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Interview schedule for Case studies: Children

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Appendix 5: Interview schedule for Case studies: Children

Interview schedule for children’s case studies

The RO who carried out the interviews was familiar with the unique responses of each individual child before hand. This allowed her to build a rapport quickly with the child and gave her a base for the discussion to follow.

Themes to talk about would include: A) Warm up questions

• How are you getting along in Y7 now that you have been here for almost a year? • You’ve told us in the questionnaire you filled in for us, that moving on from primary to

secondary was a nice experience for you.

Thinking back to Yr 6:

• What did you expect secondary school to be like?

• What were you looking forward to about moving on to Y7? • Did you have any worries about coming here?

• If yes, do you still have any of those worries?

• If you have worries – who can you talk to about these?

B) Being prepared for the secondary school

Now, I would like you to think back in time when you were still in Y6.

• What do you think helped you most when transferring from Y6 to Y7?

• How do you think your primary school helped you with ………(for sec school): a) coping with the work in secondary school

b) homework

c) expected behaviour at your new school

d) making friends and being with a new group of children (e.g. bullying) e) working with a range of teachers

f) the size of buildings and how to find your way around

(Prompt for the response ‘can’t remember’ is to probe further what they did at primary school and what they did differently in secondary school).

• Did your family have any worries about your move from primary to secondary school? If they did, did they ever talk to you about it?

(Prompt: anxiety over choice, finances regarding uniform, worries about journey etc.) C) Settling into your secondary school

• Was this school your first choice? If not, how do you feel about it now?

Focus on academic work

• Did you need help when you started in Y7 with organising and getting your work done in lessons? If so, which subjects did or do you still need help with and who helped / helps you?

Focus on pastoral care

• Have you stayed with the friendship group who moved with you from primary school? • Or have you made new friends?

• What helped you make new friends?

• Did anything make it hard for you to make new friends?

• How was it for you when you moved from being in the oldest year group at your primary school to being in the youngest one here?

• What was the hardest thing to learn how to do in Y7?

D) Your current experiences of your secondary school • What do you think about secondary school now?

• Is there anything really great about being in Y7 compared to being in Y6? • Do you miss anything about primary school? If so, what?

• When you first started here was the work generally:

More than primary Less than primary The same Easier than primary Harder than primary The same

• Are some lessons or subjects (for example Maths, English, Geography etc) easier or harder than the others? Do you get more work in some subjects than you get in others? How do you feel about this?

• Is the type of work you do in lessons here the same as in primary? In all subjects? If not in all, in which ones? How is it different?

• Do you think you were repeating any work you had already done in primary? In all subjects or in just a few of them? Which ones?

• How do you feel about having different teachers for different subjects? Does this make a difference to how you learn? And does it make a difference to how you get along with your teachers?

• Do you think you have made good progress in your subjects this year? If so, in which ones? If not, in which ones and why do you think that is?

• Do you think you contribute to class as much as you did in your primary school? If not, why do you think that is?

• Are you in a mixed form group or a ‘set’ form group (getting here at ability groupings)? [

The RO will know in advance which sets the child is in and therefore will adjust questions about sets accordingly]

• How do you feel about this? (Prompt: Is the work challenging enough, do you feel like you are in the correct set, are you separated from your friends?) How do you think other children feel in higher/lower sets?

• If you had to give some advice to a next years Yr 6 about secondary transfer what advice would you give them?

• Is there anything else you want to tell us about moving on to secondary school? Thank you very much for your time; it’s been great talking to you!

Appendix 6: Interview schedule for Case studies: Primary school teachers