Year 6 Preparing for the next step

Transition from primary to secondary school can be an anxious time for pupils and their parents/carers. Successful transition is shown to have many educational and social benefits. Therefore at Homewood we devote a great amount of time, resources and energy on promoting a successful transition for our new cohorts. 

What does our transition programme look like?

The transition programme can be broken down into four key elements: 

Social – Pupils are supported to form positive relationships with peers and staff. Members of the school community know each other well and there are high levels of trust. 

Educational – The school knows enough about each pupil’s skills, knowledge and past performance to set appropriate work and provide relevant support for those who need it. 

Practical – Pupils are given information about the way that the school operates so that they can approach transition with confidence. 

Pastoral – The school knows of any specific pastoral needs that individual pupils may have and can therefore put plans in place to cater for these.

What is the school's role in the transition process?

Transition is a two-way partnership between Homewood and our feeder primaries. The primary schools will have useful information about each pupil and Homewood is well placed to reassure students about routines and expectations by providing information that will help pupils to feel confident about starting at secondary school. 

We support transition by:

• providing information;

• building relationships;

• dispelling fears; 

• fostering familiarity. 

We make the most of the fact that primary colleagues usually know their pupils really well, and they will have vital pastoral and academic information about these pupils that will be valuable to Homewood. We work together to decide what information needs to be shared, the best way to share this and how the information will be used.