Last updated:

22nd September 2025

Primary-Secondary Transition

Transition dates:

Transition visit day 2026: Wednesday 24th June 2026. NB Some secondary schools will need to use additional days in this week for visits as, for good reasons, they have developed an approach that requires more than one transition visit day.

The week of the 22nd - 26th June 2026 could be used for other transition events and be seen as a 'transition week.'

Transition visit day 2027: Wednesday 23rd June 2027 (with additional visits taking place during that week)

 

Wokingham secondary transfer form 2025

 

Writing sample

It has been agreed that it will be left up to individual secondary schools to decide whether they want to request a writing sample for each Year 6 child who is transferring to their school and, if so, to discuss this with primary colleagues.

Benefits of a writing sample:
- Supports teachers to have appropriate expectations for children’s writing – writing abilities may not be adequately reflected in KS2 writing outcome, and/or skills may have dipped over the summer
- Staff and students can see whether the standard of writing at the end of Year 6 has been maintained or improved upon – in relation to presentation, vocabulary, punctuation etc
- Where a child presents with a weakness with an aspect of writing, teachers can check whether this represents a dip, or whether this was an issue in Year 6
- Can support a detailed understanding of children’s writing support needs

It is generally felt that it would be best for Year 6 teachers to choose a piece of the child's best writing to use for the sample. Some schools have in the past used a common task for the writing sample. A possible task for this purpose is a letter from Year 6 children to a teacher at their new school, providing information about themselves. This supports both pastoral and academic transition. 

Below are materials shared by Sarah Preston at Emmbrook Junior School, which schools may wish to use to support work on the writing sample. These materials are for a letter from Year 5 children to their Year 6 teacher, but exactly the same approach can be applied for Year 6-7 transition. The materials include a letter from the Year 6 teacher to the Year 5s, which the Year 5 children use as a model for their letter. Heads of Year 7 could write a similar letter to incoming Year 6s. Year 6 teachers would find it helpful to have the letter from the Head of Year 7 for use in the second half of the summer term.

 

Other transition documents:

 

Transition unit of work

Thank you to The Holt School and Year 6 teachers in partner primary schools for this Year 6 unit of work on Reading. The materials consist of PowerPoint presentations and lesson resources.

Other transition materials