Character in Transition - Consistency in Values: The Transition from Primary to Secondary School

Consistency in Values enquires into the nature of and changes in pupils' understanding of values in the transitional phase of school from primary to secondary education. Pupils in this project include 10- and 11-year-olds in their final year of primary education, known as Year 6 (Yr 6), and 11- and 12-year-olds in their first year of secondary education, known as Year 7 (Yr 7). This project discusses pupils' understanding of character and the moral values they hold. It also seeks to find out who or what influenced their moral values, and to examine which individuals, institutions and situations might have hindered or promoted their development. The experience of transition from the familiar, nurturing and supportive ethos of what is very often a small primary school to the more impersonal, larger, and quite possibly intimidating secondary school can be a challenging phase in pupils' lives. Essentially, the period of transition is a time when pupils will be removed from one secure environment, with its familiar values, rules, routines and structures, to a new environment with its own (and often very different) values, rules, routines and structures. Due to the importance of this period in the development of a child's character, the Learning for Life project has chosen to research the transition from primary to secondary school as part of its focus.