Transfer and Transition

The aim of this resource is to familiarise initial teacher education professionals and their trainees with the complex picture of transfer and transitions in education with particular reference to the transition between Primary and Secondary school. The resource also aims to give you an idea about the ways in which the use of Information Technology can support transfer and transition and how cross phase projects can support curriculum continuity in terms of ICT capability.

Lecturers will find it a useful resource of easily accessible information and activities relating to various aspects of transition which may support them in preparing sessions on Transfer and Transition.

Alternatively, it can be used as a source for the key literature relating to transfer and transition, providing a starting point for trainee reading and reflection to support written assignments or practice based research at Masters level.

The diagram below represents the different aspects of the resource. It is recommended that you start with the Overview of Transfer and Transition section and you can then choose how to navigate the resource depending on your particular focus and needs.


author: Clare Furlonger
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Overview

‘There is a tide which begins to rise in the veins of youth at the age of eleven or twelve. It is called by the name of adolescence. If that tide can be taken at the flood, and a new voyage begun in the strength and along the flow of the current, we think that it will move on to fortune’.

(Hadow Report 1926 cited in Barber, 1999:12)

The words transfer and transition, while having slightly different meanings, are interchangeable in this resource as the transfer between Primary and Secondary school is also a key transitional period.

Where to next?

The following links are designed to help you support trainees in their understanding of the issues around transition, possibly prior to carrying out their own research. The Five Bridges represents an excellent, current framework to support you in developing trainees’ understanding of the range of transition issues faced by schools.

Maurice Galton is one of the principal researchers in this area. The summary of some of his work in the Influential research summary section can be used to get a swift initial understanding of key research abut transfer and transition in the last decade (although Galton’s research goes back further). There are a number of links to other relevant journal articles and research reports which you might want to encourage trainees to look at for self directed extended research for assignments.

As lecturers with an interest in ICT, you will want to refer to the role of ICT as a tool to support transition. The Role of ICT in transition link gives a brief overview of some ways in which the use of ICT can develop each of the Five Bridges and also suggests some supporting resources for use with trainees.

The Supporting Case Studies provide lecturers with a summary of and links to recent government sponsored research and case studies supporting transition.

The Recent Thinking link, gives you an overview of the latest news on transfer and transition which will provide useful reading for trainees.

author: Clare Furlonger
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Five Transition Bridges

• The bureaucratic bridge - including arrangements for the communication of pupil records both personal and academic and administrative meetings between school staff.
• The social bridge – to ensure that primary pupils become familiar with their secondary school prior to transition and feel comfortable and confident with the changes of teachers, key school routines, new peer group and physical surroundings.
• The curriculum bridge – to ensure curriculum continuity between phases so that secondary teachers can develop existing levels of achievement and attainment rather than seeing the secondary curriculum as a ‘blank slate’.
• The pedagogic bridge – to develop cross phase links between teachers of Year 6 and 7 to ensure a consistency in pedagogic approaches in the classroom.
• The management of learning bridge – to ensure that pupils are aware of the challenges of transition and are given the opportunity to make their own decisions and to add their voice as active participants in the transition.

Barber (1999)

• Think about which bridges their practices relate to
• Which appear to be temporary ‘on off’ projects and which are sustainable embedded practices
• Identify the bridges that still need further development?

Transfer and Transition - Links to the other sections:

Transfer and Transition Introduction
Overview of Transfer and Transition
Influential Research
The role of ICT in transition
Supporting Case Studies
Recent Thinking

author: Clare Furlonger
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Influential research

School transitions are characterised by a number of challenges. Firstly, where there is a transfer from primary to secondary school, this usually involves the movement of pupils from a small school and a single class teacher to a large school community with several subject specialists teachers. There is also the increased physical size of the school site and buildings where lessons take place in random locations dictated by the timetable. This requires navigation skills and more sophisticated spatial awareness than demanded in a small primary or junior school. In addition, the significant changes in class organisation, such as a variety of subject ability sets, may break down familiar friendship groups.

The research strongly suggests that these challenges for the new pupil may contribute to dips in motivation or attainment. However, does this necessarily lead to a breakdown in progress? Galton et al (2000) suggests that there is a ‘hiatus’ in progress rather than a decline in progress. His study showed that, relative to the rest of the class, those who did well at primary continued to do so at secondary even if there was an initial dip in performance. It is the awareness of themselves as secondary pupils and the changes in approaches to study that they seem to take longer in coming to terms with. Galton cites Spelman who identified the pupils most at risk as being less mature, less confident and from poor social and economic conditions and less academic backgrounds. They had difficulty adapting to the physical and academic organization, developing relationships with teachers and understanding expectations in terms of standards of work. Not surprisingly, those who were more successful were academically able, self confident, socially mature and have strong parental support. (Spelman (1979) cited in Galton et al 2000).

By the end of the 20th century, the social aspects of transition were perceived to be less of a problem. Many pupils, when questioned later in school life, did not remember it as a time of huge disruption. Most schools were familiarising Year 6 pupils with their new teachers, the layout of the secondary school and basic daily procedures through transition prior to the transfer. The introduction of transition events such as induction and taster days and documentation to help familiarize pupils with the secondary school seemed to be having an impact. Whole day induction visits allowed primary pupils to use specialist facilities at secondary schools such as gyms, science laboratories, design and technology workshops and ICT suites. These days often included their primary teachers and, in some cases, parents and carers were welcomed as well. They also ensured that the new cohort of pupils would fit into the school and allow its systems to run smoothly and, in the process, minimise disruption. Valuable as these strategies were, Galton felt that for many headteachers, they were the major indicators of a successful transfer rather than ensuring that learning continues at the same pace and with appropriate challenge, continuity and progression. Galton also pointed out that increased parental choice means that many secondary schools have a far greater number of feeder primaries than previously so these links may only be with the feeder schools providing the majority of pupils (Galton et al 2000).

Galton claimed that most research into transition since the 1980s had focused on the impact of the change of buildings and site rather than the effect on academic performance. He suggested that the academic progress of around 40% of children is affected by the transition. Since the beginning of this century, there has been a growing emphasis both in research and practice on transition in terms of pedagogy and curriculum continuity when changing schools (Galton et al, 2000).

Galton describes the ‘tabula rasa’ (Latin: blank slate) which is commonly known as the ‘fresh start approach’ in secondary schools. This is, at worst, starting Year 7 as if the pupils know nothing, or, more commonly, the retesting of pupils when they arrive at secondary school. This is still standard practice today despite efficient communication of SAT results and far more effective lines of contact between primary and secondary schools. Galton found that secondary head teachers rarely examined the records of transition pupils and preferred to use new data. Indeed, it is unlikely that subject teachers, who may only teach individual classes once or twice a week, will carefully peruse all transfer documentation.

The National Curriculum was introduced in 1988 and was designed to promote curriculum progression and continuity between key stages through the continuum of the levels in the attainment targets. However, many didn’t feel that Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 (KS2/KS3) in particular, offered realistic and continual progression. This led to more learning through subject specialisms at upper primary (KS2) in order to develop skills, knowledge and understanding of discrete subjects before transfer and to prepare children for moving on immediately they transferred to secondary school. At the same time, Galton found that many secondary schools tried to ease transition by keeping the ‘primary’ ethos in Year 7 with fewer teachers and more integration of subjects but found that this made no difference to overcoming a hiatus in progress. These approaches are interesting in the light of the revised KS3 curriculum which appears to encourage a more integrated approach to the curriculum for lower Key Stage 3 pupils. The KS2 curriculum is to be revised following the Primary Review by Sir Jim Rose, published in April 2009. Although it seems that similar themes will be addressed in curriculum for each phase, it will be interesting to see how far progression and continuity between the key stages is considered and made explicit, whether in themes, in subjects or in pedagogic approaches.

In terms of curriculum continuity, the level of challenge at secondary school was sometimes perceived to be at a lower level than it had been in Year 6. (Suffolk LEA 1997). Again, there are echoes of the ‘tabula rasa’ as secondary schools did not appear to be looking at achievement or attainment at Year 6 when designing their Year 7 curriculum.

Many secondary teachers saw attainment at Year 6 as somehow different from what they saw as their own more sophisticated expectations in terms of what they wanted pupils to understand in their subject. They did not trust the non-specialist primary teachers. For example, a study of English teaching found that ‘at primary level, the teacher’s main focus was on literacy skills with the emphasis on creative writing; secondary teachers said that students’ response to literature was their main concern’. This showed the existence of an embedded cultural difference of perspective between secondary and primary, the absence of a common perception of understanding in the subject and a lack of harmonization in approaches to teaching and learning. There was, and to some extent, still is, a perception amongst secondary teachers that Level 4 at KS2 was just not the same as Level 4 at KS3 (Galton et al, 2000).

In the early years of this millennium, there was clearly still room for improvement in terms of initiatives for academic continuity and progression. A range of strategies, such as bridging units or subject projects, were already emerging at this time, aimed at developing a shared culture of teaching and learning across the transition. Galton felt in 2000 that there had been insufficient evaluation of such initiatives and called for further qualitative studies to try to evaluate perceptions of progress.

Useful further reading:

Special edition of the International Journal of Educational Research 33 (2000) including:

Chapter 1: School transitions: beginning of the end or a new beginning? Lorin Anderson, Jacque Jacobs, Susan Schramm, Fred Splittgerber

Chapter 2: Transfer and Transition in English Schools: reviewing the evidence
Maurice Galton, Ian Morrison and Tony Pell

Chapter 7: Academic performance, transfer, transition and friendship: listening to the student voice Helen Demetriou, Paul Goalen, Jean Ruddock

Chapter 8: Concluding comments. Transfer and transition: the next steps Galton and Morrison

Follow this link to the publications section on the DCSF site to downloadTransfer and Transitions in the Middle Years of Schooling (7-14): Continuities and Discontinu
ities in Learning. Galton, Grey, Ruddock. Research report RR443, Department for Education and Skills (2003)

Fight, flight and playing white: An examination of coping strategies adopted by Gipsy Traveller Adolescents in English secondary schools. Chris Derrington, The International Journal of Educational Research 46 (2007)

Follow this link to the publications section on the Teachernet site to download The Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum Final Report Jim Rose, DCSF publications 2009.

Transfer and Transition - Links to the other sections:

Transfer and Transition Introduction
Overview of Transfer and Transition
The Five Bridges
The role of ICT in transition
Supporting Case Studies
Recent Thinking

author: Clare Furlonger
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Role of ICT

Reflection/discussion points and resourcesfor use with trainees

Ask trainees to consider the role of ICT as shown above and to suggest further ways in which ICT might be used to support and develop the bridges.

In terms of effective transition in ICT as a subject, ask trainees to think about how ICT teachers could contribute towards the building of the different bridges in ensuring a smooth transition through the ICT subject curriculum. Trainees could investigate published materials to support the teaching of ICT at key stage two and at key stage three to help develop initial ideas.

A useful ICT related text is Chapter 9, Sharing perspectives across the phases of schooling in Developing the ICT Capable School, (Steve Kennewell, John Parkinson and Howard Tanner, Routledge/Falmer, 2000). This book, probably on most subject booklists, offers an easily accessible ICT perspective on a range of approaches for ICT departments to manage transition which are still applicable. It discusses the five bridges and continuity and progression in the ICT curriculum in the light of them. Web 2.0 tools, offer easier communication and may prove more effective in supporting liaison so it may be useful to encourage trainees to consider the strategies for transition in the light of advances in technology and their own experiences in schools. In addition, there is consideration of the different themes of the ICT curriculum (from the previous National Curriculum but easily adaptable to the recent revised KS3 curriculum). This could be used as a supporting resource for an activity in which trainees consider the Key Stage 2 curriculum and think about how specific ICT curriculum projects or shared schemes of work could promote continuity, progression and engagement in ICT at the start of Key Stage 3.

Download Moving On: The Role of ICT in Transition (2004) from the BECTA website. It looks at a range of transition projects in schools that have utilised ICT in building the five bridges and in doing so, have also provided valuable contexts for developing ICT capability. Each example provides some useful questions which can be adapted for use with ITE trainees of any subject.

The Teachers TV series, Hot Management has an episode, Summer Surfing, in which a South London school provides an interactive link with feeder primaries through a shared website. This could provide an excellent stimulus for discussion with ICT trainees about which transition bridges this project might contribute to. You might also discuss ways in which ICT tools could be used in the development of Bridging Units, supporting curriculum continuity and enabling shared pedagogical approaches across the transition.

The Supporting Case Studies section is an additional resource containing examples of transition projects. Ask trainees to study selected examples and identify additional or alternatives ways in which ICT could be used to develop and enhance the impact of the projects.

Transfer and Transition - Links to the other sections:

Transfer and Transition Introduction
Overview of Transfer and Transition
The Five Bridges
Influential Research
Supporting Case Studies
Recent Thinking


author: Clare Furlonger
email the author

Supporting Case Studies