Transition to secondary school is a significant life event for every child, but for some children the move to big school is an even bigger deal.

Many Year 6 children will be looking forward to beginning their secondary journey, and despite some nerves, will be confident, excited and ready to go.

Others, for many and varied reasons, won’t feel so sure about the move, and have the potential to find the transition really difficult.

Transition to secondary school: how to help vulnerable students

Even if you can identify who these children are, the potential difficulties for such pupils may not even be apparent in September: in the busy environment of a secondary school, masked by the fact that all Year 7 children are just finding their feet, it may take weeks or months for secondary school staff to realise that a child is struggling to settle in.

Thankfully, there is still time this academic year to get a jump start on this. That all-important primary-secondary relationship is the key to highlighting children who are likely to struggle and putting strategies in place that will help to give them a positive start to their secondary education.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself that will help you to identify and support these students:

1. Which children are most likely to struggle?

The first step will be identification. There are the more obvious ones: those with SEMH (social, emotional and mental health) needs or special educational needs, both of which are very catch-all terms. Data gathering from primary schools should highlight these, but conversations between class teachers and Sendcos will be necessary to gain more specific information. Less obvious are the children who are not yet diagnosed with a condition but will need additional support.

Then there are those for whom there are safeguarding concerns. Information sharing for these children requires sensitive handling. Designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) should liaise to share further sensitive information, including how things like attitude, attendance and behaviour might be affected by the child’s life experiences.

This year, there will be a new category of children who may find transition hard. Those who have had Covid and are suffering from long Covid, and those who have experienced deterioration in their mental health due to the pandemic and the resulting lockdown. For some, this will be because they have lost a family member or friend, for others it will be because of the isolation and the drastic changes to routine.

Some children may have even found the reopening of society to be difficult, finding that they preferred remote learning and a less hectic lifestyle.

2. Who has been most affected by lockdown?

Another impact of the pandemic will be that children arrive at secondary school with varied experiences of learning during lockdown. Some will have had all the technology and will have accessed a rich curriculum during the periods of lockdown, others will have been in school full time as children of key workers (or because they were classed as vulnerable).

On the other hand, there will be children who didn’t qualify to be in school, and those who didn’t have the technology or home environment they needed to access the learning. A child accessing learning at one primary may have had a very different experience to a child at a different primary, due to the array of approaches taken to the provision of remote learning.

3. Which children have had other transitions already?

A further category of children who may find transition hard is those who have made other transitions more recently; for example, those who have moved area or even moved country. The latter may not yet have a grasp on the English language or may be from homes where English is not the first language. These children may have come from very adverse situations, although not all will have. As with all children, it will be important to find out exactly what their experiences have been before making adjustments in order to support them.

Secondary schools welcome children in from many different primary schools. In some cases, there will be children arriving on their own, with none of their primary peers accompanying them. Knowing no one at all at their new secondary school will no doubt be very daunting, thus making these children potentially vulnerable. In a similar vein, there may be children coming from tiny primary schools of just 30 pupils into large secondary schools containing over a thousand children - the size difference could make transition very difficult for these children.

4. How can I find out more about each child?

Identifying these students is half the battle. In all of the above cases, conversations between school personnel should focus on what the individual needs are, what is working for these children currently, and what has worked in the past, as well as what is most likely to help them with their transition.

Primary staff often have great relationships with their pupils (and their families) and will hold a wealth of knowledge about them. This information must then be shared with all adults who will have contact with each child. Forming a team around the child is crucial.

It shouldn’t just be the primary teachers that secondary staff talk to. Getting to chat to the children themselves is incredibly valuable - that could be via a video call or an in-person visit from Year 7 staff, or even, Covid-restrictions allowing, a visit by the child to the secondary school.

It is good practice to ensure the visit includes some kind of activity that allows children to share something about themselves: personalised introductory questionnaires, letters to form tutors, “About Me” booklets, and even their own video all might help here.

5. What additional transition events should I plan?

Extra transition events may benefit many of the above children - if they can get to know new peers and staff in advance, then they have a head start for September.

So what can you do? Online events, some live, others pre-recorded, such as quizzes, demonstrations from art, science or DT departments, a live, interactive tour, an author visit with a writing workshop, a concert, a live session with their form tutor - anything that begins to develop the relationships necessary to help them feel more comfortable and familiar with the idea of going to their new school.

6. What does the data tell us?

Assessment information from primaries will be valuable, too - some of the above children may struggle to settle if their academic needs are not met. Setting and streaming should be put aside for now, and primary teacher judgements, particularly around learning potential and not just past achievement, should be taken into consideration.

The more information that can be gathered and actually used, the better.

7. What will work best in our context?

Although I’ve made some suggestions as to how to help these children, every school will have their own ideas for how best to support transition.

The important thing is that these Year 6 children aren’t treated as a homogenous mass and that each one is considered individually as to how they might experience, and succeed in, their move to secondary school.

Aidan Severs is a deputy head at a primary school in the North of England