What Stakeholders Think About Moving To Secondary School

Aims
This presentation will report on the findings of a two-year longitudinal study into the transition to secondary school, carried out in partnership with a cluster of one secondary school and six primary schools in a Scottish city. The focus of this presentation will be the findings related to the transition experiences of pupils moving from cluster or non-cluster primary schools.

Methods
The views of pupils, their parents and professionals from the primary and secondary schools were sought in the two year study, through the use of online questionnaires which collected both qualitative and quantitative data.

Main Findings
The initial thematic analysis of findings suggested that some stakeholders from non-cluster primary schools had a less positive transition experience, and that those from cluster primary schools had a more positive experience.
The in-depth analysis suggests, however that there is a variance of transition experience which is not confined to having attended a cluster or non-cluster primary school, and so an assumption that being from a cluster primary school (or not) is what makes the difference, may be neither fair nor accurate.

Conclusions
Most pupils’ experience of the transition to secondary school is positive. There are lessons to be learned from stakeholders where things did not go as smoothly, and the recommendations arising from these would be equally applicable to cluster and non-cluster primary school partners.