What can help pupils make a successful Transition to Secondary School?
We surveyed secondary schools up and down the country asking about Transition.
Every school and area has a different way of working. Most focus first on getting to know their pupils with activity days in school or a mock timetable. This is really important.
But what about academic transition?
Stalled Progress at Key Stage 3
A recent Ofsted report stated..
"the transition to secondary is too often poorly managed and teaching fails to build on the gains pupils have made in primary school. Inspectors have found that pupils often leave primary school with good literacy and numeracy skills, confident and eager to learn, but their progress then stalls when they start secondary school."
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/too-many-students-let-down-in-early-stages-of-secondary-school
The fact is that the importance of a good start to secondary school education cannot be overstated. Pupils need to enjoy school and get involved with the many subjects to choose them at Key Stage 4.
The report continues..
"School leaders need...
How well is your school using the additional funding for pupil premium and Year 7 Catch up?
Ofsted will be looking for how you are supporting your new Year 7.
The 2019 Ofsted Inspection Handbook says:
In evaluating progress in literacy and mathematics, inspectors will take into account the progress of those for whom the Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium provides support.
[In Outstanding schools,] Governors systematically challenge senior leaders so that the effective deployment of … Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium … secures excellent outcomes for pupils.
In Outstanding Schools..
The following quotes are taken from Ofsted Inspection Reports of Outstanding secondary and all-through schools in 2018/19:
Leaders use additional funding very effectively for disadvantaged pupils and those in Year 7 who need extra help to catch up with others. … Year 7 pupils who join the school with low starting points are provided with targeted support to improve their reading.
Pupils benefit from work that closely matches their abilities and...
A Guide to Progress 8
This guide is designed to help alleviate the confusion between the different bandings.
It is also available as a video on our YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/9xTPAs20BeA
Progress 8 Bandings
In early 2017 the DfE categorised schools into 5 different Progress Bandings:
But it is easy to get things wrong.
BBC News website
The BBC News website did so on 16 April 2019, when it said:
A school's performance is measured through pupils' progress, called Progress 8, via a scoring system of between -1 and 1, with the average being 0.A score lower than 0 is recognised as not achieving the minimum standard expected by the government, with -1 being well below average.
There are three things are wrong with these two sentences:
Firstly, Progress 8 is not a scoring system of between -1 and 1. There are no such arbitrary limits, and in 2018 there are 70 mainstream schools with a Progress 8 score below -1, and 50 schools above +1.A score...
