Primary to Secondary Transition – Get it Right, from the Start
Transition from KS2 to KS3 isn’t made easier by underestimating – or mollycoddling – your new arrivals, insists Wonu Adedoyin-Salau…
Every year, during the summer term, we host over 200 Year 6 pupils and induct them into what we affectionately call ‘The Bon’s Way’.
They are dropped off (sometimes reluctantly) by parents, guardians or elder siblings at the great bastion of the school gate.
You will see them fidget with shirts, fumble through the pockets of their backpacks and gape at the Nephilim-like creatures that tower over them in the basketball court (also known as the Year 10s).
This day is not only important to the incoming cohort and their parents, but for staff too.
No longer big fish in a primary school pond, it is imperative we recognise how vulnerable Year 7 pupils feel, and rightly so.
Transition day is swiftly followed by a flurry of curriculum planning and departmental meetings.
Exam classes are gone and data drops are almost complete. It is time for staff to take a breath and cast an eye on the importance of KS3 and the opportunity it poses for fun, engaging and fundamental learning.
Need to know
I (now) fondly remember sitting in such a meeting at the end of my second year teaching.
‘Must they have a lesson on how to embed quotations?’ asked one colleague while casually surveying the new programme of study.
They persisted, ‘I mean, surely they are taught this in primary school. These are the basics.’
As a nervy and newly appointed Key Stage 3 coordinator, this question prompted irritation and I was ready to refute the claim with a quick quip about them “not doing any of these things at all”.
Thankfully, I did not respond impulsively and instead went away to consider whether we as a team had any thorough knowledge of what happened in our local primary schools and how much of our curriculum was simply repetition rather than development.
Of course, it was great that we had already identified inconsistencies in our pupils’ ability to embed quotations seamlessly, and we acknowledged the need to tactically and proactively plan a curriculum that would address these concerns; but we could not do this alone.
Challenge and joy
Our first port of call was our local primary school feeders to take an inventory of what our students were already cognisant of.
Not only did this inform our expectations as teachers of what Year 7 pupils would be able to do, but it also allowed us to have a benchmark from which we could plan schemes of work that were academically rigorous and challenging.
The National Curriculum reforms and banishment of the old KS3 levels provided us with an opportunity to evaluate the content of our teaching and develop a programme of study that would equip students with the skills and knowledge to weather the transition from KS2 to KS3 most effectively.
Five years on and we have replaced the majority of our KS3 curriculum to ensure that we are planning for progress.
This has created more meaningful conversations about curriculum content and ensured that we as a team and school community are constantly considering the purpose of our teaching and learning choices.
Ofsted’s new framework similarly recognises the importance of purposeful curriculum planning – indeed, we have been given the alliterative ‘three Is’ to make it easy for us all to remember: Intent, Implementation and Impact.
Striking the balance between rigour and enjoyment is a constant battle for many teachers and some would argue that recent GCSE reforms have further exacerbated this issue.
However, in our quest to prepare our year 7s for the academic rigour of KS4, we should not forsake the importance of ensuring that it is still a time for creativity and joyfulness.
