Can a child make great strides at secondary school even if they've had a poor primary experience?

[Sthlonmum]

Hi, My DS is in year 6 and he is off to sec school in Sept. His experience at his state primary hasn't been great but I feel a lot of that is to do with the school and the sub standard teaching and disruption in teachers that he has had. We have decided to send him to an independent school in Sept with better pastoral care, facilities, smaller class sizes and, hopefully, better teaching. We have just had a letter from his primary saying their Ofsted report is out tomorrow and from the tone it doesn't sound great. I just wondered if anyone could reassure me that he will still be able to flourish when he gets to a new school despite this disappointing primary stage. I am just kicking myself we didn't go down the independent route or change schools earlier. He should get level 4 in his SATS, a possible 5 in maths, so it's not a disaster but I just want to know he will be able to reach his potential. Any help/views?

My son had a horrible time at state junior school, hated it and yes the school was c**p.

Now in yr 8 in a small good state secondary. It is has been very positive, us and downs but now coming to the end of year 8 I am very proud of him when I think how bad things were at end of year 6.

From experience I would say, yes, definitely he has every opportunity to excel. Enjoy and good luck.

Absolutely, secondary school was the making of my eldest DS. Stay positive, I hope your DS enjoys this next big step.

Oh yes - of course he can. I've tutored students who were 2a in Maths at year 5 but by Year 10 were already achieving grade C GCSE standard, who got 6 marks in a practice year 6 SATs test but got grade c in GCSE in Year 11, who went from grade C/D borderline in a science subject to A* in 6 months, who got D's in first attempt at science GCSE and claimed he didn't understand a word of it and it all went "over his head" in lessons, to getting full marks in all his (foundation) GCSE science papers the following year.

The best bit though is seeing students start to gain in self-confidence and believe in themselves, to realise that they can learn and make progress and can achieve more than they ever thought!

All good wishes to your son in his new school.

If you want to get him off to a good start, get him to practice his times tables over the holiday until he is fluent in all of them - (if he isn't already fluent of course.) It doesn't have to be a big deal -
"Mum can I go on the computer/Ipad/etc?" "Can I go out on my bike?" "Can I go round to x's house"
"Yes but say your 6/7/8 table correctly to me first".

If he is good at saying them forwards, get him to say them forwards and backwards!

Thank you for all your words of encouragement so far. Feeling much more positive rather than full of guilt!

Thank you for all your words of encouragement so far. Feeling much more positive rather than full of guilt!

Ds2 has a dreadful year 5&6 - academically okay, not fantastic but okay, but everything else awful. Has just finished year 7 & has loved every minute - doing better academically as well

Ds2 has thrived in secondary. It is a normal comp which has just come out of special measures (for sen provision). The senco is awesome, she is fairly new after special measures and the pastoral care is fab.
Ds2 was level 3/4 in sats and is now hitting b's.

yes, lots of kids thrive in secondary school. Kids mature at different rates and its often down to motivation. Sometimes it just starts to click for some children.