Alison Hopper, MEI’s Primary and Transition Maths Specialist, celebrates the Curriculum and Assessment Review and the government’s response, which places renewed emphasis on improving pupils’ transition from the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6) to the start of Key Stage 3 (Year 7).
Why KS2-KS3 transition in mathematics matters
The government response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review states:
Key Stage 3 should be an important and engaging phase for all pupils’ but ‘… too many children find the transition hard, with sharp increases in disengagement and non-attendance …
Department for Education figures from 2025 show that 31% of pupils, do not secure level 2 qualifications in maths by age 16 under the current system and curriculum.
Since pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds face greater challenges when transitioning to secondary school, pupils from these backgrounds who achieve highly at the end of Key Stage 2 are more likely to fall behind during their first year of secondary education, limiting their chances of reaching their full potential.
This evidence highlights the scale of urgency of improving transition from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3.
What the Curriculum and Assessment Review recommends
The Curriculum and Assessment Review recommends that maths content should be spaced more evenly and appropriately across Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
A rebalanced curriculum would allow pupils in primary schools to:
- develop fluency in number
- strengthen multiplicative reasoning
- engage more deeply with problem solving
This would better prepare them for reasoning proportionally and algebraically in Key Stage 3 and beyond.
The government fully supports these recommendations, stating:
We will ensure that the reformed Key Stage 3 national curriculum builds effectively from Key Stage 2 in every subject, immediately ensuring consolidation and stretch
The importance of pedagogical coherence across KS2 and KS3
Curriculum change on its own will not solve the challenges around transition. For the new curriculum to have a positive impact on Key Stage 2 to 3 transition in mathematics, its implementation must be supported with professional development. This is essential to ensure that pedagogical transition is as coherent as the curriculum itself.
Effective pupil transition from Key Stage 2 to 3 depends on collaboration between practitioners.
As pupils move from KS2 to KS3, teachers need to understand:
- how key mathematical concepts have been introduced
- how understanding has been developed over time
- the language and representations with which pupils are familiar
A change to the curriculum will make this collaboration more important so that teachers understand how the changes will impact on transition in mathematics.
Using assessment data to support transition
The government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review calls for schools to make effective use of data available to support transition, including question-level data from the end of Key Stage 2 assessments.
While analysing data from large cohorts across a wide range of feeder schools is challenging, question-level analysis can provide useful insights into areas of strength and weakness across a cohort and for individual pupils. This needs to be supported by effective cross-phase communication, helping secondary schools and teachers build a fuller picture of how pupils have built their mathematical understanding as they begin their secondary education.
Classroom practice and culture in Key Stage 3
The Observatory for Mathematical Education’s 2025 review of education found that Year 7 pupils commonly reported classroom practice that ‘… might be termed teacher-centred …’ with ‘… teacher talk and working through exercise sets being the most common approaches to mathematics teaching …’.
Improving success at transition needs a focus on coherence not only in the curriculum but, also in pedagogy and classroom culture.
These are all important elements which contribute to coherent transition.
Supporting successful KS2 – KS3 transition in mathematics
If curriculum reform is to realise its potential in this area, transition must be treated as a shared, cross-phase responsibility.
Working collaboratively, teachers will improve their knowledge and understanding not just of what mathematics is taught across the KS2 – KS3 transition, but more importantly, how it is taught.
Effective transition will ensure that pupils recognise the mathematics they learned in primary school when it is built upon in their secondary mathematics classrooms.