Transfer from primary school to secondary school
As Figure 1 shows the children in the SSLD sample experienced significant
changes in their educational pattern, with an increase in the numbers of children moving
into special provision with other children being held back a year. The subsequent
analyses focus on those children who transferred from mainstream primary schools to
mainstream secondary schools.
INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE
The children went to a range of different secondary schools. To establish how
prepared the schools were to meet the needs of children with special needs we asked
about the generic support provided by the school. All schools provided evidence of
meeting a range of educational need. SENCOs reported special provision dedicated to
children with literacy (90%) and numeracy (62%) difficulties. In addition schools also
provided additional teaching support (89%), additional Learning Support Assistant time
(87%) and specialist IT provision (43%) when required. All schools reported providing
at least two additional forms of support and many schools were providing much more.
Thus the schools provided evidence of a range of support systems to meet special needs
and were familiar with the needs of diverse learners.
Educational and social needs in Year 7 for the three cohorts
We compared the pupils’ scores on reading from Year 6 to Year 7. There was no
change in the children’s reading scores over time (F (1, 115) =1.02, ns) nor was there an
interaction by cohort F (2, 115) =2.10, ns). However as Figure 2 shows the three cohorts
differed in their performance on measures of spelling (F (2, 116) =53.76, p<.0005),
reading accuracy (F (2, 116) =56.29, p <.0005), reading comprehension (F (2, 116)
=62.08, p <.0005) and writing (F (2, 116) =68.41, p <.0005). In all cases the SSLD and
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