Better Science 10: Building Primary-Secondary Links

Building Primary-Secondary Links was the tenth in a series of 12 booklets published by Heinemann and the Association for Science Education to explore the issues arising from moving towards a broad and balanced science education for all young people. The main purposes of this booklet were to:

*explore what young children are likely to think of their primary science education and how well secondary science will build on it
*convince the reader that time spent on the development of primary-secondary continuity in science education is a proper use of a science resource
*study the constraints which generally make such continuity difficult to achieve
*give a few examples of good practice in primary science with the intention of helping the reader to a better realisation of what to build upon
*discuss primary science policy at both school and LEA levels and look at how it can be translated into classroom practice
*give secondary teachers some practical suggestions as to how they might embark upon liaison with their local primary schools.

Contents
Introduction: why spend time on liaison?
When do children begin to study science?
Why spend time on liaison?
We are convinced but where do we start?
SECTION ONE What are the problems?
SECTION TWO Science in the primary school
SECTION THREE Primary science policy statements
SECTION FOUR How can we build bridges?
APPENDIX Croydon SSCR Group: Primary-secondary interface
Further reading
References