A holistic approach to primary-secondary transitions

A longitudinal study was conducted to follow children, in a city in Scotland, to understand their experiences of primary—secondary transition. The children were purposively selected as known to be having/potentially having problems with transition. Initial interviews were conducted with children, their parents and professionals when five were in the first year of secondary school, two in the second year of secondary school and two in the last year of primary school. Follow-up interviews were undertaken with six children again after six months when four were in the second year and two in the first year of the secondary school. Three out of the nine children were finding it difficult to deal with transition even at the follow-up. The issue of transition was complex, with considerable impact of a child's internal attributes, family, peers, school systems, professionals and community on his/her primary—secondary transition being successful or not.