The jump from Year 6 to Year 7 cannot be underplayed: pupils, teachers and parents are all wise to the fact that there will be a teething period.
A large focus is placed upon pupil wellbeing (and rightfully so) in their transition from primary to secondary; but, for many schools, this comes at the expense of building upon pupils’ prior subject knowledge. Instead of allowing time to ensure that basic accuracy is in place, secondary English teachers are encouraged to go full steam ahead into the KS3 curriculum.
Experienced teachers report that this hurtling approach often leads to poor writing outcomes. Is the pupil able to use rhetorical questions in a persuasive text? Yes. Is the same pupil able to construct coherent, accurately punctuated sentences? Far too often, the answer is no.
KassiElla Rankine (a primary teacher) and Leanne Punchard (a former secondary English teacher) are both Subject Advisors for stylus, supporting in the development of our curriculum and feedback process. They sat down to discuss how to close the gap in the transition from primary to secondary writing.
Let’s start by considering what is expected by the end of primary school. What level of accuracy would you expect from a Year 6 pupil?
KassiElla: To reach EXS (the ‘expected standard’) at the end of the KS2, a child would need to be able to write accurately punctuated sentences and use a variety of grammatical features taught. They would also be expected to write effectively for a range of purposes; if a child can write expertly crafted narratives but doesn't know the first thing about how to write a letter, this would be a red flag for a moderator.
Leanne: Is it true that children at KS2 still need to join their writing?
KassiElla: Yes, if they want to reach EXS. Their joined writing needs to be legible.
Leanne: Do you think this is still necessary? At KS3, we can often find it quite difficult to read. We don’t encourage them to write this way, so it feels like it’s an unnecessary skill for primary schools to put so much focus on. I can’t remember ever reading a mock GCSE essay or exam paper that used cursive writing. These sorts of things would be a great discussion point at a KS2/KS3 networking event, wouldn’t they?
KassiElla: Yes! And, although it’s a good skill to have, I agree that it’s a very out-dated expectation. As long as their writing is legible, what does it matter if it’s joined or not? As an adult, I actually had to re-teach myself how to join when training to become a teacher so that I could model it to my pupils. Valuable time, gone - for myself and my pupils!
What are the most common mistakes you see in KS2? Are they the same mistakes that are seen in KS3?
KassiElla: Capital letters and full stops is a big one, despite the skill being taught from the very beginning of their education in Early Years. From conversations I’ve had, it appears to be a common grievance amongst KS2 teachers. The question remains, however, why? Are children too absorbed in what they’re writing and simply forget to demarcate their sentences? Or is there a lack of understanding about what a sentence actually is?
More often, I find the latter to be the case. It’s a personal bugbear of mine when children demarcate their sentences prematurely: “At the end of the day.” At the end of the day, what? What happened?
In a similar vein, comma splicing can bring an excellently-crafted piece of writing to its knees. This unclarity around what makes a sentence a sentence leads to a series of lessons solely addressing this misconception. What’s the point in teaching my class how to write a persuasive letter that’ll knock its reader’s socks off if they don’t know when one sentence ends and the next one begins?
Leanne: I agree with you that it’s a lack of understanding. With one of my lower ability Year 10 classes, I came away from the lesson plan to teach a lesson on commas and subordinate clauses. I used drama and movement to help them understand the emphasis on certain parts of the sentence and it really clicked. They all told me they hadn’t really understood it that clearly before. Unfortunately, I then put us one lesson behind the scheme of work, which wasn’t ideal in a team-teaching environment. However, I believed it was really important and, I am convinced, they will forever remember that lesson and to never comma splice again!
KassiElla: That’s really telling, isn’t it? The ‘conveyor belt’ curriculum clearly isn't one size fits all. If the same problem occurs every year then, at some point, the curriculum needs to stop and address it. Teachers should be able to spend time intervening but, as you say, moving away from the scheme causes its own set of problems.
Do Year 7 secondary teachers every get the chance to speak with Year 6 primary teachers to discuss what skills their students may be lacking?
Leanne: No, unfortunately not. There is simply not enough time. Saying that, I do know that pastoral leaders communicate about specific children's needs, and quite rightly so; however, it’s not so much about their educational development. It would be wonderful to be able to have more of an understanding about a child’s educational journey before teaching them yourself.
Before I left the profession, I would often joke about the dream of training and networking within the working day. In my current role (still within education) I get to do that a lot. The irony! In-house teacher training is often after a full day of teaching, which isn’t really the most productive time for a teacher. They will be worrying about all of the marking they have yet to complete, phone calls they need to make, and lessons to plan.
In an ideal world, we would be invited to a networking event, towards the end of term, where we could meet primary school teachers and discuss ideas that could help the transition from primary to secondary. Imagine saying to a new Year 7 student, ‘I met with your Year 6 teacher before the end of term. They told me how well you did at X and that you’re ready to start on Y.'
After speaking with you, Kassi, I do wonder whether I could have pitched my expectations much higher with my Year 7 classes. Perhaps we allow Year 6 to get lazy over the summer holidays! Even though we would always set the Year 6 students a summer task before joining us, more communication with their previous teachers would have been much more beneficial in the long term.
KassiElla: I agree! I know for a fact that transition conversations do happen but that these are centered around children’s individual context, background and wellbeing. Although this is incredibly important, I feel there needs to be a place to talk about academics, too.
Does ‘greater depth’ mean anything to secondary English teachers?
KassiElla: To give some context here, most primary schools use three judgements: WTS (working towards the ‘expected standard’), EXS (the ‘expected standard’) and GDS (working at greater depth within the ‘expected standard’). In a nutshell, a child working at greater depth has mastered the learning expected for their age and stage and is therefore able to delve ‘deeper’.
Leanne: After speaking with a former colleague of mine, I have found out that greater depth has been phased into the school I worked at. It seems to be more apparent in secondary schools that are part of a multi-academy trust as there is, understandably, much more communication between primary and secondary teaching. They are no longer using conclusive grades at KS3 and are using vocabulary from greater depth.This isn’t something I have personally worked with though.
How does the focus change between the two key stages?
KassiElla: From a KS2 perspective, our biggest focus when teaching writing is accuracy. I’m talking capital letters, full stops, apostrophes, commas and clauses.
For the more able children, this would stretch to semi-colons and parentheses too. We want children to leave primary school being able to correctly write and punctuate a sentence in a variety of ways. The content of their writing does not have to particularly interest the reader, as long as it is accurate (and relevant).
Leanne: I used to teach stand-alone Literacy lessons in Year 7, which meant we would go over everything you have just mentioned. However, it was always really great when students were already confident in this area and we could have fun with it (rather than me feeling like I was the punctuation police!) We could then get them thinking more about things like variation of sentence types which, in turn, helped with our bigger focus of writing for purpose and creating an atmosphere in our writing.
Writing for purpose is really important at GCSE, so this is often introduced early on when students first join us in Year 7.
KassiElla: Writing for purpose shouldn’t be new to Year 7 children. Throughout a child’s primary education, they are taught to write for various purposes: to entertain, inform, describe, discuss and persuade. We would expect a child to change their writing to fit a given purpose - and audience - by choosing an appropriate structure as well as considering their use of vocabulary.
Having said that, these are often approached as the more challenging skills that a child can learn. As they are still in the ‘primary’ phase of their education, the focus needs to remain on the all-important skills (punctuation and sentence structure) that form the foundations of any piece of writing.
Is there a bigger crossover between the two curriculums than first thought?
Leanne: Talking to you, Kassi, I have realised that there were definitely times where I had planned new lessons for my Y7 students that were covering skills they’d already learnt in Y6! So I could have actually been challenging them much more than I thought. Doesn’t this just highlight how important these discussions are?
I suppose it’s difficult because not all students come from the same primary school. You also, sometimes, get students who have moved away from another area as well.
I really believe that, to be able to move forward, we need to get KS2 and KS3 teachers together. But we need time. There is not enough time for teachers as it is.
Ironically, however, time will be saved in the long-run as we wouldn’t need to re-teach some of the basics and we would be able to move on to teaching top level GCSE skills much earlier.
KassiElla: I agree. It seems as though KS3 is more of an extension of KS2, rather than an entirely new entity. There’s definitely a time and a place for re-teaching but the question remains: what is worth being re-taught? Teachers are constantly fighting against the clock to squeeze an overwhelming curriculum into a very limited timeframe.
You’re right, Leanne - communication with their Year 6 teachers would point Year 7 teachers in the right direction. This would allow them to plan ‘re-teach’ lessons around their scheme of work rather than having to live-react and make sacrifices to teach an off-the-cuff lesson about commas.
The all-important question: how do we close the gap?
Leanne: More communication between Year 6 and Year 7 teachers. We need to find time for this to be able to happen. If teachers gained time from less marking, then meeting other teaching professionals could actually happen. I believe this could also reignite some excitement back into the teaching world. Too much time is spent within the four walls of our classrooms, marking in solitude!
Teachers are creative professionals; they need to get out and meet other like-minded people.
KassiElla: Communication! Multi-academy trusts have the right idea in their approach to networking across primary and secondary schools. However, I often find these conversations are happening between SLT rather than classroom-based teachers that could really benefit from the support. The reason for this is often lack of time (and, potentially, lack of cover).
Leanne: This is why I’m so excited about stylus. One of the main reasons I left the profession is because of the unmanageable workload and the lack of time to experiment with new teaching ideas. I love learning from, and sharing ideas with, others - surely this is vital within the teaching profession.
If all schools could benefit from the stylus AI marking service, that would free up so much time for teachers. Headteachers could then allocate time away from the classroom and teachers could be set free to meet other teachers! Imagine that!
KassiElla: From what we’ve discussed, it doesn’t appear that secondary schools have the capacity to give their teachers time to learn about their new Year 7 pupils. Even if this time was granted, it would be too much information for any one teacher to hold in their head and action all at once. That’s what makes stylus such a beneficial service, as it takes this burden on for you.
Leanne: If all schools adopted this innovative approach to marking, then I believe that the education system could dramatically improve. Teachers would be able to spend more time working with students - the reason they joined the profession in the first place - and bring creativity back into the classroom which, in turn, would generate a more enriching and memorable experience for their students.
At stylus, we’re using AI marking of student work to give teachers back time. Find out more about howour marking service works here.