Summary - This is a case study about how 8 Sefton schools of varying types, with over 2000 pupils between them, came togehter to improve transition.

Context

The eight schools involved are: Manor High School; Crosby High School; Valewood Primary School; St Lukes Halsall Primary School; St John’s Primary School; Waterloo Primary School; St Nicholas Primary School; and Rawson Road Primary School. One is a mainstream high (currently community, to become C of E as of Sept 2005), one a special high (MLD), three are C of E primaries and three are community primary schools. They are located in the Crosby, Blundellsands, Waterloo, and Seaforth areas of Sefton, Merseyside. It is worth noting that a significant percentage of pupils attending both high schools live in wards which fall into the 10% most deprived nationally.  Three of the six primary schools also demonstrate high FSM percentages.

Activities

In order to improve transition between primary and secondary school, a number of activities were set up.

The Buddy Club was aimed at Y7 pupils identified as being ‘at risk’ of not integrating well into secondary school (because of a number of reasons relating to socio-economic situations, ability). All other activities involved the children moving to Manor High from cluster primary schools as well as those moving from the special bases at Waterloo Primary school to Crosby High School.

Towards the end of the summer term, those Y6 pupils in the primary schools going to Manor HS and who fit the criteria were identified.  Simultaneously, current Y7 pupils at the HS were invited to apply to be buddies and were provided with relevant training by an outside agency which was Sefton Education Business Partnership which works very closely with the zone.  Both sets of children met together for a series of events during the early part of the summer holiday, supervised by school staff as well as EAZ staff. At the start of the new term in September, a weekly lunch time club was run for these pupils where all issues, concerns, and anxieties were ironed out.  There was also a buddy club run at Crosby High school, but here, because of the constraints in terms of the abilities of the pupils, it was run by a member of the EAZ staff, who also acted as the buddy.

Additionally EAZ personnel, particularly the three home-school liaison officers worked with targeted children on their transition work sheets and liaised with families to help reduce anxieties and fears at this time.

The transition units in English were planned through a series of meetings of the subject co-ordinators in the primary schools, held at the EAZ offices and overseen by the EAZ literacy/numeracy consultant and head of department at Manor High School.  These were then completed during the latter part of the second summer half-term and passed on to Manor High well before the start of the new year. 

Cross –phase bridging units for ICT were also planned in the same way and were completed by the Y6 pupils through attending sessions delivered in the two high schools using the facilities and expertise both were able to offer.

Several members of staff from Manor High school visited Y6 classes in primaries over the latter part of the summer term so that pupils were able to familiarise themselves with their new teachers, and the teachers themselves were able  to measure the pupils’ abilities. 

Resources

Facilities:  ICT and science facilities within the high schools.
Materials:  Relevant transition materials including nationally recommended transition units.
People – eg. school staff, volunteers, private sector personnel, employers, Time of school staff: The four learning mentors at Manor High School, three Zone home-school liaison officers, the Zone Literacy/numeracy consultant, year 6 teachers at the primary schools and selected teachers at the high schools as well as the pastoral teams were all directly involved with these projects.

Funding

We had £20,000 for one year, this included transport, staff time and resources. 

Outcome

Children and their families were able to move on to high school with less uncertainty and anxiety.  This reduced the numbers of children becoming disaffected.

Teachers within the high school were better informed of the nature of the new cohort and were hence able to plan in a more focussed way.

The last two cohorts of Y7 within Manor High school have shown a rise in attainment and attendance to the previous years and the Value added between KS2 and 3 at Manor High School has been held up as good practice within the authority.

NB  This report has been produced in the past tense in order to cover past activities.  However, all projects mentioned above are on-going.