Welsh school transition planning

This report by Estyn (the inspectorate for children's services in Wales), evaluates the initial impact of transition plans and their use by primary-secondary school partnerships to improve the quality of learning and standards and includes case studies of good practice in key areas.

Transition plans are the means by which secondary schools and their partner primary schools formalise their arrangements to work together on curriculum, learning and assessment issues that relate to the 7-14 phase of education. This follows Welsh only legislation requiring schools to cooperate in this area.

Key points:
- While most schools have improved some aspects of transition, particularly pastoral support, only a few primary and secondary schools have comprehensive arrangements to secure effective transition arrangements, including:
• agreed approaches to managing and co-ordinating transition with partners;
• joint curriculum planning to ensure continuity and progression in learning;
• arrangements to achieve continuity in teaching and learning that build on primary school methods;
• ways to achieve consistency in assessment and to monitor and track pupils’ progress against prior attainment; and
• the means to evaluate the impact of transition arrangements on standards.
- As a result, pupils often slip back when they move from primary to secondary school because they do not receive teaching appropriate to their needs and abilities.
- Plans include information on how schools intend to improve arrangements in the five core aspects of transition. Nearly all plans also include arrangements in optional areas, such as pastoral links.
- The clusters2 of schools that have the best plans know what they have achieved so far and have identified specific priorities for improvement that they plan to address over the three-year period 2007-2010. Their transition plans are an integral part of their school improvement agenda and include measurable outcomes for learners.
- The common shortcomings in many transition plans are that they:
• are not evaluative enough;
• are not specific enough to inform planning over a three-year period;
• do not include, where appropriate, national or local initiatives;
• focus too much on processes and not enough on outcomes; and
• do not enable the cluster to measure the impact of planned action.

- The report lists 14 recommendations for schools, LAs and the Welsh Government