WALTON high school in Stafford takes pupils from five main feeder schools and around 20 primaries in all. “It makes it virtually impossible to assess pupils in time for their first year with us,” says head Sue Kirkham (pictured, left).
The school was among the first 200 chosen for the Government’s key stage 3 pilot, but Ms Kirkham believes many issues still need to be resolved if ministers’ plans to combat dipping grades among the youngest secondary pupils are to succeed.
She argues that the pound;10,500 each school receives under the scheme is insufficient. “There has been some progress, but what we really need is a system for the electronic transfer of information between schools. For that we need administrative support staff, which means additional, regular funding.
“Getting teachers to meet to discuss individual pupils and what subjects are being covered in different schools is extremely time-consuming.
“It eats into their evenings when they are often in meetings, and does nothing to alleviate their heavy workload.”
Ms Kirkham says gauging the success of the initiative, which aims to raise standards among slower pupils, will be difficult. The expected standard for an 11-year-old is level 4.
“We will only truly know whether it has achieved the desired effect at the end of their final year. The level 4 band is an extremely broad one. A pupil may come from primary school at the bottom of level 4, and at the end of the first year of secondary may be at the top. As far as the records go, however, there will appear to have been little or no progress, even though the pupil may have progressed a good deal.”
