Transfer from primary school to secondary school

Transfer from primary school to secondary school

TD 97%; SEN 84%). The child’s reported involvement in the decision differed across
the cohorts (X²=6.86, df=2, p <.05) with fewer parents in the two special needs cohorts
reporting involving their child (SSLD 62%; TD 87%; SEN 58%). A significant number
of parents were concerned about the move (SSLD 62%; TD 42%; SEN 68%) but this did
not differ statistically across cohorts. Parents also reported that many children were
concerned about the move but again this did not differ statistically across the cohorts
(SSLD 33%; TD 55%; SEN 37%). There was no significant difference between the
levels of concerned parents and the parents’ judgements of their children’s views in the
TDgroup whereas for both the SSLD and SEN cohorts parents reported more concern
about the move from their perspective than from their child’s (SSLD X²=7.52, df=1,
p<.01; SEN X²=3.80, df=1, p<.01).

The children raised a number of worries or concerns during their interviews.
These included issues of bullying (SSLD 26%; TD 42%; SEN 19%), harder work
(SSLD 22%; TD 15%; SEN 9%) and the new environment (SSLD 13%; TD 13%; SEN
13%) but there were no significant differences between the cohorts. Virtually all pupils
(SSLD 80%; TD 85%; SEN 84%) were looking forward to aspects of the school transfer
including new friends (21%), new lessons (22%) and new teachers ( 9%). Again there
were no statistically significant differences across the cohorts.

The high level of educational need for the SSLD cohort, as evidenced by their
standardised assessments and SATs results, was mirrored in the teachers’ concerns about
the child’s ability to cope with the secondary school context for those intending to move
to a mainstream provision at the time of interview (N=48): 69% were predicted to have
academic difficulties, 56% problems with social interaction, 48% problems with self
esteem, and 66% problems with the new environment.

The move to secondary school for children with SSLD

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