Year 11 to Post 16 (KS4 – KS5) Transition Portal

Following the success of our Primary to Secondary Transition Portal, School Transition were approached to develop a Year 11 to Post 16 Portal. Our consultation with education professionals told us that as with Primary to Secondary transition there was no standardised approach to sending transition data from Secondary Schools to Post-16 Institutions. Prior to the implementation of the Transition Portal, Post 16 Institutions would often need to wait weeks to find out more information about their newly enrolled students.

How does the KS4 to KS5 Transition Portal work?

For this portal, Secondary Schools take the lead and create their pupil records, with key information and flags for concern. Upon enrollment, Post 16 institutions can request this information from the Portal. The user-friendly dashboard clearly flags which pupils may need additional support, whilst providing key pupil information reports.

Fully compliant with GDPR and Data Protection (2018), the Year 11 to Post 16 Transition Portal provides a secure, means to transfer pupil data between schools. In contrast to other platforms, School Transition focuses not on children as data, but instead gives a picture of the whole child and opens up conversations between institutions. It is also possible to provide reporting on which pupils have not enrolled in Further Education, allowing for tracking which young adults are Not in Education, Employment, or Training, prompting earlier intervention.

Benefits:

• The Portal provides an overview to track uptake and encourage participation.
• Increased efficiency and reduced administrative workload for both Secondary Schools and Post 16 Institutions. Our research told us that every September, Secondary Schools are inundated with requests from institutions for pupil information. Instead, the Transition Portal has one easy to use form, which is completed for every pupil that can be easily accessed by all authorised users at all schools.
• Information moves with pupils. We understand that it is not unusual for pupils to change their mind about where to study Post 16. Our unique portal means that information moves with the child, even if their feeder school changes.
• Information is available in “live”, following confirmation of enrollment. Post 16 institutions do not have to wait weeks for pupil information.
• Easy upload and creation of pupils by Data Managers
• No need to fill out different forms for each different destination Post 16.
• Ability to upload both predicted and actual exam results.
• Clear, easy to use interface with clear representation of which pupils have their information completed.
• Information moves with a pupil, meaning that no information is lost to the destination school and no need to refill information if a pupil changes their Post 16 destination.
• Pupil focused approach with the option to flag pupils at risk to focus the attention for the destination institution.
• Through using the portal it is possible to track which pupils are Not in Education, Employment, or Training, prompting earlier intervention.

School Transition has worked closely with Early Years’ practitioners, schools, practitioners and support organisations to a develop a secure portal to support children transitioning from nursery into primary school.  By working closely with practitioners, we have created a holistic, easy-to-use, cohesive platform to improve transition outcomes in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The portal aims to improve communication between childminders, PVIs, preschools, maintained nurseries and schools, allowing for a centralised process which is standardised across all provisions using the Transition Portal. The portal also allows for settings to highlight children who may need additional support during the transition process, giving schools early awareness of their needs, enabling them to provide the best possible support.

Through the support of the School Transition team, we reduce the administration time for both early years’ settings and primary schools. School Transition provide full project management, engaging stake holders and actively encouraging all feeder settings to provide information in a timely manner. In turn, by having only one standardised way to communicate information about children leaving their care, this also ensures that settings also benefit from the reduced administration burden.

Using the Nursery to Reception Transition Portal helps to support the outcome of ensuring that children are well-known at their destination school. The portal provides a means to collect transition data, which means early years providers and schools can then work collaboratively to focus their time on actioning the data to plan the best possible transition.

The portal incorporates key areas of learning, characteristics of effective learning and early intervention indicator flags to ensure that children starting their first year in primary school get off to the best possible start. Additional features, such as the ability for settings and primary schools to share pictures of children, attach documents and securely message each other, enhance communication at a key time in a child’s learning journey.