In this article
- 1. Schools Run the Same Curriculum in a Different Order
- 2. Five Things That Look Identical in the First Term
- 3. Maths Is the One to Watch
- 4. Getting the Two Topic Lists
- 5. What a Topic List Will Not Tell You
- 6. What to Ask the Old School For, in Writing
- 7. And of the New School
- 8. The iGCSE Years
- 9. If There Is a Wait Between Schools
- 10. Finding Out What They Actually Know
A school closes. The fees stop adding up. A job moves the family two counties over.
Whatever brought it about, the school part gets dealt with fairly quickly, because admissions offices, uniform lists and bus routes all belong to somebody. The curriculum belongs to nobody, and that is the part that surfaces around November for a September starter.
1. Schools Run the Same Curriculum in a Different Order
Two schools can spend the autumn term of Year 8 on entirely different topics and both be on track. The national curriculum sets out what has to be covered across a key stage, not the week it happens. Independent schools write their own scheme of work and frequently run ahead in some areas and behind in others.
So a child arrives in January, having been taught well for eight years, and in week three meets a lesson on standard form that assumes index laws nobody ever gave them.
At the time it reads as the new school being harder.
2. Five Things That Look Identical in the First Term
| What you see | What is behind it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A lesson assumes something they have never seen | The old school had not got there yet | Teach it. Usually one topic, sometimes two |
| They say they did it in Year 7 and cannot do it now | Covered in a different order, never revisited | About a week of revision |
| Bored and sloppy in a subject they used to like | They are ahead. The old school taught it earlier | Tell the new school. Check the set, and the tier if iGCSE courses have started |
| Fine in class, comes apart in a test | They understand it and cannot do it at speed | Timed practice, that topic only |
| Struggling everywhere at once | Something underneath is missing | Find it before buying any help |
The third row gets missed almost every time. A child who is ahead and bored looks a great deal like a child who has stopped caring, and no school goes looking for the first possibility.
3. Maths Is the One to Watch
A gap survives longest in maths, because the topics are stacked. Fractions sit under ratio, which sits under percentage change, which sits under the proportional reasoning in iGCSE algebra. Index laws sit under standard form, which sits under most of the calculation in iGCSE chemistry.
A gap made in Year 8 therefore turns up in Year 9 wearing a different name. A student who stalls on simultaneous equations does not have a problem with simultaneous equations. They have an algebra fluency problem from eighteen months earlier, and nothing since has tested it head on.
Small consolation, and it is a real one: the gap is nearly always a single topic. Fix it and everything stacked on top comes back fast.
4. Getting the Two Topic Lists
Ask the old school what they covered this year and last. Ask the new school what this year group has already done.
Some schools send a scheme of work by return. Some send nothing useful and you end up asking the head of maths directly at the first parents’ evening, which works better anyway. Where you get both lists, laying them side by side takes twenty minutes and tells you where to look.
5. What a Topic List Will Not Tell You
It records what was taught. Whether any of it stuck is a different question, and a school report will not answer it either, because a report measures a child against a class they have now left.
This is the step families skip, and it is why so many end up paying a tutor to go over material their child already knew.
6. What to Ask the Old School For, in Writing
Reports and internal assessment results. The scheme of work. Topics covered this year, with the current working level in each subject. Exam board and specification codes if iGCSE courses have started. SEN paperwork and any access arrangements, which take months to re-establish from scratch. A few pieces of marked work, which will tell you more than the grades attached to them.
If the school is winding up, do this early. Records become much harder to get hold of once the process starts.
7. And of the New School
What has this year group already covered? Looking at this topic list, what will my child have missed? How will you work out where they are starting from? How is maths set, and when are sets reviewed? If iGCSEs have started, which tier is this group heading for, and have the entries been made?
8. The iGCSE Years
Maths moves between schools better than almost anything else. The content is set nationally, so AQA, Edexcel and OCR teach the same mathematics with different house styles of question, and there is no coursework to transfer.
Two things need chasing. Tier, because Foundation stops at grade 5 and the two schools may not agree about where your child sits. And entries, because the deadlines fall months before the papers and nobody will ring you if one has been missed.
The subjects that travel badly are the ones carrying coursework or set texts. English literature, art, DT, drama, music, PE. Ask about those one at a time.
9. If There Is a Wait Between Schools
Small and daily. Some reading, maths four or five times a week in short sessions, and whatever the old school was halfway through. What erodes during a gap is the habit of sitting down to work, more than the content.
Attempting to run a school at home does not work, and nobody keeps it up past a fortnight.
10. Finding Out What They Actually Know
There is one advantage buried in all this. A school move forces open a question that otherwise goes unanswered for years, which is what this particular child knows.
A Full Curriculum Assessment on Ivy Maths goes through it topic by topic, marking off what is secure and naming what is not. If you already know the trouble sits in one area, ratio say, the Module Assessment covers that on its own.
Either way you end up with a list of topic names, which is something a parent or a tutor can work from. Do it before term starts if you can. Gaps are cheaper to close in August than in November.