Today we held our first primary secondary partnership, focused on transition between Key Stage 2 to 3. Colleagues from our feeder primary schools joined us for the afternoon. We selected a representative sample of students across Year 7 to help shape our conversations, evaluations and reflections. Our learning conversations were very much focused on how we can help each other in supporting our learners between phases.

Key questions ahead of the session included:

• How does the level of literacy and numeracy compare to that in Year 6?
• How does the level of challenge within learning over time compare to that in Year 6?
• Is the level of expectation appropriate for high prior attaining students?
• Is the level of support appropriate for low prior attaining students?
• Is there opportunity to build in cross-phase approaches to learning over time to make transition more cohesive for our learners?
• How can we support our learners more effectively together?

Conversations revolved around the collective focus we have on literacy in Year 7 and how we can ensure standards of spelling, punctuation and grammar seen in Year 6 are maintained and then built upon. Interesting too were the conversations on pace, pitch and challenge in Year 7. Primary colleagues spoke of the depth and rigour of learning in Year 6. We spoke of the need to see more work from primary classrooms, to help shape our understanding of what Year 7 students can be capable of when stretched.

A detailed breakdown of our conversations and feedback will be coming out shortly.

We will repeat the process again in the new year.