Puberty & the age of Transfer

John Cannon, a Head of Department in a large urban comprehensive school on the mainland says that year 7 behaviour has got so bad that perhaps a return to the Middle School system would be an option to be considered.

In the two-tier system children are required to transfer from primary school to secondary school at age 11. This is usually a massive culture change and has led many secondary schools to introduce "zoning" for year 7 children to try and address the problems that have led to a steady deterioration in classroom behaviour. However, John Cannon believes that the use of "zoning" may miss the point somewhat.

He says that whilst it is true that many youngsters do mimic their older peers and that zoning addresses this problem, the main reason for year 7 "hell" is puberty and the age of transfer arriving at the same time.

Mr Cannon goes on to say "the argument also forgets that secondary schools are much larger than primary schools and that the pool of difficult disaffected pupils coming together in one place "goes nuclear" with the sudden surge of rebelliousness multiplied many times over."

The dip in year 7 performance at Key Stage 3 is often blamed on dull teaching and the transfer itself. Mr Cannon sees the more likely culprit to be hormones.

Another interesting point is that by zoning pupils in year 7 teachers are being forced to teach more than one subject (as they often have to in Middle Schools) which not something that most want to do. After all most became Secondary School teachers to specialise.

Mr Cannon suggests that: "perhaps somebody should carry out the ultimate experiment. Why not leave groups of 11 and 12 year olds in small primary schools and see if they stay sweet and pliable, being taught in one class room by one all purpose teacher? Sounds like an argument for bringing back middle schools to me…"

(source: TES 04/03/05, Seventh heaven without year 7 - Sounding Off)