Making a pupil’s transition from key stage 2 to 3 smooth and effective takes more than just a little teamwork at the end of year 6. What is needed is long-term, genuine and sustainable collaboration between schools. We need early years, primary and secondary schools to work in close partnership on all aspects of a child’s education, sharing information and resources, in order to ensure that each child is well-protected and experiences a continuity of service and support.
Why do we need better collaboration? Because projects that link pupils, teachers and schools across early years, primary and secondary phases can have a positive impact on pupils and teachers by supporting pupils to experience a smoother transition and make continuous progress both academically and in terms of their soft skills and by enabling teachers and schools to learn from best practice across different stages of the system.
So what does this collaboration look like? It might involve all phases of compulsory education establishing family links, sharing services such as family liaison officers, education welfare officers, SENCOs, EAL teachers and other specialists.
It might involve all phases jointly planning and running projects and events such as summer schools or careers fairs. It might take the form of joint curriculum planning, joint CPD networks and INSET, and teacher visits and exchanges. And it might also involve cross-phase mentoring and tutoring.
It is important, as much as is possible, to see the two phases as one, particularly to see years 5 through to 8 as a single phase when it comes to planning the curriculum, because this will help to bridge the primary-secondary divide. Planning a unique “middle years” curriculum will also help to combat the problem of key stage 3 – particularly year 8 – being seen as “wasted years” (to quote Ofsted’s 2015 report of the same title). Indeed, it will give it identity and purpose.
Another desired outcome of an effective cross-phase partnership is to ensure that all year 6 and 7 teachers work together to familiarise each other with the national curriculum of the phase they teach as well as their school’s own curriculum.
This is a two-way process with primary and secondary colleagues having just as much to learn from each other and just as much to gain from the process. It should therefore be conducted on an equal footing, perhaps facilitated by an unbiased outsider rather than on the secondary school’s turf and terms as is often the case.
Cross-phase partnerships can also be fruitfully employed designing “settling-in” sessions and summer schools for pupils but these should have an academic rather than pastoral flavour. Primary and secondary colleagues could also work together to design formative and summative assessment strategies which make it easier for teachers to track pupils’ progress as they move out of one phase and into the next.
Where possible, cross-phase partnerships could enable teachers to work across the different phases in order to introduce more subject-specialist teaching to the later years of primary school as well as encourage a more holistic approach to pupils’ development at the beginning of key stage 3.
Primary school leaders play a crucial role in making cross-phase partnerships work. For example, they need to set clear expectations for their staff about the importance of sharing and communicating with their secondary colleagues by encouraging teachers to help pupils produce transition “passports” which showcase both their academic and their broader achievements at primary school (see the last article, link below).
Secondary school leaders play an equally important role. For example, they need to encourage year 7 teachers who are struggling to understand a particular pupil’s needs to consider contacting their old year 6 teacher for a conversation. Primary colleagues should support this process by making time for such conversations.
Multi-academy trusts that encompass secondaries and feeder primaries have an advantage when it comes to cross-phase partnerships and many are already ahead of the curve.
It would, for example, be possible to employ teachers who work across both phases. This might mean that year 6 teachers move up with their classes and teach them in year 7, making transition much less daunting. Furthermore, phases would not have to follow the traditional pattern but could instead straddle the key stage divide, such as the “middle years” of years 5 to 8.
Curriculum
One of the main advantages of a cross-phase partnership is the opportunity for primary and secondary colleagues to collaborate on curriculum planning in order to ensure a joined up approach so work is not repeated.
Another way of ensuring the curriculum flows between the two phases is for primary and secondary teachers to design a “bridging” unit that links the end of year 6 with the beginning of year 7.
This has several advantages. Not only do pupils see the explicit link between the two phases and therefore feel less daunted by the perceived divide between the two, they are also able to start the new year at an advantage, with prior knowledge of a subject and with ready-made work to show their new teacher what they are capable of.
A quick idea worth mentioning here is encouraging pupils to bring in their best work from each subject in primary school when they start secondary. This work can then be affixed in pupils’ exercise books in year 7 to remind them and their teachers what they are capable of producing. Such a tactic will help correct the misapprehension that pupils are assessed too generously in key stage 2.
As well as what is taught, cross-phase partnerships can ensure that when it comes to the curriculum, teachers from primary and secondary schools liaise on how it is taught.
A partnership might, for example, set up a primary/secondary CPD network in order to ensure that approaches to pedagogy are better matched and that teachers from both phases learn from each other about what works in the classroom and what motivates pupils and how they learn. Primary and secondary teachers have a lot to learn from each other when it comes to pedagogy and practice
Another advantage of cross-phase partnerships related to the curriculum is the opportunity to share data in order to ensure that pupils’ prior attainment is used to set groups and to plan teaching so that lessons provide appropriate challenge. This helps avoid the common criticism that year 7 often repeats work from year 6 or is too easy. It also helps year 7 teachers to differentiate effectively.
Data – a conversation
Most secondary teachers will already have access to some information about their new year 7s including which primary school they came from, the scaled scores they achieved on their key stage 2 tests and, if they delve into the question level analysis available, the marks they received for individual questions in those tests.
However, data is more than just a spreadsheet – it is a conversation. As the pupil’s year 6 teacher you will know so much more than these numbers can possibly tell. You will know, for example, what the pupil is capable of achieving when they’re not under test conditions and what particular topics they’ve studied and found interesting. You will know what their attitude to learning is like and what skills they’ve developed over their first seven years of schooling.
You will know what extra-curricular activities they’ve taken part in and how well they did, as well as what motivates them to succeed and what demotivates them. You will know, too, what their home life is like and what obstacles they’ve had to overcome and may still be facing.
- Matt Bromley is an experienced education leader, writer, consultant, speaker and trainer. He is the author of several books for teachers. His latest book, Teach 2: Educated Risks, is available in paperback and ebook from www.booksforschool.eu. Visit www.bromleyeducation.co.uk
Previous Article
To read Matt's previous article in this series, Working together for a smooth transition, Headteacher Update, September 2016, visit www.headteacher-update.com/best-practice-article/working-together-for-a-smooth-transition/145260/