Having been at my Year 6 post for more than half the year now, it’s probably fair to say this post is unconscionably late. What can I offer by way of excuses? Well, September was lost in a terrifying whirl, while I realised everything I didn’t know, October was camp, and I’ve just been running to catch up with myself ever since. I don’t have any good excuses.
To start with, I was a fish completely out of water. I have always thought that teachers develop a classroom ‘persona’, which is, to varying levels, themselves. It became clear very fast, that my classroom persona, enjoyed at secondary level (by most!) was entirely inappropriate for 10 year-olds. The banter, the gentle jokes, the dry humour – all unsuitable for an audience more interested in hugs and extra golden time from their teacher. I found it incredibly hard to change who I am in class.
The intensity of the routine was difficult for me at first, too. All day, no lesson changeover to speak of – and never have I dreaded rain so much! Wet play: words to strike fear into the heart of a parched teacher. No non-contact lessons during a day, except once a week – I suddenly appreciated all the snatches of ‘down’ time that I had taken for granted at my last school.
I’ve learnt a lot about myself, too. Largely useless facts, really. For example, I’ve learnt that I don’t like mess very much. Any casual visitor to my home will be hooting with laughter at this point, but what can I say? The classroom is obviously different. Make that wet mess (paint, vomit) and I’m positively phobic. I also have, apparently, a very low tolerance for animal noises. One member of my class, almost exclusively, has helped me along that particular voyage of discovery. No prizes, BPA people.
But having adjusted, I’m developing all sorts of theories about the transition process, and the reasons behind some students’ lack of progress at KS3. At the moment, I think it’s about the following things, very broadly:
- Environment
- Assessment
- Knowledge of curriculum coverage.
My last post touched on environment, in one of the ways that I think it’s an issue – the learning environment. A primary school classroom supports learning in every one of its displays – the VCOP wall or board, the learning walls, the displays of synonyms, sentence reminders, story maps, maths calculation processes, times tables, question stems – and that’s besides the reminders of how work will be marked, and so on. There is no wallpaper, everything is used, referred to and functional. Every secondary classroom could have a VCOP board, supporting students with the vocabulary and sentencing required in that particular subject, as I said in my last post. Or subject-specific VCOP pyramids; the template is overwriteable. If that’s a word.
There’s more to this environment business, though, I realise. Their wider physical environment, the whole school, is one that is so safe and familiar to them – they’ve been here for years, my Year 6. They know every pupil in the school, and every teacher. Every teacher and pupil knows them. They are entirely safe and secure in their own classroom, or anywhere else in the school. They don’t have to move anywhere. If anything the slightest bit unpleasant happens to them (a playtime argument, for example), they come rushing in to their teacher, who will sort it out. Their teacher is part of the safe, familiar furniture too. They are the big fish in the small pond. I know I’ve already mentioned fish.
Of course I had considered this big fish idea before, but previously underestimated its importance. Now that I’m here, I realise that they are very at home. Not that that’s a bad thing – it’s just a sharp contrast. In seven months, my class will be in a place where they have no classroom which they can truly call home in the same way. They’ll have about 10 classrooms, 10 teachers, and have to find their way around a comparatively big site. They won’t have any one teacher they’re as attached to, either. Things can go wrong – being late to a lesson, not bringing the right book, forgetting homework on the right day – these can all lead to being told off, or worse. Not a secure feeling.
My daughter started this process in September. A quiet student, academically OK, she has found the whole thing hard in some respects. Silly things, like dealing with a locker, finding her way to lessons and not being late, managing her homework timetable – and even whether she’ll be allowed to the toilet. These were her anxieties.
I don’t know how much we can do to help this bigger school issue. Transition days are great, but a longer time would at least help students to learn their way around. At KOA last year, with Year 11 and 13 gone, we had some students in for a three day extra transition. At the end of that time, they felt they knew their way around a little more, had met their tutor groups, made some friends – and were definitely less nervous about September.
Like many other secondaries, we had summer school too – though I think having the other students in school is probably more helpful in acclimatising the primary pupils, at least it’s a further opportunity for them to familiarise themselves with their new environment.
I know some secondary schools have limited movement around the site for Year 7. Even for just an introductory period, of a month perhaps, this would surely be helpful, encouraging them to find their way around more gradually.
Perhaps at primary, we could make them move around more in Year 6? Practically difficult – space is always at a premium. We try to get them used to routines and homework, certainly – and they do this very well. It’s all so much simpler when you have one teacher, though!
I suppose all these things are homeostasis issues, along the bottom row of Maslow’s hierarchy. I know that many people view his findings as outdated now, but it is surely a given that we can’t learn unless we feel safe and secure to do so? Panic about where you’re going next, whether you’ve got time for the loo, whether your locker (in my daughter’s case) will open so you can get your PE kit – all this fires the limbic brain, which virtually stops us learning, if I’m not misinformed?
There’s a school in Wales, featured in the TES a while ago, which takes all its Year 6 for a week after Year 11 have gone. They go to Year 7 type lessons (released time), go to their tutor groups and get to know each other, as well as the other students. They meet all their teachers, are taught by them if possible – it sounds idyllic. This was a rural school, with fewer partner primaries than some of us work with, but even so – this would be wonderful for Year 6, if we could manage anything close to it.
Thanks for getting to the end (if you have!) and for bearing with my theories and questions (at primary level, wonderings). Please share your thoughts with me. I’ll be back much sooner, next time!
My year in transition 