TARGET: Transfer
of Information
VALIDATOR: Gaynor
Crute
MONITORING TECHNIQUES: Meeting
with members of Year 5
SUCCESS CRITERIA: Relevant
and useful information is transferred from Lower Schools.
EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS:
Liaison -
Liaison between lower schools is increased at the time of transfer.
The system in operation at the moment enables the Year 5 Co-ordinator
to spend half a day visiting each lower school. This encourages
the children in Year 4 to get to know a member of staff from middle
school. it also provides an opportunity for both teachers from
each school to discuss each child's needs. All staff members of
Year 5 found notes from liaison meetings extremely useful. These
highlighted the strengths, weaknesses and medical requirements
of transferring children.
Another strength which resulted from this system
is the allocation of children to classes. Lower school teachers
organise their existing children into 4 groups ready for transfer
to middle school.
Induction Day
- Information transferred at the moment involves all schools
within the Mereway partnership. The children spend a 'typical
school day' at their new school, with their new teacher. This
encourages the children to feel more confident during the transfer
of schools and helps to alleviate and anxieties they may have.
(i) NARA Sheets - the transfer of these sheets
was patchy this year. Some lower schools passed them on, but some
didn't. We are still using these sheets in middle school / upper
school until a suitable replacement can be found.
(ii) End of Year Reports to Parents - this
is an invaluable source of information about each child. Although
the reports didn't follow a standard format, the information was
easily accessible.
(iii) SNAR Forms - these are extremely useful
to class teachers as they indicate, in detail, learning / behavioural
objectives for any children with special educational needs.
(iv) Examples of Children's work - All lower
schools included examples of children's work in the children's'
profiles. This information is extremely useful. Year 5 staff identified
the most useful examples as being English, Maths and 'About me'
type of work.
Recommendations
Overall the members of staff in Year 5 found
the information received from the lower schools invaluable. However,
in order to standardise the process and further improve its effectiveness,
the following recommendation could be made:-
(I) National Curriculum Summary Sheet - A simple
sheet of A4 which lists the National Curriculum levels for each
child would be useful.
(ii) Examples of children's work are invaluable.
In order to standardise the examples sent, during liaison we should
inform lower school teachers to one piece of English work, one
piece of Maths work, one piece of Science work and one piece of
work "About Me".
In addition to this it would be helpful if
lower school teachers could 'sift and sort' through the children's
profiles before they are passed to middle school.
(iii) Individual teachers records were considered
to be particularly useful. Each teacher's recording / marking
system was so individualised that it is very difficult and too
time consuming to extract any useful information without knowing
the criteria for assessing / marking, it is difficult to make
any use of this information.