Appendix 2
Notes taken during the All Wales Primary Adviser's Conference 12/12/2003

Extending Our Understanding of Transition Issues

Specific transition projects/initiatives:

Ceredigion:

• Pupils in year 6 spend a total of 10% of their school time in the secondary school. This equates to one day every fortnight for the whole year.
• Funding is via WAG money.
• There is an emphasis on avoiding the term 'project' because there is a need to sustain arrangements on a longer term.
• Also in one secondary school (with a 5 form entry) one class imitates the primary teaching styles and 'principles'. Emphasis is placed on ensuring that pupils have more contact with the same teacher and within a constant setting.
• This has proved to be such a success that parents have made requests for children to be moved to that class.
• A thinking skills initiative is also ongoing aimed at bridging years 6 and 7.
• Early signs suggest that these steps that are aimed at addressing continuity and progression issues have been successful.

Vale of Glamorgan(Barry Comprehensive):

• PSE bridging unit initiated by the English Dept. All the teachers in the English Dept. were the form teachers for the year 7 pupils. They also taught PSE to year 7, thus ensuring that pupils had more contact with the same teachers. This has proved to be very successful.
• Instead of having a 'normal' teachers' evening in year 7, the year 7 pupils were invited to present to parents a summary of the work that they had undertaken in maths / English/ and one other subject of the pupil's preference. 'The learner at the centre of the learning process.'
• English Dept. were cynical to begin with, but the evening proved to be a spectacular success. There was increased attendance (over 80%) and those pupils whose parents did not attend were able to present to teachers and / or headteachers from their primary schools.
• Ruth Sutton said that in Winnipeg this is commonplace. There is a feeling in the UK that parents don't necessarily see pupils as learners – all research shows that having somebody to take an interest is important.
• Pupils are far too often deprived of responsibility in KS3 (compared with their experience in Yr. 6).

Gwynedd:

• Use of data project. All pupils are ranked by order of raw score in core subjects SATs results (Welsh, English, Maths and Science). The secondary schools then look at achievement at the end of KS3 in these corresponding subjects and are able to measure value added. This has heightened the awareness of pupils' attainment on entry in secondary schools.

Other issues that were discussed relevant to continuity and progression:

• Involvement of social services
• Year 7 form teachers need to teach in their own room
• INSET days are about perspiration not inspiration, i.e getting a keynote speaker in to deliver is not the best way forward, it's more about teachers sitting down together and talking, e.g. looking at the work of pupils who have transferred together in November and ask if pupils have made progress
• 'Rattle assumptions' – every 6 weeks teachers need to get together to explore and explode practice
• Are we planning for coverage or planning for learning?
• Utilising 'year 7 corridors' in secondary schools to reduce movement
• INSET days should be organised as a progression of learning activities

Continue: Appendix 3