What would Y6 teachers like to tell Secondary Schools

[SheerWill]

Hi Everyone, I'm putting together a presentation for a Teachmeet in March about the transition from KS2 to KS3. I used to work in primary as a Y5 teacher and now teach SEN English and Maths at secondary. But obviously haven't taught KS2 since the new curriculum has been introduced. I know this is a bit cheeky but want to give KS3/4 teachers as accurate a picture as possible of what Y6 is like, so they know where the students have come from.

I've found it quite interesting the difference between Primary and Secondary and want to do my bit to bridge the gap. My plan atm is to describe what a typical day for a Y6 student/ teacher involves, typical week and year. I will give examples of the Y6 SPAG test, a list of English and Math objectives and describe roughly what the higher/lower ability students will be able to do when they arrive at secondary school in september.

As a Y6 teacher, what would you like the secondary school teachers to know? If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance x

Wait, actually no, what I asked does make sense. You just be able to level that piece even if that goes towards a bigger picture? Say 10 pieces with a range of 4c - 5c might level around around 4a but each pier could be levelled?

*just = must and pier = piece. Stupid fat fingers!

As a secondary teacher I would see a KS3 class twice a week for a double lesson. If I hadn't had that class before then it would take weeks to start to get to know the kids properly and then of course you might see 200 other kids in a week. It's better as they go up the school as they might have the same teacher again at some point but it's a huge change and I'm not surprised there is a dip. They go from a situation where the teacher really knows them, to a situation where if they are quiet and well behaved it might be several weeks before all the teachers have got their name right. I would have loved a better handover of our new year 7s- a short report from their primary scjool that gives you a heads up on their quirky little ways. Also better communication between primary and secondary on what is covered in KS2- as ever, it's time. I day down with a primary friend and the science curriculum once and was amazed at the overlap. When they get to us you'd think they had never seen a circuit. My theory is they keep prior knowledge under wraps so they can feel more confident in what is a very tricky transition.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your replies.

It's been really interesting to have everyone's feedback on this topic.

I think the shift in how the schools are organised has a massive impact on children at the beginning of year 7. Rather than having one person know them and support them pastorally, academically these jobs are divided up amongst too many people and many of the kids don't know who to go to and neither do the parents. A child that is struggling or being a pain in the arse might not be picked up and dealt with for ages, because they're seen by so many different people who are mainly focusing on their Y13 and Y11 (understandably as this is probably what their pay rise is dependent on). By the time it is made known to the parents (say at a parents evening) there might be anger that this wasn't made known earlier - but it's not as easy to join up the dots in secondary.

With levelling - I'm a a Primary teacher working within a secondary school, teaching SEN. I actually find KS3 is marked too leniently especially lower levels e.g. level 2, 3 and 4. I taught Y5 prior and had much higher expectations of what children needed to achieve across a range of genres before giving a level.

It must make a difference to go from 1 hour of English a day + guided reading and extra time spent on SPAG etc, to not even a hour a day - possibly with teachers sharing a class too. It's bound to have an impact on levels and prevent progress in Y7.

I also think that in KS2, we're learning things in topics where all pieces of writing have purpose, are celebrated and thinking is joined up. I have Y8s currently studying Tribe, the Bruce Parry series and they did it last year in Geog. Nobody seems to have an overview of what is taught to each year group, in each subject over the year. Cross-curricular links between subjects would help forge links in student's understanding I think.