The importance of the Year 7 transition

The Pupil Pathway Whitepaper – No learner Left Behind

This blog is a summary of the Year 7 transition section of our Whitepaper – No learner Left Behind. Should you require any further information, or wish to discuss our services, then please use our contact page.

The Year 7 transition

It has long been recognised that this is both a time of concern, and one of opportunity. Children leave their primary school, where they have been known for six or more years and where they enjoy the comfort of a familiar environment, for the challenge of the new: new friends, new subjects, new teachers and new pastoral systems to name but a few.

Most children pass easily through this transition phase, adapting and growing as expected. Some, who perhaps struggled in primary schools, may thrive in the new environment, but others find the process a challenge. This is well documented in both the research and in anecdotal evidence from schools and those who support them. We are all familiar with the KS3 dip in academic performance and downturn in attendance following the Year 7 transition, and as has been recently reported, a further dip in Year 8.

Then there are the children who we know will need detailed individualised planning: those with SEND, those who are looked after, and those who are vulnerable, perhaps with safeguarding issues. Early and detailed information is essential for a successful and inclusive Year 7 transition. It is this category which is examined first.

Year 7 transition and inclusion

The team convened by Tom Rees, Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for Inclusion, has produced the report, Call for Evidence: Inclusion in Practice which showcases: What is already happening in schools to support inclusive practice for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

These observations are contained within five Insights. This section will focus on Insight 1 – Knowing children well, early and often.

Insight 1: Knowing Children Well, Early and Often

As would be expected, Year 7 transition is at the heart of this insight. It is a time of change, and in common with most changes, is one of both concern and opportunity.

The report states the: “Importance of planning ahead, meeting families, and sharing insight across phases and settings to strengthen continuity of support.”

This was found to be particularly important for those pupils who have specific needs, such as SEND. The interventions taken by schools are most impressive. Actions include:

Visiting each primary school to review existing support
Creating small group sessions to meet key adults
Summer term academic and enrichment activities
Inviting selected pupils to summer schools
These interventions gave [staff] time to form relationships and begin adapting support. Sometimes this would require multi-agency support.

Supporting Year 7 transition – a response from Pupil Pathways

To allow these interventions to happen, the secondary schools need accurate and detailed Year 7 transition information about each child, and they need it early. If it arrives late, then there is too little time to intervene before the start of the summer holidays.

At Pupil Pathways, our SixIntoSeven service helps the Year 7 transition process in the following ways:

We work with the schools and local authorities to use staggered transfer deadlines. Those children who are classed as vulnerable have their data uploaded and transferred first.
The Year 7 transition information is transferred in a consistent manner. A typical secondary school will welcome children from 15 or more primary schools, with some receiving from three or four times that number. When this comes through SixIntoSeven, the data is in a standard form, so that needs can be more easily evaluated and scarce support fairly allocated.
As all the information is in one place, it can be immediately shared with the local authority for more efficient decision-making.
Virtual schools can access and support their vulnerable cohort so there is continuity of information, reduced risk and structured handover. Please see this case study from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Absence patterns over the Year 7 transition

This study “The disadvantage gap in absence rates around the Year 6 into 7 transition point“, completed by Katie Beynon and Dave Bibby from FFT Education Datalab, looks at how rates of absence change over the primary to secondary transition. They look at the percentage of sessions missed in Year 6 and 7 by disadvantage, as measured by free school meal eligibility in the past six years (FSM6).

This was an extensive study. They used data from around 200 000 children attending about 10 000 schools in state-funded mainstream schools between 2022/23 and 2023/24 who experienced the Year 7 transition

In their final summary, they note that “Absence rates among disadvantaged pupils increased by more between Year 6 and Year 7 than absence rates among their non-disadvantaged peers. For the pupils in our sample, the disadvantage gap in absence rates grew from 3.0pp in Year 6 to 4.8pp in Year 7.”

They also state “The majority, around two-thirds, of the gap in Year 7 was related to pupils having different patterns of absence in Year 6. This underlines the importance of good data sharing practices at transition.”

The importance of belonging following Year 7 transition

The ImpactED report Understanding Attendance (January 2024) looked at the drivers of pupil absence from over 30,000 young people in England. The authors noted that “School leaders explained to us that many of the strategies they used to manage attendance were no longer as effective after Covid-19” and that “Awareness of sanctions and consequences isn’t strongly linked to improved attendance. Understanding of the importance of school and relationships with peers and teachers were more strongly associated with attendance.”

They then identified a number of drivers which have an impact on attendance in English schools. “[A] Sense of school belonging is a key driver of attendance across all contexts. This may be particularly important for females and is closely linked with feeling safe at school.”

They also highlighted how the challenge of a “second transition” from Year 7 to Year 8 is particularly pronounced for Pupil Premium pupils with SEND.

Year 7 transition – a response from Pupil Pathways

The sense of belonging is increasingly being seen as critical to understanding good attendance and therefore success in schools.

The Pupil Pathways Year 7 transition products allow primary schools to transfer early their knowledge of a child and their family, acquired over many years, to the secondary school. They can then develop a more holistic understanding of their new pupil. We see some secondary schools use this time and information to build early links with the child and those that support them. The child realises that, before they put on their new school uniform, they will be met with members of staff they know, and who know and understand the problems the child might be facing.

Early detailed information can never guarantee a smooth and successful transition, but it can increase the probability of it occurring. This is a challenge which has been taken up by Manchester City Council. You can read how the early transfer of detailed information can help create a smooth transition through targeted interventions. Read more…