From birdsong to bullying

The move to secondary school can be traumatic for pupils and worrying for parents. Not only do children encounter a harsher world, but the teaching can leave a lot to be desired, says Hilary Wilce

This week more than half a million children start secondary school in England and Wales, and everyone is worried. The children are worried about losing their bus passes, not finding their classrooms and, most of all, being bullied. The parents are worried about whether their children are going to stay on track now they've left primary school. And teachers and educationists are worried because they know the answer to that, and it isn't reassuring.

The switch to secondary school is known to signal a dip in educational progress. Today's primary school pupils are used to lessons with pace, focus, challenge and var- iety. But when they go to secondary school they find themselves in colourless classrooms, going over the same old ground with teachers who neither know nor care what they've done before because their prime concern is to lick a motley crew of Year Seven pupils into shape.

According to Ofsted, 200,000 pupils are being let down in this phase of schooling, partly because the best secondary teachers are traditionally allocated to older years. Three quarters of lessons in the final year of primary schools are now good or better than good, it says, but only about two thirds of early secondary school lessons are up to the same standard. And the consequences are not only a slump in learning but increasing bad behaviour.

Secondary schools are minefields for the vulnerable. Even the best of them have cliques and bullies, drink and drugs, sex and shoplifting. The opportunities to go off the rails are plentiful, and if what goes on in the classroom is uninspiring, then what goes on outside can be doubly enticing.

All these are things that schools are aware of, and many work hard to settle new pupils in fast. When Alison Muckle's son Alex started at Maidstone Grammar School, in Kent, he was one of only three boys going there from his primary school, "and neither of the other two were friends. All his close friends were going off to the comprehensive." But at an Open Day he saw a Mission Impossible-style video, made by a teacher and pupils, "which introduced the school in a way designed to grab the attention of 11-year-old boys," says Muckle. The school sent the head of Year Seven into his primary school, and Alex also visited the school for an induction day of activities with his form tutor. Then, when he started, he had a prefect assigned to him to make sure he did things such as find the right bus. "As a result he settled in very, very quickly," says his mother.

Hummersknott School and Language College, in Darlington, is typical of many schools that try to narrow the gap between primary and secondary school. Teachers have gone into local primary schools to see how English, maths, science and ICT are taught, and make adjustments to their lessons as a result, while new pupils spend time in the college in the summer term before they arrive. "We also have the parents into school, to meet their children's form teacher. They sit in the desk where their child will sit for registration, so they can imagine how it is when they start," says David Henderson, Hummersknott's head.

At Brecknock School, in north London, Andrew Pasterfield starts preparing children for transition in March. They work in small groups, using drama to express worries, and learning strategies to deal with problems. Much of this has been put on a CD, which every leaving pupil is given. "I've been doing this for two years now and it seems to me their behaviour is better once they start this work. They're calmer about talking about it," he says.

"I think schools are now pretty good at dealing with the emotional and social side," says the school's head Linda Lefevre, who is also the inspector responsible for primary-secondary links for the local borough's Education Action Zone, "but we're much less good at our curriculum and teaching links."

Secondary schools have a number of complaints about the pupils who come to them. One is that behaviour is getting worse, partly as a result, they say, of children switching off after the relentless years of primary school testing. Another is that 11-year-olds are drilled so hard for their KS2 tests that their results don't reflect reality. "A lot of secondary schools feel they have to re-test," says Lefevre. "I think we have to look at ways to pass on information more effectively."

One local secondary, she says, now encourages children to take work with them, while the growing number of summer schools for both gifted and talented children, and for those who need a push on literacy and numeracy, are helping to build bridges. "It means the children are in their secondary schools in August. They meet their teachers. It's a great boost to confidence, and they can start with a bang in September."

The Government is pushing through a raft of reforms to early secondary education, many of which are designed to bring primary and secondaries closer together. It has encouraged teachers to co-operate, and produced "transition" maths and English units. Darlington pupils, for example, now follow a Mind the Gap maths initiative, which ensures children aren't repeating work, and also means that secondary school teachers can look at pupils' work books and get a sound idea of their abilities.

If secondary schools still have a long way to go to make life better for their newcomers, parents can do much to help their children adjust. Kate Figes, author of The Terrible Teens (Penguin, £9.99), says parents need to acknowledge children's fears, and teach them how to cope with their feelings. They can take an interest in their homework, be tolerant when they are grumpy and tired, and above all, they can be there for them. Many parents see their children's move to secondary school as a signal to move on in their own lives. They return to full-time work, or pull back from being involved in school events. But, she warns, "children feel this withdrawal at a time when adult support at school is also lacking".

education@independent.co.uk

Secondary fears: 'we heard they put your head down the loo'

All children find the step up to secondary school a big one. But for pupils who leave a tiny, rural school like Colliers Green Church of England Primary School, in Kent, it is enormous.

This week, they swapped a school life where everyone knows each other and the loudest sound outside the classroom is birdsong, for a new one at a busy specialist sports college in the nearby town of Cranbrook. And at the end of last term the prospect was filling them with both excitement and apprehension – with bullying very much on their minds.

"I've been lots of times because I do gymnastics there, but we've also been to meet our tutors and I feel better about it now," says Ellie Gill, 11. "But we've heard it can be tough. We had a talk by the head of the year, and she said, 'I can't guarantee you won't be bullied.'"

"I think the education there looks really good," says Peter Fowler, 11. "I want to move, now, but I don't know what happens if you get a detention. Or if you get lost. And I think the older boys might try and trip you up, or call you fat or something. But if they do, they tell you to just ignore them." "We heard they put your head down the loo," says Alice Hammerton, 11. "And we had some trouble with some girls when we went to see a play there. They accused us of swearing at their friend. But we only giggled a bit."

"There's chewing gum under the tables. It's disgusting," says Annie Holloway, 11. "But there's more sports equipment and that'll be good. We all love sports."

"I'm looking forward to tennis," says Peter. "But at play, if you want to play football, the older boys might not let us," says Chris Levett, 11. "It's quite scary. It's like starting again from Class One. But I feel better now that I've been. My teacher looked really nice and kind."

"We've got to do German. That's scary," says Alice. "And they say you're not allowed take your jumper off in the summer because you have to look smart."

"We had to go and do a drama workshop there about bullying. It was supposed to make us feel good about going to the school, but they made us act out being these really horrible bullies, which isn't very good, is it?" says Ellie. "Because then when you start to think of the school, you start to think of horrible things."

"You probably just learn to stay away from certain troublemakers," says Alice.

"My brother went there, and lots of his friends are still there and they'll look out for me," says Peter. "And all of us Year Six boys are friends, and we're going to hang around together."