For students starting secondary school (ages 11–13)
Part of the Positive School Culture Project — sharing research to help students, teachers, and schools create better experiences of starting secondary school.
Starting secondary school can feel exciting, but it can also feel uncertain. Some students quickly feel comfortable in their new school, while others take longer to find their place.
When you start secondary school, one thing often becomes clear quite quickly:Some lessons feel easier to speak in than others.
This can affect how confident students feel speaking in class, asking questions, and taking part in lessons.
In earlier posts in this guide, we explored how students help shape school culture, how belonging develops when people recognise and include one another, and how it can take time to feel settled when starting secondary school.
But school relationships are not only about friendships with other students — they also shape what happens in classrooms and around school.
When students start secondary school, they suddenly experience many different lessons and teachers. When students talk about their experiences of starting secondary school, they often describe how different lessons — and different teachers — can feel quite different.
In research where students were asked about their experiences of starting secondary school, many talked about how relationships with teachers shaped how comfortable they felt speaking or asking for help in different lessons. These patterns are especially noticeable during the transition to secondary school, when students are adjusting to new teachers and classroom expectations.
Because of this, many students begin to notice a pattern:
it can feel easier to share ideas or ask questions in some lessons than in others.
The patterns often build through small interactions over time, rather than one single moment.
Key ideas
- In some lessons it feels easier to ask questions or share ideas than in others.- This is often because trust and comfort develop differently over time.
This does not necessarily mean that some teachers care more than others. Often, it reflects how relationships between students and teachers develop over time, as well as differences in teaching styles, subjects, and the many things teachers are balancing during a lesson — rather than simply how much they care about their students.
Research across many schools has found something similar: when people trust one another in a lesson, it tends to feel easier to ask questions and take part.
You might want to pause and think about this:
• Just as some teachers may feel easier to talk to, some students also find it easier to speak up or ask questions than others.
• In the same way, people can feel easier to approach depending on how comfortable everyone feels.
• What might this mean for how students and teachers build relationships in different lessons?
Building trust at school and in classrooms often takes time and small moments of understanding from both students and teachers.
In research where students were asked about their experiences of starting secondary school, many described how certain teachers helped them feel more comfortable asking questions, sharing ideas, or asking for help.
Sometimes this happened because the teacher showed interest in students’ ideas. Sometimes it happened because the teacher noticed when someone was struggling. Sometimes it was simply because the teacher spoke to students in a friendly and respectful way.
One student explained how much a teacher could shape how a lesson felt:
'I like history and citizenship, but only because of my teacher.'
Students often mentioned small moments like:
• a teacher remembering their name
• a teacher noticing effort, not just correct answers
• a teacher explaining something again without making students feel embarrassed
• a teacher taking a moment to check how someone is doing
Moments like these can help students feel safe enough to speak, ask questions, and take part — and can be some of the first signs that trust is beginning to build. Many teachers try to create these kinds of moments deliberately, because they know that when students feel respected and recognised, learning becomes easier for everyone. This can make it easier for students to participate in lessons and feel more confident sharing their ideas.
Often, what makes a lesson feel easier to speak in is not one big moment, but a series of small interactions that build over time and help people feel more comfortable with each other.
Just as students help shape school culture through everyday actions, teachers also contribute through the ways they interact with students.
In the same way, students also influence how lessons feel through how they respond to one another’s ideas, show effort, and engage with the lesson. These interactions can help build a classroom where it feels easier for more people to take part. These experiences do not always develop in the same way for everyone, and some students may take longer to feel comfortable speaking in lessons.
When teachers listen carefully, recognise effort, and treat students with respect, it helps create lessons where students feel safe and confident to take part and try new things.
Students also play a role in these relationships. When students show effort or engage with lessons, it can also help teachers understand how best to support their class.
This is one reason why the same school can feel quite different depending on the lesson, the teacher, and the people around you.
As trust develops, even gradually, lessons can become places where more students feel able to ask questions, share ideas, and learn from mistakes.
Over time, students are not only building relationships, but also learning how to understand what different lessons expect from them.
Comments are not enabled on this page. This is to help keep this space safe for students. The ideas shared here are based on research with students, and your experiences matter. If something here connects with you, you might choose to talk about it with a teacher, parent, carer, or someone you trust.
This post is part of a short guide exploring students’ experiences of starting secondary school and how belonging develops during the Year 7 transition.
The Starting Secondary School Guide:
- You Shape School More Than You Think
Why Belonging Is Not Just About Having Friends
What If You Don’t Feel Like You Fit In (Yet) at Secondary School
Why Some Lessons Feel Easier to Speak In
Why Schools Have Rules — And Why They Sometimes Feel Hard
Why School Feels Different For Different People