Transition

One of the reasons that I have been a bit quiet recently is due to a change of job remit. Although I am still at Musselburgh Grammar School I have had a complete change of remit. I’m pleased to loose things like the SQA but less pleased to loose things like ICT. I also have a completely new set of children who (along with my guidance team) I have pastoral care for.

One new exciting part of my remit is Transition – S2 Curriculum development. I am keen to develop ideas for an extended transition programme between our associated primary schools to the Grammar School. Does anybody know of any really good tried, tested and sustainable transition projects that I might be able to develop within the Musselburgh Cluster?

The last few weeks have been interesting and have reinforced to me that I actually think schools like Musselburgh are too big. With nearly 1400 pupils it’s almost impossible to get to know every one (I sometimes struggle to remember the names of all the new staff – 21 new starts in August!). Interestingly, during his keynote Stephen Heppell spoke of new school projects that he has been working on that actually divided up schools – in essence they became two or three schools within a super campus, but shared sporting and science facilities. Could this be an option for large schools in Scotland?

Comments

[Krysia]

when, I was listening to Heppells speech - I was thinking "Is there an ideal size quota for a school". You say 1400 is too big for a secondary, I am in a school with about 600 and I'm finding this quite good. Of course, it is all very circumstancial (e.g. location/needs of pupils)but I would be interested in what other people have to say.

[OllieBray]

Hi Krysia - this is an interesting question that I have thought about a lot. I think that the ideal size for a secondary would be between 800 – 1000 pupils in a secondary school. This would still give you the flexibility of being able to run different courses. However, there would nothing to suggest that a larger school couldn’t be split for years S1 – S4 and then combined (sharing teachers and expertise) in the upper school. I am really interested to see what other people think.

[Ian Stuart]

250 is very good ;-)

[Almost American]

I remember doing my student teaching in Banbury in the mid 1980's. The school was really large - something like 2,300 kids if I remember correctly. It didn't feel that big though, as the school was divided into smaller 'schools-within-a-school'. There were separate buildings for each of the 'halls' which made the division easier. It was split as you describe - 3 (I think) 'lower school' units that functioned relatively independently and an 'upper school.' I think staff from each of the halls taught classes in the upper school. (Long time ago - not 100% sure of the details anymore!) I imagine it would be difficult to create that kind of division in a single school without the separate buildings.

Ahhh - looking at their websitewww.banbury.oxon.sch.uk I see "Banbury School was created from four schools – the Grammar School, Easington Modern School, Easington Girls’ School and Grimsbury School." That perhaps explains some of the separate buildings. The school's structure seems to have changed since I was there - but their numbers have dropped too - to 1450 students.

[Stephen Heppell]

ollie - saw you bogpost on a train journey to Birmingham - and this mornings on-line newspaper from the Caribbean has a good story about the progress that children have made in those divided-into-four schools I mentioned. Here's the loink:
http://www.caymannetnews.com/news-2248--1-1--.html

Curious world isn't it? it is pre-breakfast time in the Caribbean so this is really hot from the press - and arrived just as I read your blog.

[Ewan McIntosh]

Hi Ollie,

I'm with you on the big school thing - it took me three years before I (nearly) knew (nearly) all the names in the Grammar, and then of course teachers move on or move sideways. I'm not sure, though, if I would go as small as the MET schools I saw in the US with their 130/150 max limit on students:

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/09/the-met-schools.html

The other thing you might find a handy read is Brian Boyd's book on Transition. I've got a copy if you have trouble finding it in the next couple of weeks. We might finally get a chance for a sit down and a pint if you wanted to hook up to get it :-)

[Andrea]

I've seen some of these things work well for transition.
Associated primaries visiting somewhere like Castle Toward or similar over a weekend.
Cluster pupil council - reps from each school's P7 and a few first year reps work together on making eg a cluster calendar.
Various bridging projects eg Writing project P7 into First year - whole English dept of a 1700 pupil secondary visited P7s and minmapped intial writing work, all P7s went up to observe a first year class. Then a themed bridging unit carried out - similar things done for book studies, science projects etc. We've had a lot of the usual things like 8 weeks visiting ICT dept etc. Transition days worked really well when children had a passport with stampers to collect from different depts they visited. Summer school for children who might find transition difficult is ongoing where I am with a transition club where they do orienteering activities etc round the school. P6/S2 teacher works from P6 to S2!!!Duh! Sh carries out loads of projects from thinking science lending sacs wit parents, to PSD groups during 2 years then supports children when te arrive at secondary.
Things like water activities in nearby loch with canoes etc are organised for children in P7 who might not get involved in physical activity before transition. There must be loads of good stuff out there - I'd think it'd be a case of narrowing down what's feasible Ollie

[Alan Coady]

From the peripatetic viewpoint, size of school offers some surprising outcomes. I know nearly everybody at both primaries (where I have spend only 1/3 of my professional life) and more people in the biggest secondary than either of the other two. I can't help feeling that the first fact says something about differences between primary and secondary schools - to do with nature more than with size. I'm not really sure what the second fact says.