ABSTRACT
Most schools nowadays have comprehensive transition programmes which help support children as they move up from primary to secondary education. They visit their new school, meet the teachers, learn about the new routines and expectations, and get a flavour of what lessons will be like. In many schools, it has long been common practice for teachers simply to start from scratch, particularly in foundation subjects. The impact of this is effectively to negate prior learning. It opens up a huge progress gap between Key Stages 2 and 3, and inevitably leads to a slower pace of learning. The introduction of multi-academy trusts has perhaps made this easier to achieve, but even where primary schools have little contact with one another – as can be the case in rural areas – it should be the aim of secondary colleagues to find out as much as they can about the topics and skills taught in Years 5 and 6.
