In this blog Pete Mattock, National Lead for Secondary Maths at Twinkl Educational Publishing, shares his tips for ensuring pupils can hit the ground running when they start secondary school.
Find out how Educake can help smooth the transition to secondary school with new transition quizzes for year 7s, perfect for identifying knowledge gaps.
The issues with transition
Transition from primary school to secondary school is a tricky time for pupils and teachers alike.
The transition from key stage two (KS2) to key stage 3 (KS3) has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, particularly in maths. Whilst the transition ‘dip’ has long been a fact of life for most experienced maths teachers, recent reports from government and government-adjacent bodies (most notably the curriculum and assessment review) have brought renewed focus on the experience of pupils moving from primary to secondary school.
Most of the commentary attributes this ‘dip’ to the changes in pedagogical approach from primary to secondary school alongside the early maths experience in secondary failing to recognise and build on the mathematical expertise pupils developed in their first 6 years of education. This is in addition to the natural emotional upheaval and anxiety caused by the change of school, teachers, routine and the like that comes with any transition.
Of course, secondary teachers are quick to highlight that roughly 25% of the pupils transitioning from primary to secondary have failed to meet the ‘expected standard’ in their KS2 SATs exams, and that given the expected standard requires only a little over 50% of the marks, many of those that do meet the expected standard have
significant gaps in their primary maths knowledge.
Indeed, only 26% of pupils in 2025 secured a scaled score of 110 or better to achieve ‘greater depth’. If we take a score of 80% to indicate mastery of the content (a figure oft quoted in education as indicative of mastery that’s secure enough to move forward), this equates to a scaled score of 108 (only slightly below the 110 required
for ‘greater depth’), suggesting that only about one-third of pupils have a secure enough foundation leaving primary school for secondary schools to build on with confidence, which will obviously vary based on a school and its intake.
This creates a real tension around KS2 to KS3 transition.
How can secondary schools ‘recognise and build on’ mathematical expertise that may not be there in the bulk of cases? Here are my top tips for creating a great transition experience.
1. Take time to get to know pupils
It seems obvious to say, but learning about pupils, particularly their individual strengths and weaknesses with regards to mathematics, is absolutely crucial. These pupils have come from a place where they were with the same teacher for most, if not all, of their time.
Their teacher would have known them inside out. A maths teacher that only sees them for three or four hours a week is not going to be able to replicate this, but it is important that teachers learn as much about pupils as they can.
This doesn’t all have to be done in the classroom. Ensuring that information sent from primary schools contains details about pupils and how they work, and that teachers (perhaps during gained time) engage with it is a good start. Vital information would be how classrooms have been run – what are the norms that pupils are used to for their study? Do pupils regularly raise their hands for teacher attention? Or, are they used to simply bringing their work up to the teacher? Do they participate in class discussions regularly?
If possible, getting secondary teachers to observe this in primary schools, or have discussions with primary teachers is ideal. If not, can your school at least make sure this information is included in transition information that is passed between schools?
Another great source of information is the pupils’ books from primary school. Many primary schools have specific books they use for pupils’ maths time. Can you get hold of them for review? Maybe when SATs are over?
Again, gained time could be used to spend some time reviewing these to see both where there might be gaps to address, but also to give insight into the pedagogical approaches used and the classroom norms.
Are representations used regularly to explore mathematical ideas? If so which ones?
Are they ones you can build into your early work with pupils when they arrive?
What we are trying to do here is to ascertain what the pupils are used to and what they associate with learning mathematics. This isn’t necessarily so we can do it exactly the same, but so that we know where the points of difference will be, so
we can support pupils properly with transitioning from what they are used to, to what they will experience when they begin study in KS3.
When they do actually arrive in your school, give teachers time to get to know the pupils before you do stuff like baseline assess them or set them by attainment. Raising the stakes to such a high level from day one is only going to create more
anxiety, and this anxiety may well skew the results of any more formal assessment.
When teachers take a few weeks to get to know pupils, they can formatively assess them in a low stakes way (like using Educake’s quizzes during lessons and homework) and build up a picture of that child so that, when it comes to baselining, setting or intervention planning, teachers are able to provide that all important context for making decisions.
2. Maintain high expectations and challenge
If secondary teachers do manage to see pupils working in their primary schools, they
will likely be somewhat awed by the level of expectation and challenge that exists in
many year 6 classrooms. Hard working pupils, discussing their mathematics and responding to tough challenges are the norm. It is imperative that this level of expectation and challenge transfers into secondary school.
In the recent ‘Student grouping study’ by University College London (UCL), the
researchers commented that “lessons from mixed attainment schools tended to be more similar to the bottom set than to top set lessons, especially in terms of pace.”
They went to state that, “Although there were opportunities for challenging extension activities for high-prior attaining students, these opportunities frequently involved mathematics that was not directly related to the lesson content and were rarely discussed in class.”
If pupils aren’t being placed into sets immediately (as I suggested above), then it is essential that the opportunities for challenge are built into whatever pupils are studying, that this challenge is available for all pupils, and that it makes a meaningful
contribution to the lesson, rather than being simply something extra to keep a few pupils busy.
3. Consolidate KS2 knowledge
Whilst some people suggest starting ‘big school’ maths with something pupils haven’t seen before (usually something using symbolic algebra), I have always been of the view that the early part of year 7 should be spent consolidating that often fragile knowledge from KS2.
In his seminal work ‘Teaching Mathematics at the Secondary Level’, the late Dr Tony Gardiner identified the following areas as likely to require more consolidation at secondary school:
- Decimal place value and arithmetic
- Work with measures, especially compound measures
- Fraction arithmetic
- Ratio and Proportion
- The use of negative numbers
- Coordinates in all four quadrants
- Simple algebra
I am sure many maths teachers will recognise these as areas that pupils joining secondary schools can struggle with. I think it is definitely worth spending time early in year 7 assessing and consolidating work in these areas, not using formal
assessments but by ongoing teaching and low stakes testing to see where the gaps are.
Many of these topics are covered in Twinkl’s Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Maths Refresher materials and in Educake’s year 7 maths transition quiz.
Now, bearing in mind what I said in point 2, we also have to plan to stretch pupils in
all of these areas. However, there are plenty of ways to stretch thinking in these topics – and in all maths topics. Including activities like more-same-less grids, Venn diagrams sorting tasks, or other ‘low threshold, high ceiling’ task structures that can prompt different ways of thinking, using the knowledge and skills that pupils have developedd. This can be useful for providing all pupils, including those who are high attaining, opportunities to practice work on these topics without it being seen as being ‘the same’ as what they did at primary school.
Following these tips should ensure that your pupils are much more likely to experience a smooth transition from KS2 to KS3 and produce their best work much more quickly after they start secondary school.
