Two case study pupils Sylvia and Adam

The two case study pupils presented below were chosen because their situations reflected clearly what their respective two schools had put into place for a smooth and happy transition. Both pupils arrived at secondary school without any primary school friends and needed to settle into the new environment on their own in that respect. In the one case the primary and secondary schools are involved in a closely run local network of schools in a medium-sized country market town, exemplifying an inter-school communication system which puts transition at the level of local school impetus. In the other case the primary and secondary schools are located far from each other in different towns and Local Authorities, so these schools have no established inter-school communication links at all. The one secondary school is virtually all- white with few minority ethnic or EAL pupils. The other school has a wide mix of ethnicities among its pupils. All four schools have in place a range of events and teaching experiences to ensure a good transition experience for the pupils.

Sylvia

Sylvia comes from a white, professional, non-manual higher (but not highest) socio-economic status home where both her parents are professional, non-manual employees and have an au- pair looking after Sylvia and her younger sister who was still in primary school. Sylvia has higher than average cognitive ability and is keen on good achievement in school. In the market town where they live, the two secondary schools and fourteen primary schools have formed a partnership that involves regular meetings between the head teachers of all sixteen schools and they also have subject teacher meetings. The teacher in charge of transition at Sylvia’s primary schools was, at the time of the interview with her, in charge of the task of co-ordinating assessment across the consortium which meant a great of liaising with and between schools. The two secondary schools in the town have different specialisms and according to the experience of the primary teacher, although they are in some competition with each other for student intake, the competition does not hamper communication between the two schools. For instance they coordinated Open Days to coincide with each other which was a great help for the primary schools.

The secondary school was Sylvia’s first choice school in a small town where there are two successful secondary schools that are less than two miles apart. All of her friends went to the other secondary which is closer to her primary school. Her secondary school is closer to where she lives, however, being just down the same road. She expected that she would be very small where everyone else would be really big and wondered about making new friends. The majority of her primary class were going to the other local secondary school but she did not mind much. She explained that by saying that she was interested in a new experience and that if she was ‘friends with them in Year 6 but didn’t really talk to them in Year 7’ then she would know they were not really such a friend because they have not stayed in touch. She has stayed in touch with really good friends who are at the other school and has made new friends. If she has problems she can talk to the Head of Year (Learning Community) or her form tutor who has solved a minor problem she had with a student who would not cooperate during pair work. She was worried about getting lost in the new school but a teaching assistant accompanied the form group around to lessons the first weeks and they soon found their way around the school.

In primary school Sylvia remembers her teacher warning them about the consequences of poor behaviour in secondary school, about remembering to do homework on time and about working hard in Year 7 so they would be in good groups in Year 8. The teacher talked about the kind of class work they would be doing in secondary school and about having different teachers and that some teachers would enforce seating plans. She could not remember what might have been said about making new friends.

Sylvia remembers two visits to the secondary school. These were useful because she arrived at the secondary school knowing what the school looked like and who was in her form. Her form tutor asked her when she was new to look after a girl who had moved from London and knew no

one. They are now best friends. She made other friends with people in her tutor group. She thinks that teachers purposefully seat people next to each other so they can get to know each other. Teachers also move people around in lessons so it is possible to get to know other people. Staying together as a tutor group at the beginning of year 7 helps with settling in by giving the pupils the feeling that they know at least someone. School outings and her music activities give Sylvia opportunities to make friends in other year groups and other tutor groups. Mathematics has been the hardest for her to get used to but she has friends she can ask, or her teacher or her father. Drama was the easiest because they started new, having never done it in primary school. History was also easiest because it did not really matter if you did not know something because the teacher went over things. At the beginning of Year 7 there was a lot more work but now toward the end of the year there was not so much, she thinks. Some subjects are harder than others, for instance the new vocabulary in Geography. The teacher helps by writing the words on the board. She does not feel like she is repeating work although they sometimes go over things in lessons. She feels that many lessons in secondary have the same sort of lesson structure as in primary. She is comfortable with having different teachers. She has made best progress in English and Art. However, she no longer puts her hand up because she rarely gets called on so she volunteers less than she did in primary school. Primary school work was easier but she likes secondary work nevertheless and her only worry is about which sets she will be in in Year 8.

Sylvia recognises that setting is complex because ‘sometimes you know some of it like in Mathematics but have trouble understanding other things’. She is on her own in Technology lessons and likes them the least because pupils are put into partners and she does not have any friends there so she is never working with a friend. Her advice to pupils coming up from her old primary school is that they should not be worried: ‘you will get help and get used to secondary’. They should not worry about making new friends because ‘everyone is really friendly’. Looking at her questionnaire and interview responses, Sylvia’s most important issue with regard to transition was making new friends; however, she feels she has done this quite successfully. She is happy where she is.

Transition at Sylvia’s primary school

Sylvia’s primary school is a small single-story red brick school with a long history. There are about 100 pupils in the school with one Year 6 group taught by the teacher in charge of transition. There is no particular start date for transition, in her thinking. It may extend as far down the school as Year 5 when some pupils have the chance to visit the secondary school for performances or concerts. Shortly after Christmas of each school year the consortium head teachers meet to discuss how transition is going to proceed that year. They share informal feedback from the previous year’s transition and discuss what they plan for the current year. This ensures that across the consortium everyone knows what children will be experiencing in terms of transition events and can comment or propose changes that might be useful. Transition practices are not rigidly set and are open for informal evaluation.

In Sylvia’s case, throughout her Year 6 there was contact with the secondary school, for instance a concert was given at the secondary school expressly for Year 6 pupils. Also, a secondary drama production each year included primary school pupils, so many pupils had been to the secondary school before Year 6. Sylvia had been to two concerts in addition to the open days in September and after Easter.

Exchanges of information

The Local Authority provides a student information document which the primary school fills in about each child that is leaving Year 6. This document goes to the secondary school and is followed by a visit from the Head of Year 7 who comes into the primary to talk to the group of pupils who have chosen that secondary school about the school and gives each pupil a transition pack. In it are sheets of information about the school, the school day, uniform, homework, subject-specific equipment, behaviour expectations, etc. At the time of this visit to the primary

school the secondary teacher also talks to the primary teacher privately about each individual student. This visit and sharing of information are the most important aspects of transition, said Sylvia’s primary teacher. The secondary school sends quite a lot of information about being in secondary school to the primary teacher for her to present and discuss with the Year 6 pupils. Every transition needed to be a positive experience and any problems needed to be recognised immediately and handled instantly, whether they were simple queries from parents or children or serious worries, said the primary teacher. The primary school has an open door policy so parents are free to come in or to phone at any time if they have concerns or questions. However, the principal source of information for parents about transition comes from the secondary school. Primary school views and contributions

Transition is seen by Sylvia’s primary school as a fluid, on-going process for the children. It continues throughout Year 6 and is aimed at creating a sense of security about moving to secondary school. Particularly around the time of the visit from the Head of Year 7 the primary teacher talks to the children in general about growing up and about changes. The school nurse talks to the Year 6 about adolescence, relationships and ‘a lot that links in to the transition without directly being a part of the process’.

A positive transition is seen to be linked principally with the primary school and the child’s contact with the Year 7 teacher and associated exchanges of information as well as with experiences that the child has had with the secondary school prior to transition there. After the KS2 national assessments are finished in May, a great deal takes place to familiarise the children with the secondary school experience in general and specifically at the school they are going to, e.g. the secondary school open day. Senior support is excellent and child-centred in the primary school so that there is no problem with getting supply if the teacher needs to spend time out of the classroom with a child or with parents to deal with any transition issue. The head teacher is always ready to take a lesson if need be.

The primary school alerts the secondary school to children viewed as vulnerable at transition and arranges for extra visits to the secondary school for those children. The primary arranges for the child to meet the head teacher and other teachers he or she will be in frequent contact with at secondary school. The secondary school is invited to send a teacher to case conferences at the end of Year 6. This is the only point where Social Services are involved with transition.

To support continuity across primary-secondary school curricula, the primary school arranges for Year 6 children to do some project work which feeds into Year 7 work, particularly in Science and ICT. A pack for transition work was produced by a team of consortium primary and secondary teachers. For Science the Year 6 child produces a poster of what she has learned in primary school and that goes up on display in the secondary school where the child sees it when she arrives on the first day of Year 7. The Local Authority has produced a transfer project that goes up on the child’s digital brain space and which she can access when she is in secondary school. What need to be monitored during transition are the child’s happiness and the assurance that she feels comfortable and confident to go on to secondary school. During the first term of Year 7 there is a phone conference between the secondary school and the primary teacher about how the child has settled in. The primary teacher might call the secondary Head of Year 7 if a child has come back to the primary and reported negative experiences. Children often come back to the primary in the term before Christmas to talk to their old primary school teacher.

The primary teacher feels that the successes they have had with transition revolve around the mechanisms for exchanging information, particularly the face-to-face with the secondary teacher about the individual children. In terms of wishes for change, she would like to have more time to spend with each child individually to talk to them about their worries and concerns. In addition, she feels it would be a good idea for the secondary school to send down the provisional tutor group list which the primary could then comment on - sometimes the primary school knows information about a child’s past unhappy experiences with children from other primary schools

which does not easily get transmitted to the secondary school. There should also be more opportunities for children’s and especially primary teachers’ visits to the secondary school to experience it. More links should be created between children from the different primary schools who will then be together in the secondary school. (These practices were successfully in place for some of the primary and secondary schools in this sample). She also felt it would be useful for secondary teachers of subjects which the children did not get in primary school to come into primary to introduce their subjects. (This also takes place in some of the schools).

The primary teacher has some doubts about the discrepancies that arise between the push in primary schools to get children to levels of achievement that then appear to be superior to what the children are asked to do in secondary and feels that this is a point for sharing and discussion within the consortium.

Secondary school views and contributions

The interview with the Head of Year 7 brought out the activities that Sylvia’s secondary school has in place for transition and the rationale and beliefs behind those events. Transition begins first with the schools meeting after Christmas where the year’s transition is discussed. Actually before that there are several opportunities for prospective parents to come in to get to know the school. An open evening in September includes displays and sample lessons for parents and children to see. There are several open days which take place in the early autumn prior to parents having to make their school choice. These events are public relations activities but they also support the information transfer which is the key to a successful transition. He views the end of transition for a pupil to be when that pupil moves up to Year 8, having settled in to the secondary school ethos and having become a bona fide member of the school.

The first administrative step toward a child’s transition for the secondary school’s involvement in transition is when the school receives the list of names of the pupils who will start at the school in September. At the same time the Local Authority sends a form to the primary school requiring information about individual pupils including any special issues that may have arisen during the child’s time in primary school and National Curriculum levels in Mathematics, English and Science. In addition, information which both the primary teachers and the child fills in about which friends they want to be with (or not) in secondary school is requested. Another important piece of information for the secondary school is about the child’s extracurricular activities. The secondary school seeks to gain a comprehensive picture of the child from the primary school and from the child.

At Sylvia’s secondary school there are two secondary teachers in charge of transition representing the two vertical Houses into which pupils are organised in the school. These teachers share the transition tasks, the first being to ring personally the primary schools of the children destined to arrive as Year 7’s and to arrange to go in to talk with the primary teacher about the prospective pupils individually and to meet and talk those pupils as a group. The primary school teachers are primed to encourage the pupils to have questions ready which they can ask about the secondary school and about transition when the teacher comes in to see the pupils. The secondary teachers talk about what is different at secondary and what is available. They take an introduction pack for each child to the primary school for the child to take home to read and discuss with parents. At this meeting the pupils are encouraged to ask any questions they have about transition and secondary school. They are also invited to write a letter to the secondary school teacher introducing themselves. This is presented not as a requirement, but an opportunity to tell the secondary school about who they are, what they like doing, and so forth. A secondary school teacher then picks up the letters some days later from the primary school. The letters are viewed as an additional source of information about the pupil.

The formation of the Year 7 tutor groups is considered extremely important and in the first instance relies heavily on information passed on by the primary school teachers on the forms and