The Continuum of Learning – Primary to Secondary Transition

As the above graphic shows, the Curriculum for Wales and the Progression Steps therein have always been intended for use as a continuum, with overlap, throughout the 3-16 learning journey. They were never set out with the intention of certain Progression Steps being aimed solely at specific age groups. However, how do we ensure that this continuum isn’t disrupted by the transition from Primary to Secondary settings?

A Shared Objective

Firstly, it is important the goalposts aren’t moved. For children to have continuous progression along their learning path, it is necessary for Secondary schools and their Primary feeder schools to be aiming for the same thing.

“When coming together to develop their understanding of progression, we envisage primary and secondary school practitioners will consider not only progression at Year 6 and Year 7 but the 3 to 16 continuum as a whole.”

(https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales/assessment-arrangements/transition-from-primary-to-secondary-school-guidance)

Taith360 can help with this. Using either the originally issued descriptions of learning or a customised framework (see our customisable frameworks blog) adopted across the cluster and imported onto Taith360, all schools can be ensuring that they are looking towards developing their pupils along the same skills path. This also means that when the pupils move up to secondary school, the school knows exactly where those pupils sit on the continuum, based on the attainments that have been recorded against the cluster adopted framework. This helps to ensure that the secondary school can pick up right where the primary school left off, rather than taking a step backwards.

Identifying Current Attainment

As the above attainment chart demonstrates, pupils can be developing in more than one Progression Step at any given time. But the key is, if teachers and school staff know where their pupils are starting from, then they are better equipped to ensure that the children in their care continue to make the progress that they are capable of. With Taith360, because all attainment is recorded against the pupil’s UPN, when the pupil moves to the new school, all attainment data moves with them.

Moving forward in Learning

Once a school has identified where their pupils are currently in their learning, it is then easy to identify where they need to go next, using Taith360:

For any given description of learning, you can see where they are currently (depicted on the left of the bar) and where you might aim to take them next (shown on the right-hand side). So, for the statement shown at the top of the above image, the pupil is currently just emerging in that skill, so to move them on in their learning you will want to get them to a developing or secure level of understanding and application.

Planning for Progression

“transition plans must cover…proposals generally for how continuity of learning will be achieved through curriculum design and planning for learning and teaching for learners in Year 6 transitioning to Year 7”

(https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales/assessment-arrangements/transition-from-primary-to-secondary-school-guidance)

This is also an area that Taith360 can help with, as it can be used to plan for units of work, based on that attainment of pupils to date.

When creating plans on Taith360, you specify which pupils you are planning for by selecting a class, and then the attainments for those pupils recorded to date on the system are pulled through. This enables you to ensure that your planning is pitched correctly in order to meet the needs of the pupils you are teaching, and that pupils aren’t simply looking at something that they have already mastered in their primary school learning.

So, as you can see, Taith360 is intended to be used as a formative tool, highlighting strengths and weaknesses against the 3-16 learning continuum, providing schools with specific next steps of learning based on what each individual pupil’s needs are. Using the tools discussed in this blog, Taith360 can be an invaluable tool in helping secondary schools ensure that the information sent to them from their feeder primaries will aid in addressing the well-known transition ‘dip’.

If you would like to discuss any of this with us in more detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Dan O’Dell

Support Team