Continuity of education and the transfer of pupils from primary to secondary education in the Edinburgh city division of Lothian Region Education Authority

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the continuity between the primary and secondary stages in education, advocated by a succession of government reports, is achieved between six Edinburgh secondary schools and their feeder primaries. The first chapter refers to some of the official reports which comment on this problem and to some of the research into how pupils adjust to the first year of secondary education. It also outlines how this present research was conducted.

The second chapter presents details of Lothian Regional Policy on the transition between these two stages in education together with information on current Regional initiatives in this matter.

Chapter Three deals with the means whereby the schools studied first establish liaison between primary and secondary and the types of information on pupils transferred. Further links over curricular continuity are examined in chapter four and the views of pupils on transfer, together with the means adopted by the secondaries to reduce the anxieties of transition, are set out in chapter five.

The final chapter presents the conclusions drawn from the evidence collected and the sources studied.