Focus areas ahead of the Key Stage 3 transition

Atom’s Education Experts share their recommendations for ensuring a smooth transition into Year 7.

It’s important that your child masters all of the Key Stage 2 learning objectives before progressing into Year 7. This will enable them to start secondary school with confidence.

Below are the areas that our Education Experts recommend focussing on as your child approaches the end of Key Stage 2:

Reading

Our Head of Education, Anna, says that ‘Reading is the most important thing to master as you leave Year 6’. The Key Stage 3 reading curriculum is about analysis rather than reading fluency. By the end of Key Stage 2, your child should be reading to learn rather than learning to read. This means being able to read aloud fluently and independently and having the stamina to read a wide variety of literature, including fiction and non-fiction books. Reading is the most effective way to increase your child’s vocabulary, creative writing skills and analytical thinking. All of these will be integral to your child’s learning at secondary school.

To practise reading, challenge your child to read a Classic, Modern and Non-Fictional text from Atom’s Recommended Reading List. Encourage your child to keep a reading diary so that they can keep a record of all of the books they have read.

Spelling and Writing

At secondary school, your child will be expected to have a high level of spelling and will be introduced to more complex writing techniques. Therefore, your child should be feeling confident with the basic spelling and writing skills taught in Key Stage 2. These skills will not be reintroduced in Key Stage 3.

To practise spelling and writing skills on Atom, set Custom Practices for your child in English topic areas to identify learning gaps. Your child can watch Atom's Creative Writing and Comprehension lessons in the Lesson Library. Use Atom's Key Stage 2 Statutory Spelling List to test your child’s spelling ability by reading words out from the list for them to write down.

Number Fluency

Your child should be confident in understanding numbers and how they work together by the end of Key Stage 2. In Key Stage 3, teachers won’t put as much focus on practising number skills with students. Your child will be expected to have a solid grasp of problem-solving with numbers. Plus, they should be able to do quick mental calculations with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Your child should be able to use written methods for more complex calculations. They should be able to decide on when a calculation should be attempted mentally or when there's a need for written working out. This means knowing multiplication and division facts, as well as your times tables. For addition and subtraction, your child should be able to add two-digit numbers together in under five seconds and use strategies to add three/ four digits together.

To practise number fluency on Atom, set Custom Practices for your child in:

Maths - Number - Operations.

You can also click here to download our blank multiplication table for your child to fill in.

Numerical Reasoning

Your child should have a strong grasp of numerical reasoning by the end of Key Stage 2. They should be able to use knowledge of raw mathematics to reason with data and draw conclusions. This is one of the hardest things to learn and teach and the best way to improve numerical reasoning skills is through practice. Your child should be practising questions which need them to reason through an answer, rather than work in pure arithmetic. Questions that require the use of a bar model are a great place to start.

To practise number fluency on Atom, set Custom Practices for your child in:

Maths - Ratio and Proportion - Ratio - Relative Quantities
Maths - Number - Fractions - Intro to Fractions / Equivalent Fractions
Maths - Algebra - Expressions - Forming Expressions

New Year 6 Maths Topics

Your child will be introduced to the following topics in Year 6:

Order of Operations
Multiplying Fractions
Dividing Fractions
The Mean
Pie Charts
Similar Shapes & Scale factors
Calculating Percentages
Forming Expressions

Since these topics are introduced to your child in Year 6, your child will not have practised them as much as other Key Stage 2 topics. These topics will often appear in Key Stage 3 so your child should aim to feel confident in these before transitioning to Year 7.

These topics can be practised through Custom Practices. Use our Atom Learning Curriculum document to help you set Custom Practices in these specific topic areas.

We also offer some early Key Stage 3 maths topics on Atom to stretch and challenge your child ahead of the transition to secondary school. You can see our full list of maths extension topics here.

You can also see these articles:

for more tips on how to support your child with the transition to secondary school.