************************* A staggering 250 young people will be using the main stage at York Theatre Royal on Tuesday 3 July as part of The Transition Project, an exciting joint initiative between York Theatre Royal and City of York’s Arts Education department that explores the transition process and the feelings that pupils experience by moving from primary to secondary school. York Theatre Royal has been working closely with six local schools this year as part of the PET Project (Partnership in Education and Theatre), which is one of many educational initiatives that the Theatre has developed during 2006/7. The schools are all working on this exciting new project that explores the subject of transition from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3. For this year’s project, the Theatre has been working with all three of our partnership (PET) primaries, Acomb, Dringhouses and Knavesmire and PET secondaries Oaklands as well as Lowfield and Millthorpe. Pupils from Year 6 will work on creating their own short piece of drama based upon a theme of transition ranging from Identity to Bullying; the Year 7 group will then create a response piece addressing their fears and concerns. The Transition Project fulfils one of the government’s national priorities for education by providing creative and meaningful ways of supporting young people through this significant change. The project will culminate on Tuesday 3rd July with an afternoon of performances in York Theatre Royal’s main auditorium, where a film documenting of the process of the project will be shown alongside the Children’s performances. Last year nearly 300 hundred young people discussed the topic of the transition from primary to secondary school and worked their feelings and experiences into short theatre performances. These professionally directed pieces were then performed on the main stage at York Theatre Royal. Julian Ollive, Transitions Co-ordinator, said “Transitions offers young people in Year 6 an opportunity to express their fears, concerns and hopes for what is arguably the first major step in their lives. By working creatively to express these thoughts the young people get to realise that they are not alone in their feelings and hearing the experiences of the Year 7 pupils helps them to realise that there are constructive ways of dealing with and overcoming their fears. We are also delighted that this project is supported by Provident Financial Plc “ It is expected that on the day of performance upward of 500 people will visit York Theatre Royal to watch, celebrate and support the process the young people have undertaken. **************************