Causes of and consequences of educational disruption owing to irregular school transition

The project

Irregular transition between schools outside of normal admission points is known to be disruptive to early education and hence a major barrier to engagement at higher level. What is not well understood is whether:

• all forms of irregular school transition (IST) are equally disruptive
• attainment in all subject areas is equally affected

This study will test two hypotheses:

• ISTs that are embedded within a routine culture (such as in military families) are less disruptive than those forced on families (via divorce, housing benefit reform, redundancy and for children in care)
• that curriculum subjects that require contextual embedding for clear progress to be made (maths and sciences) are more profoundly affected than subjects in which contextual progress is of lesser importance (English)

Prior evidence suggests at Key Stage 2 there may be a maths/English difference, but this may diminish by Key Stage 4. These hypotheses will be tested within this mixed method doctoral study.

The second question can be addressed by big data analysis of national databases of student attainment and irregular school transition. The former question will be investigated by quantitative and qualitative analysis comparing children whose parents are in the military (routine relocation) and those with ISTs owing to spontaneous factors (divorce, redundancy for example).

As a control, the study will consider military families that haven’t moved and students of divorced parents and children receiving free school meals who haven’t had to relocate.