Creating year 7 bubbles to support primary to secondary school transition: a positive pandemic outcome?

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore the benefits of new forms of in-school grouping for children moving from primary to secondary school during the COVID-19 pandemic in England. Our three-phase study with over 400 students and teachers found that protective measures to limit COVID-19 though year group ‘bubbles’ generated an environment more aligned to children’s previous primary school experience. This natural experiment smoothed the process of transition by providing a better correspondence with students’ developmental needs, especially for those on the cusp of adolescence. We recommend that physical, administrative and pedagogical school structures are reimagined for this age group to this end.

KEYWORDS:

• Secondary school transition
• COVID-19
• stage-environment fit
• timespace
• wellbeing
• adolescence

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people for their assistance with Phases 1 and 2: Jennie Golding, Lauren Hammond, Beate Hellawell, Divya Jindal-Snape, Emma Jones, Phil Jones, Helen Lawson, Jie Liu, Michael Reiss and Adam Wood.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Some may attend separate infant and junior schools from age 4–7 and 7–11 respectively instead of a primary school and a very small, but growing, minority may attend all-through schools from 4–16 or 18. However, in a few regions of England, a three-tier system persists, whereby students transition from first to middle school at age 9 and from middle to upper school at age 13. However, this is declining (see below)

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by Wellcome via the UCL Coronavirus Response Fund.