School transitions: why we need to talk about them

When children make the leap from nursery to primary – or primary to secondary – those who once thrived can struggle in their daunting new surroundings. Henry Hepburn explores different approaches to a period that can make or break a child’s experience of education

Think about how unsettled people feel in an airport. It’s no wonder: you’re disorientated and rushed; the ropey food is overpriced but you can’t go elsewhere; you get ordered to remove items of clothing and go through full-body scanners in front of onlookers; you are corralled into sweaty holding pens, where you fret about whether you’ve forgotten something; and loudspeakers bark unintelligible orders at you.

But once through the other side of this weird, discombobulating limbo, says early-years expert Aline-Wendy Dunlop, you feel like a “real person” again – because you’re returned to ...

Keys to a positive transition experience

Transitions cannot be understood or treated solely as a children’s matter, but rather as a family matter. Changing the narrative from transitions being a scary experience to one of positive self-expectancy and joyful anticipation about new and exciting opportunities is paramount. Transitions may occur within the day, day-to-day, across time and between different providers: for example, from home to nursery; from home to a childminder’s; from home and going to a childminder’s to the early years of school; and from early learning centres to primary school. Children need to have their previous experience and contribution recognised in any new setting, building on what has gone before. Transitions should start early. Bringing ideas, stories, experiences and favourite memories, and being able to make choices over what to do and to share with others fosters feelings of pride and contribution. Transitions should focus on children’s and families’ strengths, creativity, capability and competence. All families should be included in transitions processes, providing appropriate support to ensure equity. Source: the Scottish Early Childhood, Children and Families Transitions Position Statement, published May 2019

It’s ‘doubly hard’ for those raised in poverty

“Parents who are chronically depressed and anxious due to immense difficulties with everyday expenses, such as food shopping or paying the rent on time, are less likely to have sufficient emotional reserves to chatter, play and read with their young children,” wrote Pam Jarvis for Tes last year (see bit.ly/TransitionJarvis). The reader in childhood, youth and education at Leeds Trinity University said, therefore, that children from deprived households tend to have less developed linguistic skills than more advantaged peers. “Children raised in poverty face daily overwhelming challenges that affluent children never have to confront, and their brains have adapted to suboptimal conditions in ways that undermine good school performance,” added Jarvis. “Deprived families are, therefore, doubly disadvantaged, given that their children are plunged into a high-stakes, stress-fuelled education environment from a foundation of impoverished experiences that negatively impact upon physical and emotional health and linguistic competence.”

The transition-teachers approach

In March, Tes Scotland wrote about Renfrewshire Council’s “transition teachers”, who spend half the year working in one of the authority’s 11 secondaries and half the year working in their feeder primaries (see bit.ly/TransitionsTeachers). The idea is that these teachers will bridge the gap between primary and secondary, particularly in learning and teaching. This has a greater impact on pupils from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, who, the research suggests, are more likely to flounder when they move to secondary. In 2008, the longitudinal Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) project looked at how the move from primary to secondary had affected more than 500 children. It concluded that most had a positive transition experience, but “a noticeable minority” did not. EPPSE found that, of the children living in the most deprived households, 72 per cent did not get used to the new routines in secondary school with great ease, and 58 per cent did not settle in well. Of the most affluent children, 50 per cent did not get used to the new routines with great ease and 39 per cent did not settle in well. The key to successful transition for children, parents and schools, according to EPPSE, was “social adjustment, institutional adjustment and curriculum interest and continuity”. There is “a lack of consistency in the pedagogical approaches used by primary and secondary school teachers”, found a review of the research literature into primary-secondary transitions, published in February after the Scottish government commissioned the University of Dundee to carry out the work (see bit.ly/TransitionsResearch). It recommended “better ongoing dialogue between primary and secondary schools” and that teachers from the different sectors “have opportunities to work in each other’s classes, so that they are able to understand each other’s pedagogical approaches and introduce more consistency”. Divya Jindal-Snape, the University of Dundee’s chair of education, inclusion and life transitions, led the review. Jindal-Snape – who has been researching transitions for more than 20 years – welcomes the transition-teachers approach because it acknowledges that moving up to secondary is “an ongoing process” and not something that can take place during a one-off visit. She also warns against seeing the transition to secondary school in too negative a light, as it appears to be positive for around 70 per cent of pupils.

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