Biddick Academy — A Year 7 transition book that welcomes 1,000 new students every September

The brief

Biddick Academy came to us in 2021 for a transition book that would carry every incoming Year 7 across the threshold from primary to secondary — not a leaflet to be read once and recycled, but a working book the student would actually open in their first lessons.
The team had a clear picture of what that first week should feel like. Students arriving at secondary often spend the early weeks anxious, holding two schools in their head at once — what they're leaving behind and what's coming next. The leadership team wanted the book to acknowledge that directly, with space to write down what they'd miss about primary and what they were looking forward to at Biddick, before the curriculum content begins.
The book also needed to land students into the academic step-up that secondary English brings — the new vocabulary of concepts like allusion, appearance vs reality, conflict in literature, marginalisation, gender and social class — and to give them a place to log the spellings they get wrong, so the habit of self-correction starts on day one.
The school's four values — Aspiration, Resilience, Readiness, Curiosity — needed to sit on the cover, visible from the moment the book lands on the desk.

What we designed

Working with Biddick, we built a Year 7 transition book that opens warm and tightens into the work.

A welcome cover with the four values — Aspiration, Resilience, Readiness, Curiosity — running along the bottom, and three friendly messages above an illustration of four Biddick students in uniform: We can't wait to meet you!, We are looking forward to you joining us!, Your journey of learning continues.
A reflection page giving new students three open prompts to fill in before term begins: Things I need to remember…, What I will miss about primary school…, What I'm looking forward to at my new school… — acknowledging both sides of the move.
An English Key Concepts spread introducing the conceptual vocabulary students will meet across the curriculum — allusion (historical, literary, classical, biblical), appearance vs reality, conflict in literature (the five types — character vs self, character vs character, character vs nature, character vs society, character vs supernatural), marginalisation, inequality and injustice, social class and gender — each with a clear definition so students arrive at their first English lesson already familiar with the terms.
A "My Misspelt Words" log so students have one fixed place to record the words they keep getting wrong from their first day onwards, rather than scattering them through exercise books.
A reference page of the 200 most commonly misspelled words — absence, accommodate, achieve, acquire, address, definitely, embarrass, environment, knowledge, neighbour, occurred, possess, recommend, separate, weird and the rest — printed alphabetically and headlined with a self-corrected joke ("THE 200 MOST COMONLY COMMONLY MISSPELLED WORDS") that lands the point.
A dotted "My Notes" page for ideas, plans or anything else worth holding onto across the transition.

The finished book

1,000 transition books land at Biddick Academy every September — one for every new Year 7 — and the school has reordered for every cohort since 2021. Every new student arrives on day one holding the same book, opening on the same welcome, the same reflection on what they're leaving and where they're going, and the same English concepts and spelling reference they'll lean on through their first year.