It may seem like a long time away, but it’s never too early to start thinking about the pupils moving from primary and secondary schools in September.
When I was asked to deliver some training on transition, I began to look into how much emphasis is put on it in schools as well as what works best. From the beginning, it was clear that transition has remained one of the lowest priorities for primary and secondary schools, a fact exposed horribly by the lost learning of the pandemic.
It’s been an issue for years - indeed, Ofsted’s 2015 publication Key stage 3: the wasted years?, summarised that:
- Many secondary schools do not build sufficiently on pupils’ prior learning.
- Schools must ensure that the transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3 focuses as much on pupils’ academic needs as it does on their pastoral needs.
- Secondary schools need to create better cross-phase partnerships with primary schools to ensure that KS3 teachers build on pupils’ prior knowledge, understanding and skills.
So how, in practice, can we remove the barriers to transition? The necessity of remote learning and the remarkable adaptation of teachers (and pupils) to the world of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and shared resources has been well documented. But it is this forced change that now provides the opportunity for a new dawn for cross-phase liaison and transition.
Transition: 7 ways to work together
There are many ways that continuity and progression can be enhanced across the key stages.
1. Inter-school curriculum awareness
Teachers need to know the full curriculum for their subject - even the key stages they don’t teach. To do this, primary and secondary schools could contribute to a shared curriculum document summarising the content and skills covered in KS2 and KS3.
Organising this may sound complicated, but, actually, if secondary schools work together, they can reach out to the majority of feeder primary schools to gather this information. A designated lead from each secondary school could provide the basis for a collaborative group that agrees on what information is needed and produces a common Google or Microsoft shared document.
This document can be a vehicle to provide relevant information in one place, and also develop an awareness of all feeder and secondary schools’ curriculum and form the basis for curriculum change and adaptation as required.
Alongside this, teachers can use shared platforms to upload pupil examples of work in each subject. While Google Docs and SharePoint are good for this, for more complex media, Flipgrid (for videos) and Wakelet or Padlet facilitate the collation of media of different types. This is a quick easy way to understand the work undertaken at primary school without having to arrange school visits. Secondary teachers can refer directly to work previously undertaken in the Year 7 classroom, and it gives the pupils a chance to show off.
2. Inter-school communications
Inset days are a great way to bring together primary and secondary teachers together to collaborate. If an Inset day isn’t viable, why not set up some primary-secondary subject partnership meetings instead? A collaborative group would be one way to organise these, or as part of a wider partnership programme. For example, Partnership Plus links primary and secondary schools through a dedicated Inset events programme throughout the year. While Inset can take place at any time, to get the most from such events, the spring term is ideal, as school places are confirmed.
These days give primary and secondary staff the chance to get to know each other and to share information about teaching in their particular subject. This also develops greater consistency in teaching across primary and secondary schools and improves everyone’s knowledge, understanding and confidence.
How could these work in practice? Well, Teams and Zoom are a great way to bring people together for larger gatherings, and while there would need to be a limit on attendees to ensure everyone has the chance to speak, the argument of not having time to visit schools, that there are too many primary feeder schools to contact, becomes far less convincing.
3. Cross-phase bridging projects
Teachers could work with the other schools in their area to deliver a primary-secondary joint unit that begins in term three of Year 6 and is carried forward into term one of Year 7. This could also incorporate homework during the summer holiday, to provide a “bridge” between primary and secondary schooling more generally as well as subject-specific.
To engage interest, a thematic approach is best. Successful examples have included a focus on one science experiment in Year 6, the results of which are built upon and further investigated in Year 7. Or covering a myriad of English reading, writing and speaking skills through the one theme, such as superheroes and villains, where the same (or new) characters can be analysed in more depth in Year 7. Alternatively, a topic-specific cross-curricular project, for example, on the environment, could also showcase and reinforce many of the required skills in a number of subjects.
Holiday work, if carefully structured, performs the functions of retaining interest, aiding cognitive recall from Year 6, providing a learning bridge, as well as allowing the new Year 7 pupil to have ownership of something they know will be valued and used in their new school setting.
The plethora of platforms already mentioned that allow for accessing and sharing work should make access to such projects not the preserve of the dedicated few schools. And while teacher interaction is desirable, lessons could be recorded and watched as part of a set of resources.
As well as the bridging projects, teachers could twin lessons: this is when you choose one aspect of the KS2 curriculum that is repeated at KS3 and deliver a Year 6 lesson that is then built upon as the topic is first taught in Year 7.
4. Virtual classrooms
Thanks to the introduction of video conferencing software, primary children can have more contact with their new secondary teachers than ever: secondary teachers could deliver taster lessons to primary school pupils through Teams.
The connection can go beyond teachers, and to the secondary students as well: why not get the secondary students to take some of those lessons themselves? Year 6 students then get to meet some of the secondary school staff and potentially pupils without physically visiting their new school.
5. Share a subject exercise book online across Years 6 and 7
Pupils can take their exercise books from Year 6 into Year 7. This provides a record of Year 6 work for the secondary staff to see, assess and draw upon for teaching and target setting in Year 7.
If you’re worried about children losing their books over the summer holidays, you could drop them off at the secondary school yourself, or use OneNote that allows for electronic exercise books.
6. Get Year 6 pupils excited for Year 7
Together schools can plan exhibitions or competitions that both Year 6 and Year 7 students take part in, for example, artwork, poems, short stories, designing sustainable transport or creating a response to a local issue. These materials can then be scanned, photographed, uploaded and presented online from a variety of schools.
These sorts of collaborative initiatives give secondary teachers a chance to recognise achievements made in primary school and can make students feel more comfortable.
7. Build on learning
While technology may be opening up, the possibilities of transition success will still rely on a changed approach by Year 7 teachers. Pupils starting in Year 7 need to know what they have done at primary school is being valued and built on in the secondary school, hence the value of bridging projects.
When introducing a topic that has already been taught at KS2, it needs to be introduced in such a way pupils realise this will not just be boring repetition. Using lesson structures and methods that primary pupils are familiar with will encourage continuity. And knowing what their pupils are going to experience in Year 7 can help shape the delivery of transition lessons during Year 6.
Simon Chapman is the deputy head (academic) at Warwick school
