comes in handy: you can easily see your pupils’ sun sign. This helps you pinpoint where the child’s sensitivity is. By the way, it’s pretty consistently shown that the younger children in any cohort have more issues with behaviour. It’s because they are immature compared to the older children. An awareness of this can be very helpful for all concerned.

Saturn in Leo is pretty tough on the ego. Little comments made in passing can have a devastating effect on a child that not even the buoyancy of Jupiter in Sagittarius can override. When giving advice or correcting mistakes, make sure to focus on the problem, not the child. If you’re a teacher, be careful of what you say at parents’ evenings.

The Really Good News

Fortunately, for children who have been allowed to develop poor habits like letting “honesty” get in the way of good manners, the neurological developments that occur during adolescence means there is a second opportunity to instil positive life choices for this group. And guess what?

Because they are so willing to try new things at this moment in their lives, all it takes is a bit of coordination between home and school to set these new habits for a lifetime.

Astrology in Education: Transition Edition

1. These pupils enjoy a good argument.  Let them observe any one side of a debate and get them to answer the other side
2. “Carousel Learning” by having 4 or 5 different activities on offer. Have a timer and get them to move to a new activity. Planned well, you can extend these activities to last for weeks.
3. Discourage outright rudeness. These guys need to know when to be honest and when to leave “truth” out of discussions.
4. These learners need to have clearly defined roles within groups. Delegate roles such as “leader”, “presenter”, “timekeeper”, “administrator” and “artist”. This makes differentiation clear and obvious (which makes Ofsted happy too).
5. Hook these pupils into your lesson by putting a controversial statement on the board. Make the time they have for discussion explicit.
6. Sports! By God this group has a lot of energy. If I were curricular mapping for this cohort, I’d get sports specialists in. They’d be outside playing football during Maths and then would come back inside and do some sporting statistics. They’d be reciting poetry whilst running laps. . .
7. Spirituality! I’ve learned that all kids love yoga and meditation. Get them volunteering for organisations such as the Salvation Army or other religious groups (I’d get them hanging out with the Hare Krishnas if I could get away with it).
8. These pupils also need to develop a strong sense of self. If they seem reluctant to perform, give them lots of assurances. You must have clear ground rules for all activities and a strong anti bullying policy.
9. Oh and if you’re the kind of teacher who rolls out of bed and into the classroom. . .relax, you can get away with it. Just bring some coffee to keep your energy levels up.

Yes I’m a real teacher

These bullet points are simplifications (one or two are tongue in cheek) that can be used in a classroom by any teacher.  One of the things I loved most about being a teacher was learning alongside of my pupils. Anything can be brought into the learning process so as long as you are enthusiastic and unafraid to take risks by playing the fool (I was always good at that part), year 7 pupils will follow along too. In my career as a History teacher, I used meditation, yoga, singing, dressing up and games of all sorts to keep pupils interested.

Further refinement on this astrological signature can be found by looking at the individual chart of the pupil which needs to be done by a professional astrologer. If you’re interested in more individualised information from a professional astrologer and teacher, leave a comment or send me an email at: alex.trenoweth@gmail.com

Want to hear more? Why not buy the book “Growing Pains”? Orders here