Comment: More work needed to bridge the gap between primary and secondary school
Why is it that too many vulnerable young people suffer a loss of confidence in the transition from primary to secondary school with a serious impact on their level of attainment?
To make progress in answering this question, the Merchant Venturers sponsored a research programme, bringing together studies from Bristol University and Quartet Community Foundation.
The studies, which generated considerable media exposure and discussion at the beginning of 2010, highlight the fact that while many children sail through the move to secondary school, others lack the emotional resilience required to handle the adjustment well.
The University’s study cites a 1999 report from Cambridge University which estimated that up to 40 per cent of pupils failed to make expected progress during the year after moving to secondary school.
More recent work, also from Cambridge, found that 30 per cent of pupils made no progress in mathematics between Years 6 and 7 and 50 per cent made none in English or science.
The Bristol studies identify a ‘two-tribe’ characteristic in the UK education system that works against the academic and emotional interests of many children at a challenging period in their lives.
A primary-secondary divide is apparent in everything from curricula to teacher education and from school governance to the way most local education authorities are organised.
The studies acknowledge that worthwhile efforts are under way in Bristol and elsewhere to improve links between the primary and secondary stages.
These include the development of all-through schools and partnerships or federations of schools, together with exchanges of primary and secondary school pupils, teachers and governors. But the studies call for such changes and experiments to be focused more specifically on easing the transition for pupils and reducing its negative effects on performance, learning and wellbeing.
The studies say children should not have to cope with an abrupt shift from child-centred approaches at primary school to subject-centred ones at secondary school.
Primary and secondary teachers should be given the support they need to collaborate on smoothing the path between Key Stages 2 and 3, especially in mathematics and English.
Together they could resolve the tensions between different approaches to learning. Policy makers and governors should consider arranging for children to transfer to secondary school in June rather than September, according to the studies, thus allowing more time for induction and adjustment.
Some particularly vulnerable children will find the transition difficult no matter how well schools and local education authorities manage it. For them, the Quartet Community Foundation study suggests, a properly funded approach to personal support and mentoring, often involving the children’s families too, is urgently required.
Finding ways to improve the transition from primary to secondary school is of great importance to the Merchant Venturers as we sponsor an Academy in south Bristol.
Our experience is that many children have limited understanding of what’s expected of them at secondary school. Clearly, more should be done, both before they arrive and once they get there.
We need far stronger partnerships between the primary and secondary levels and more imaginative approaches to governance.
We sponsored these studies because we can’t sit back and allow a portion of each new generation to be lost.
We believe that nationally, not just in Bristol, policies and practices need to be sharpened up to make the primary-secondary transition an inspiration to young people, not a tribulation for them.
Trevor Smallwood, Immediate Past Master, Society of Merchant Venturers
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