ABSTRACT
To any 11-year-old, the shock of leaving a primary school, which usually has fewer than 400 pupils (and is sometimes far smaller), for a large secondary school with more than 1,000 pupils, and sometimes as many as 2,000, should not be underestimated. After all, at primary school, not only does everyone know everybody else, but pupils usually work with a single teacher who covers the whole curriculum. To move from the comparative safety of that often comfortable and reassuring atmosphere into what can seem like the rough and tumble of a secondary school can be traumatic. Not only is a pupil going from being an older child at their former school to being among the youngest at the new school, there is a new approach to learning introduced at the same time. There are usually different teachers for each subject. Pupils often have to move between classes after every period. Homework is more demanding. The expectation that you will take a more rigorous approach to study can come as a shock. Students are drawn from much larger catchment areas, and it can take far longer to get from home to school. On top of all that, the sheer physical size of 18-year-olds, especially boys, compared to 11-year-olds is itself daunting, particularly in those schools where there is still a culture of bullying. And after a summer break, children who are tested in English and mathematics are often found to have regressed significantly from the achievement recorded both in the national Key Stage 2 tests and their primary school teacher's own assessment. It is hardly surprising that many head teachers have started to experiment with new ways to make the transition from primary to secondary school easier.
