A guide to secondary transition

By Paul Jenkins, Head of Secondary Transition

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Why Transition?

Change is exciting and beautiful. All children at the end of Year Six have changed so profoundly from the toddlers they once were when they started at their chosen Prep schools, they are yearning for something new. They are pounding on the doors to a challenging world and one which they, at least in part, want to choose. Change is not only necessary for a thriving eleven-year-old, but desirable. This is the first time in their life that your child can have some influence on where they go to school. They want to own their place at secondary school, to know exactly what they have done to get there, and to know that they deserve it.

There is no denying that change is also scary. Indeed, the uncertainty of the move to secondary school can conjure up raw fear and induce panic in parents. But the secondary transition beast can be tamed and navigated with the support of your child’s Prep school.

What is the ‘right’ school?

For a secondary school to be right for a child, there are three distinct areas which must be addressed.

1) The ethos and nature of the school

Each school will perform the essential task of educating children with different ways, emphases and atmospheres. The older and more established the ‘brand’ of the school, then the more proud of these it will be. If a school is single sex or mixed, is attached to a faith and to what degree, has a special extra-curricular focus such as sport, music, science, art, etc will all shape the spirit that child finds themselves in. The precise balance of emphasis on academics versus extracurricular will also affect the ‘feeling’ of the school. Furthermore, the majority of the children who are at the school will have chosen it because of whatever atmosphere it has and this serves to enhance it even more.

In addition, parents need to assess how schools will view their child’s unique quirks. Every child must start a secondary school in which they like the feeling and the whole ethos rings true for their personality. Assuming they will just assimilate and fit in someday is akin to squeezing a square peg into a circular hole. It will undoubtedly be unnecessarily painful.

2) The academic level of the child’s peers

For a child to do well at secondary school, they must want to work. However, in addition to a child’s innate level of love for learning and curiosity, children will want to work if they are content with their academic position within the class. Children, albeit subconsciously, rank themselves alongside their peers and they are outstandingly accurate in this!

If a child perceives they are at the bottom of the class, then self-esteem problems may arise and, as teenage issues set in, gain in severity until the child gives up. If a child is clearly at the top in everything, this may be quite nice for the first few years, and definitely a more positive situation than perceiving themselves at the bottom. However, it is unlikely that this will be sustainable until they are eighteen. For a child to be so clearly at the top means we are relying alone on their innate love of learning as there will be no competitive pushing from their peers.

Of course, this is a generalisation and it is also necessary to consider the psychology of the individual child. If a child is very competitive and requires lots of similarly academic people around them for them to want to work, then this is markedly different from a child who is particularly alert to the attainment of others and feels stressed by the pressure to ‘keep up’ with them. Talk to the teachers at your child’s Prep school about how your child is happiest working and keep this knowledge uppermost in your mind when finding the right school.

3) The location and journey to the school

It is easy to forget that the right school for every child is one which they can get to and from relatively easily. A routinely stressful or overlong journey will unravel all the work done in selecting the right school and it will become absolutely the wrong school.

How to find the right schools

Talking to other parents and using internet forums does nothing but create confusion and stress. By far the best source of information and direction towards the right schools are the senior members of staff at your child’s current primary school. They will know your child’s academic level, attitude, quirks and peer choices and be able to map all of this onto previous pupils’ successes at different secondary schools. They will have years of knowledge, not only of getting children through the exams, but also as to how well they did or are doing there.

So, the first stage should be a meeting with the Head or Head of Secondary Transition at your child’s primary school to formulate an initial list of three or four appropriate schools (more than this will become difficult to manage). It is unwise to make visits to schools before this list is generated as it is easy to be ‘wowed’ and ‘fall in love’ with schools which may be wholly inappropriate for your child.

Turning ‘appropriate’ schools into the ‘right’ schools requires parents and children to visit them. Open Days are a good first entry. The tours are usually done by pupils and these give a reasonable indication as to how your child’s peers will behave and present themselves should they choose that school. Do they hold doors open? How do they talk with each other? As well as seeing the physical spaces and classrooms, they also allow some questioning of teaching staff and information gathered from the Head’s speech.

However, Open Days are heavily stage-managed and operate through a marketing and business lens. The pupils and staff are trained for these events so you are not really experiencing the school working as it usually does. The next stage is to book a visit during the school day. These are excellent opportunities to ask questions which will add greater value and insight into whatever feelings a family already has. Examples include:

How long has the Head been in post? How long do staff tend to stay at the school? - These questions allow an understanding of how confident and established the school’s ethos or brand is. If there is a high turnover of staff, then doubts as to the happiness of the teachers may arise. Well-treated staff are more likely to deliver the learning environment that parents are hoping for.

What is the academic pressure of the school? Are the pupils streamed by ability? - These questions will give valuable insight into how the school will teach your child and, more importantly, how happy they will be working there.

How is the welfare of the pupils monitored and supported? What is the reporting procedure and general communication with parents? What is the school’s approach to further education and careers?- These questions will give insight into the social atmosphere and spirit of the learning environment.

Any questions to do with your child’s particular talents or interests are also perfect for these situations.

Applications

Once you have met with your child’s school’s senior staff, have visited the schools deemed appropriate, and hopefully all decided on at least one ‘right’ school, then you are ready to apply.

Applications are completed by parents, supported by a reference provided by your child’s current school. At the application stage you will also need to indicate if you wish to enter your child for an extracurricular scholarship (sports, drama, art, music etc). Many schools require additional information for extracurricular scholarship applications, such as a personal statement from the child, and further references. NB- parents do not need to apply for an academic scholarship, these are offered to the top-performing children in the entry exam.

Virtually all independent schools require your child to pass an exam and some kind of interview. Generally speaking, three or four schools are optimal: one school being the ‘right’ school, one or two being good ‘back-up’ schools (with a slightly easier exam) and one slightly more ambitious school with a harder (although not unrealistic) exam.

It is important at this stage to think carefully about the exam dates. If a child is doing more than four schools, whichever exams occur latest will represent a serious challenge to the energy the child has to perform at their best. If this happens to be your ‘first choice’ school, this could cause problems. Equally, if your first choice school happens to be the first exam, then it may be advisable to also apply to a school which has an earlier exam date. Your child will be nervous and the whole experience of doing the ‘real thing’ for the first time at the first-choice school may prove overwhelming.

Throughout this period, it is essential to maintain communication with your child’s Prep school.

Pupil Preparation

If your child is at an independent preparatory school that does not go beyond Year 6 (or Year 8), then they will be preparing your child for passing the exams required by schools deemed appropriate by the staff. They will be preparing your child for all aspects of the exam and interview, and ensuring that they are ready to pass them at the time that they will actually be doing them.

It is the months and weeks leading up to the exams that parents usually find most difficult. No primary school will be able to absolutely guarantee that any child passes an exam. Putting it bluntly, every child has the capacity to mess them up regardless of their academic level. This uncertainty can cause parents to want their child to do ever greater amounts of work in an effort to reduce their own feelings of stress. While understandable, this is should be avoided as it can lead to the child ‘burning out’. No child should be doing copious amounts of test papers or story writing in the evenings or at the weekend. This is totally unnecessary, can hugely upset the family balance, and could see your child’s performance in the actual exams negatively impacted.

If doing nothing really does not sit well with you, and you want your child to be doing something extra, then there are a variety of ‘10 minute’ tests (commercial 11+ books such as CGP) in all the exam disciplines - English Comprehension, Maths, Verbal and Non-verbal Reasoning - which can be bought very easily. The ‘10 minutes’ test format is excellent as they come with answers, explanations for parents and, most importantly, are designed to not cause unnecessary pressure on your child.

Home preparation should be about ensuring your child eats well, does physical exercise, reads for pleasure, sees friends and family and keeps their curiosity well nourished. A gentle practising of times tables or maths facts or reminding them about their skills, interests and awards (so important for their interview), are all healthy features of home preparation. But, this must be gentle and not explicitly related to interviews or passing exams. Indeed, overly preparing a child for an interview can cause wildly bizarre performances and obviously adult-inspired answers. These are certain to damage a child’s application.

A final note on tutoring

Some parents try to alleviate the uncertainty of the secondary transition process by hiring private tutors. If a child likes the sessions and has a good relationship with the tutor, then this can be a positive experience. If they do not enjoy them, then they should stop. It should be remembered, though, that if a child needs extra tuition in order to pass a school’s exam, then they will likely require that tuition once they start the school and maybe all the way through. This is something most parents do not find appealing. It is vital to view the exam not as a hurdle that your child needs to get over, but rather as a sign of the life they will lead once they attend the school.

Key Points