DURHAM Johnston students come from a wide area in and around the city, including Bowburn, Coxhoe, Brandon, Meadowfield, Shincliffe and Langley Moor.

One of the worries that new students have is how they are going to travel to school.

Year Six children are not very experienced at catching buses without adults to tell them what to do.

When we heard that some spent all six weeks of their holiday worrying about the bus on the first day of school, we decided to act.

We matched every member of year six to a "buddy" in Year Seven who lived close to them. This way we could arrange for Year Six pupils to catch the school buses, or walk to school with a more experienced person on induction day in July.

Our Year Seven pupils wrote to their buddies as part of their English lessons, and produced their letters as part of the ICT training.

They visited their new friends and made all the necessary arrangements for the big day.

Induction day was a huge success - all the pairs of buddies arrived safely and all the fears were allayed.

Lots of young people made new friends and were able to use their experiences for the good of others.

Everyone agrees we should make the buddy day part of the Johnston calendar.

As one family said: "It made all the difference. Our son was able to face the challenge of a new school with confidence, secure that he had a friend who would look after him."

The youngsters themselves said: "It's great to do something really important for ourselves."

Keely, who buddied Amy, went to see her in the summer holidays and made sure going to "the big school" was not worrying her. The girls are still "buddies" and walk to school together every day.