The results days last month will have seen the full range of emotions: from elation to panic and happy-hysteria to glum-sadness.

Some students will now have clarity on their next step and some will be attempting to mitigate the newly acquired challenges that some grades bring.

As schools start the new academic year, teachers will be thinking about what they or the students could have done differently. But they must also, crucially, be thinking about how prepared the next cohort of students are for their next stage of education; especially those doing their A levels next summer.

The lessons and the dependable structures in school are set to come to an end. Freedom, independence and autonomy await. But are they ready for it?

The transition from secondary school to university is a daunting prospect, as many of your former students are about to discover. Data released in March revealed that 6 per cent of first-degree entrants fail to progress to second year.

With independence come the time management, deadlines and autonomy that are required to achieve motivation and long-term planning. The competency profile of the university student is very different to that required of someone in sixth form.

‘Schools must focus on the transition’

The transition, and the skills required for it, must be a focus for a school in its efforts to best prepare students for their next journey.

Of course, the most significant difference is the level of support or intervention given to students. There’s a dilemma for schools as we prepare pupils to think about uni: give them freedom and they may, without realising, make decisions that lead to failure; or keep them in the school building mandatorily for all hours and they may perform better but then feel at a loss without that structure when they leave.

It is the whole teaching body’s responsibility to develop the desire and motivation for success as well as the competencies that students will require when they leave. Most, if not all, teachers went to university, so teachers can build anecdotes into their conversations and even some lessons; they must talk about being an HE student and what it’s like.

At a minimum, schools must, of course, ensure that pupils receive an education that allows them to access higher education, but perhaps they should also see themselves, at least in part, as responsible for students’ success once they get there. 

Oliver Beach is a former inner-city teacher, Teach First ambassador and star of the BBC show Tough Young Teachers

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