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Plowden (1967) Notes on the text Volume 1 (page numbers in brackets) Preliminary pages (i-xxii)
Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 The growth of the child
Part 3 The home, school and neighbourhood
Part 4 The structure of primary education
Part 5 The children in the schools: curriculum and internal organisation
Part 6 The adults in the schools
Part 7 Independent schools
Part 8 Primary school buildings and equipment; status; and research
Part 9 Conclusions and recommendations
Notes (486-495)
Research and Surveys about Plowden |
The Plowden Report (1967)
A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
[page 158] Home to School 424. This chapter is mainly about what ought to happen when a child passes from one school to another, but it must start with a different kind of transition - from home to school. The relation between these two halves of a child's life is so obviously of fundamental importance that it will recur at intervals throughout this chapter just as it does throughout the whole Report. In Chapter 10 we suggest that admissions to the first school ought to be staggered over half a term so that each child and each child's mother can be separately welcomed and made to feel at home. It ought not to be just a matter of bringing a child to school, but of placing him in a cooperative undertaking in which teacher and mother both have parts to play. Over half the schools in the National Survey made no special arrangements. Nearly half said they were not free to do so. Our recommendation then is not just a pious approval of an all but universal practice. Neither is it a shot in the dark. In the autumn of 1963 a third of the schools in the National Survey did not expect their new children all to start school on the first day of term - 12 schools spent three days in welcoming the newcomers, four spent over a week and nine a fortnight or more. Another six said five year olds were free to join any day in the term they became five, and four that children entered in the week of their fifth birthday. This was a very thorough form of staggering. When only one yearly intake is in force there will be even greater need to stagger admissions, and they will have to be spread over a longer time. 425. But welcoming a child is more than a matter of reserving proper time to attend to him. It is the quality of the welcome and the imaginative insight given to it which counts. HM Inspectors told us what they thought of the way in which this was done in the infant and junior mixed and infant schools in the National Survey. Over a third showed themselves resourceful and enterprising in what they did. A sixth were poor. The kind of things that impressed the inspectors, and they seem right to us, were invitations to mothers and children to spend some time in the children's first class before admission, encouragement to mothers to stay with children who are anxious during the first few days at school, welcoming letters to parents with suggestions on how to help their children to make a successful start, and meetings for discussion between the school staff and the parents of five year olds. Satisfactory contacts with homes are one of the strengths of the village school. 'In this small, friendly favoured village where the headmaster and his colleagues know every family well,' one report ran, 'there are simply no problems or difficulties. Each individual parent has a chat with the headmaster at some time; young children sometimes come to a school function; but nothing specifically planned is called for.' Given a good staff, this happens naturally in a village; even given a good staff, it has to be industriously contrived if it is to happen in the anonymous society of a city. [page 159] Separate or Combined Schools 426. The next problem of continuity arises now at the age of seven, and will occur at eight if our recommendations are accepted. Ought there to be separate first and middle schools, or are combined schools better? One of the strengths of English education has been its sense of community, which is hardly possible if the age range is very wide and the numbers too large for children to know one another. It is proper that schools for the youngest children should emphasise individual play and learning, and that schools for somewhat older children should make the most of their tendency to go about in groups. Research evidence on the relative merits of combined and separate junior and infant schools is inconclusive (1) but experienced observers say that outstanding work by seven year olds is more frequent in separate infant schools. Teachers in separate junior and infant schools have been able to concentrate on educating children who are at different stages of developments. All schools tend to over value their oldest pupils, by whom the success of the school is usually judged. This tells against a school with an age span so wide that there is almost bound to be a conflict between the interests of the oldest and youngest children. We have suggested that the age of transfer to secondary education should be raised to 12. We doubt whether a single school can provide entirely satisfactorily for children from five (or three if there are nursery groups) to 12. If the school is intimate enough for the youngest children, it is unlikely to justify a staff varied enough in their abilities and interests to meet the needs of the older children. We conclude that the most suitable organisation of primary schools is in separate first and middle schools, though a combined organisation may be necessary in rural areas and for some voluntary schools. Avoiding Strain at Time of Transfer 427. Children, like adults, enjoy and are stimulated by novelty and change. The first day at school, the transfer to the 'big school', are landmarks in the process of growing up. Even when children are apprehensive, they look forward to change, the man teacher, the 'terribly hard work' of the junior school, the new subjects in the secondary school. They exaggerate and boast about the difference from the 'kids' place where everything was easy. So strong is the myth that 'going up' must mean going to something better that some children, who are hopelessly bewildered by secondary school work, persist in saying that all is well. But if change is to stimulate and not to dishearten, it must be carefully prepared and not too sudden. The new school must know enough of the old school's ways to carry on where it left off, and neither to repeat what is already known nor to jump unthinkingly ahead. 428. The disadvantage of separate schools is that they lack the natural contacts between infant and junior teachers in the staffroom of a combined school. Contacts between separate schools have to be cultivated instead of being spontaneous, and indeed unavoidable. The evidence is that they are not cultivated enough, though HM Inspectors' enquiries in connection with the National Survey show that there is a real improvement. The gulf between junior and secondary teachers is even wider, though there is some evidence that as selection procedure with its standardised information about pupils declines, more secondary school head teachers are coming to primary schools for information. [page 160] 429. Primary and secondary school teachers not only need to know each other, but to know each other's work. This is something that can greatly be helped if they are trained together in the same colleges. Colleges of education have been developing groups deliberately designed to overlap two stages of education, infant-junior, and junior-secondary groups catering for teachers of children of 5 to 9 and 9 to 13. Great as is the need for colleges of education to train more primary teachers, an increase would be bought too dearly if it meant that almost all secondary teachers were trained in universities, and the separation already evident in the present system made even more acute. 430. In spite of their training, teachers in the admission classes of infant schools may try to press on with reading, the teachers of the lower juniors to bring all eight year olds up to the same level and the teachers in the lower forms of secondary schools to begin to think of preparing children at 11 for the long road to external examination. It is after a few years' service that there is need for radical in-service training. It is then that nursery and infant class teachers can most profit from discussion of play for children, that infant and junior teachers need to share their views on the work that is possible between six and eight (and we hope later, between seven and nine); and that junior and lower secondary school teachers can discover that both have found that 'how' rather than 'why' is what interests their pupils. Groups of primary and secondary teachers who belong to the same subject associations or are taking part in the same Nuffield projects can learn much from one another. The primary teachers need the subject knowledge of the specialists; the secondary teachers can profit from hearing of the astonishing standards some children reach in some primary schools. Contacts Between Teachers in Successive Stages of Education 431. Neither initial nor in-service training is a substitute for personal contact between the primary school teacher who taught a boy in the summer term and the secondary school teacher who will look after him in the autumn term. These contacts are often difficult to arrange. Though many schools share common sites, many are isolated from the schools that contribute to them and those to which their children go. There are more than mechanical difficulties to face. Schools are shy of one another. The secondary or junior head may fear that his junior or infant colleagues may suspect interference: the feeling that to teach younger children is somehow inferior often makes the infant teacher diffident about approaching the junior head, the junior head uneasy about inviting the secondary head to his school. These are human weaknesses. Authorities and professional organisations should help teachers to overcome them. It is important for the children that they should. Given the will, many forms of working together are possible, as we have seen from our enquiries. The children who are due to go up are sometimes visited not only by the head of their new school but also, which is more immediately important to them, by their future class teacher. There are schools where joint meetings of the two staffs are held to discuss work and policy. Occasionally a teacher moves up with her class from the infant school and remains their class teacher in the junior school. The same policy is rare, but not unknown, in the transition from junior school to secondary. But many contacts are of the formal kind that consist in visiting other schools for speech days and other ceremonial occasions that give little opportunity for conversation about individual pupils. [page 161] There are schools which work side by side in almost total ignorance of one another. We have heard of a teacher who had been taking the youngest class in the junior school for a number of years but who did not know, even by sight, the deputy head of the infant school who was normally responsible for the oldest class. Such instances may be exceptional; but where schools live in enclosed worlds the local education authority might close the schools in the area for one day and arrange a conference for the teachers to establish some footing on which the schools can work together in equal partnership. 432. In some districts parent-teacher associations serving a group of schools have strengthened the bonds between school and home and between schools. In other districts an overlap in the membership of governing and managing bodies has proved useful. There are large secondary schools where contact with contributory primary schools is one of the most important responsibilities of the head of the lower school. One selective school holds an annual conference with its contributory primary school head teachers. The secondary form masters enquire about their new pupils and the primary heads see and discuss the reports on their former pupils. The primary school staff are told about proposed changes in the secondary school curriculum and are invited to comment. Interchange of Knowledge of Pupils 433. Most of the information which a secondary school needs about individual pupils ought to be put into writing. After the war a type of record card was popular which asked for so much information, most of it assessed on a five point scale, that many teachers found it took far too much time to complete. They also questioned the reliability of assessments of personality characteristics, recognising that children may behave differently with different teachers. Some information asked for was, they felt, too confidential to be committed to a record card. There was often a feeling that children should be given a fresh start and not saddled with a bad name. 434. As a result many authorities shortened and simplified their record cards. Differences in the use made of information are as great as those in the amount and kind sent on. In some schools, records remain in the head teacher's room and are never seen by class teachers unless a special problem arises. But the person who needs nine tenths of the information to do his job is the class teacher. 435. It is time that new thought was given to both sides of the exchange. We think the authorities might well call area conferences of teachers to discuss the information that is passed on and the use that is made of it, and draw up proposals for the future. Our own suggestion is that there should be a folder for each child containing: (i) medical records - at present not always seen by head teachers and rarely seen by class teachers; [page 162] (v) examples of the child's work and the names of some of the books he has read;436. The material in the folder could provide a basis for the regular review with parents of children's progress, and notes on these discussions might be added. For the majority of children and schools, entries under (i) and (ii) will be brief and those under (iii) and (iv) will not begin till the upper junior school. The time gained by this brevity might be spent on detailed comment in special cases. Some authorities may prefer to use a record card to collect information under (ii), (iii) and (iv). If they do, teachers should be encouraged to make comments only where they have something to say. Full value will not be gained from the folders unless they are available to class teachers in junior schools and to form teachers or personal tutors in secondary schools*. 437. Written records are only of limited value unless the writers know one another and feel free to ask supplementary questions with confidence that they will be answered. A teacher who has finished a folder and sent it on to the next school does not lose interest in the child he has taught. It is not idle curiosity, and the desire to know how former pupils are getting on in their new schools ought to be satisfied. If the new school takes the trouble to let the old school know, it is likely to get even more useful information about future intakes partly because the teacher who is completing a folder will know that the information is being used, and partly because he will gradually find out what is specially worth reporting. Introducing Pupils to New Schools 438. When schools are near one another, children are often invited to plays and other functions. Visits are also often arranged in the term before transfer. Towards the end of the summer term in one school, each third year junior is encouraged to befriend one of the infants, to take him on a tour of the junior school building and to help him find his way around in the first few days after he moves up. In another school, junior teachers take their future classes from the infant school to see where they will work next term. They talk to them about the excitements that await them as juniors, and tell them which door to come in on the first day, where to hang their coats and other details about which children often worry. 439. Some secondary schools invite new entrants to spend half a day in the school in the term before entry. Another proved device is for new pupils to come a day before the rest so that they can explore the building, meet the staff, and get their books and timetables in relative peace. By the second day they can begin to work in earnest. A prompt start helps morale. There is some evidence that transition to secondary schools is particularly difficult for pupils from small primary schools. To overcome this in one rural area, top juniors from small primary schools work half a day a week in the local secondary school. The effect has been to familiarise them with the school to *In France, the 'dossier scolaire' includes much the same information. It is used at the end of the primary school course and again at the end of the 'cycle d'observation' for making decisions on the course best suited to a pupil in the secondary school. [page 163] which they will transfer, to enrich the curriculum of ten year olds in small country schools, and to build a bridge between primary and secondary education. Where schools are far apart, these introductory devices are more difficult to arrange but also far more important then for those schools which are close together. For the children from a remote country school, going to a new school is an adventure into a strange land. All children should make at least one visit to their new school in the term before they transfer. Support from Parents 440. Children need an extra measure of support from their parents when they change schools, and not only when they go to their first school. Some junior heads, in the term before children enter, invite parents to a meeting to see the school, hear about its activities and meet the staff. Sometimes this meeting is associated with an open day for the younger classes, an arrangement which works well enough provided that time is left for the teachers to meet the parents both of the newcomers and of those who are already there. 441. It would be helpful if all authorities adopted the practice already followed by some and sent parents a leaflet explaining the choice of available secondary schools and the courses provided within them. The leaflet might also, as is very rarely done, prepare parents for the differences between primary and secondary education. But a personal contact is always more valuable. In some primary schools a meeting is held in the summer term for parents of fourth year pupils, which is attended by the heads of the secondary schools to which pupils will be transferring. Many secondary schools send parents details of school routine and arrange meetings and personal interviews for them with the head master and masters or mistresses of junior forms. In some schools further meetings are organised early in the school year at which parents' problems can be raised. There is no one ideal pattern for these arrangements but all secondary schools need to meet the parents of new entrants. Fathers are as easily interested as mothers and feel they have something of their own to contribute. Consistency in Work and Organisation 442. Some years ago, HM Inspectors, looking at the work being done by children before and after transition to the junior school, felt that three to six months after transfer there was a narrowing of opportunities, a tendency towards regimentation and a substitution of group or even class teaching for individual work. Many children tackled less difficult work and wrote less in their own words than they had done some months before. The libraries in the youngest junior classes were often inferior in quality and range to those the children had left behind in the top infant classes and children spent more time on 'readers' and less on library books. Individual interests in music and art and craft had petered out. Some boys whose ability and attendance were average or poor had fallen back in almost every respect when seen four months after transfer. They made little perceptible headway by the end of the year. 443. It is possible that conditions have improved in the last two or three years as an increasing number of junior schools have adopted a more liberal approach to the curriculum. But the National Survey shows (Appendix 5) [page 164] that nearly a third of the first year junior classes were taught by beginners. Where the first year was streamed there was a tendency, confirmed by the NFER streaming survey (Appendix 11, Section II, Table XI), to put the weakest teacher with the least able children, perhaps because this was the smallest class. The contrast between the education provided in the infant school and the junior school is often accentuated because it is frequently the deputy head who teaches the older infants. Some of the difficulties we have described will be reduced if children are transferred, as we recommend, at eight. It will still be necessary to ensure that there is no sharp break between 'infant' and 'junior' methods, and to see, whenever possible, that weak teachers are not made responsible for children who are adjusting to a new school. One study of a small sample of children suggests that refusals to attend school reach a peak at the age of eight (2). 444. There is even more danger of setbacks and standstill at the transition from primary to secondary schools. They are particularly demoralising to 11 year olds who expect transfer to a secondary school to bring the challenge of new work. Sometimes a secondary school draws from so many primary schools that it is extremely difficult for it to know much about all of them. But real knowledge of the work at the top of a few primary schools enables secondary schools teachers to know what they ought to expect, to set their sights high for able children and lower for others. In this way all the newcomers benefit, whether or not their form master knows the school from which a child comes. 445. In the primary school the class teacher knows all about each child's work and can, if he likes, provide plentiful opportunities for pupils to work on their own, in groups or as a whole class. A secondary school run on specialist lines is not in the same position. Nobody knows, except by hearsay, about a child's work in all subjects. For this reason many secondary schools have less specialist teaching in the first year or two years and try to see that the form master or mistress teaches the form for at least one period a day, Other devices such as 'tutor sets' are introduced to try to offset the difficulties caused by specialist teaching. It is outside our province to consider the methods of working in secondary schools but we wish to record our belief that 12 and even 13 year olds need to be taught by teachers whom they really know and who really know them, however this is secured. We have received evidence that this does not happen enough at present. Content of Curriculum 446. Not unexpectedly, it is the new subject with new equipment which beginners in the secondary school most often enjoy. Disappointment is more usually expressed with work in the fields of study already familiar from the primary school, in which many secondary teachers involuntarily or deliberately repeat work that has already been attempted. The secondary schools are in a difficult position in that, despite tradition and other influences, there may be big differences of content and method even from one primary school to another in the same area. Increased opportunities for individual work in secondary schools could reduce the overlap in children's work before and after transfer. Some revision is due to the mistaken hope that repetition in, for example, computation will lead to perfect accuracy. Similarly, there is a [page 165] tendency for schools to go back to the Stone Age in history and to return to the British Isles in geography. These are deliberate, if mistaken, overlaps which will only be abandoned as teachers realise that they lead to boredom. Accidental overlaps such as the use of the same text books in history and geography at the top of the primary school and the bottom of the secondary school could readily be avoided by discussion between primary and secondary teachers and a study of pupils' records. It is particularly unfortunate when the same literature is read in successive years, when there are so many books of quality suitable for children. English secondary schools have an international reputation for their school libraries, but in some schools too little provision is made for the younger children who may have a poorer choice of books than they had in their primary schools. Collaboration often occurs when new subjects or new perspectives in subjects become common in primary schools. The introduction of a foreign language in primary schools has led to discussion of the development of language teaching in both primary and secondary stages. Similar collaboration has come from recent changes in mathematics and science teaching. But unless joint discussions continue, the new primary school subjects will add to the opportunities for stale repetition. 447. No magic changes six, seven and eight year olds from infants to juniors as they move from one school to the next. They are the same children. Children of 10, 11 and 12 are not transformed by entering the secondary school. Changes bring setbacks as well as stimulus. The solution lies in close professional contacts, not only between head teachers but also between all who teach children on either side of the frontiers, which should not be barriers that divide school from school. Recommendations 448. (i) Mothers and children should spend some time in the school and class before admission, and mothers stay with children when necessary during the first few days at school. Meetings between staff and parents should be arranged. [page 166] secondary schools and should be available to the child's class or form teacher. Information about former pupils should be sent back from secondary to primary schools. 1. DA Pidgeon School Type Difference in Ability and Attainment. Educational Research. June, 1959.
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