Great, playful Studio Hato-designed tool for year six kids to express themselves

Year six is a tricky time to remember. Clearly we were too busy counting pogs, furtively worrying about training bras and forging detailed plans of how to marry Damon Albarn to forge many other remembrances. What it’s likely we’ve forgotten, then, is the terror of leaving for senior school and all that entailed – going from being a big fish (relatively) to a tiny one who suddenly felt a bit embarrassed about still wearing her hair in two plaits.

If only we’d had this gloriously playful site, Moving Up, from Studio Hato and Serpentine Galleries, which aims to help year sixes navigate the tempestuous and tear-filled waters of transitioning from primary to secondary school. Using beautiful little illustrations and animation by Mak Ying Ping, sound (designed by Stella Chung) and a simple interface, the site guides the user through a series of artist-led tasks that look to help the years sevens of the future express how they feel about the move. You get to draw faces, design characters, make them dance…it’s all so beautifully articulated that surely even the most “grown-up” of children would enjoy Moving Up.

Hell, it’s not even just fun for children, we’ve spent no small amount of time expressing ourselves through these irresistible characters this afternoon before it’s time to nip home in time for Zzzap on ITV and tuck into some potato smileys.