England’s school system has a missing middle.
In recent years, debates about school improvement have tended to focus on the book-ends of a young person’s school experience.
At one end, the early years and primary phase have rightly received sustained attention, with major reforms around phonics, curriculum development and early literacy.
At the other end, key stage 4 dominates headlines, accountability frameworks and performance measures. GCSE outcomes remain one of the most visible indicators of school performance.
The early years of secondary
But between these two sits a phase that has been somewhat neglected and, as a result, has received far less collective attention: key stage 3. Years 7 to 9 are often the forgotten middle of the school system.
Yet growing evidence suggests that these years may be among the most important in shaping young people’s educational trajectories.
Across England, pupil surveys consistently show a sharp decline in students’ sense of belonging, engagement and connection to school during the early secondary years. At the end of primary school, most pupils report that they enjoy school and feel that they belong in their classrooms.
By the middle of KS3, the picture is completely different.
Belonging in schools
To those who say that we don’t have a systemic problem, we simply need to turn to what our young people are telling us. Indeed, this is something we found through research at Lift Schools in the recent , which showed that while 86 per cent of Year 6 pupils feel a sense of belonging in their classrooms, that number fell dramatically to just 58 per cent of Year 9s.
And for girls, the picture is even bleaker: just 46 per cent of Year 9 girls who are eligible for pupil premium feel like they belong in school.
How can we regain a sense of purpose and joy in the early years of secondary?
Engagement matters
This matters because engagement is not a soft measure. It is closely connected to the issues currently dominating the education debate: attendance, attainment and participation in learning.
When students feel known, supported and challenged, they are more likely to turn up regularly and engage with their studies. When they don’t, absence and disengagement often follow.
None of this will come as a surprise to those of us working in schools.
Secondary leaders live and breathe the reality that the pressures of accountability concentrate attention on exam years. GCSE cohorts understandably demand focus, resources and targeted intervention.
KS4 outcome data
But the result can be that those first few years in secondary school lack a clarity of purpose and receive less attention, even though they are the phase where habits of attendance, engagement and academic identity are formed.
Many of the outcomes we focus on in KS4 are shaped much earlier. If students who were previously engaged and switched on to education in primary school lose their sense of connection to school in Years 7 and 8, the consequences are very real as they sit their exams in Year 11.
That is why there is a growing recognition across the sector that KS3 should be treated not simply as a bridge between primary school and GCSEs but as a distinct and purposeful phase of education in its own right.
One where we strike a much better balance between academic rigour and the rich and memorable experiences that so often unlock personal passions and interests that stay with young people throughout their lives.
A new initiative for KS3
It is exactly this thinking that sits behind the announcement of a KS3 RISE Alliance, which we have been asked to co-chair.
The alliance is being designed as a sector-led endeavour, bringing together practitioners and researchers to strengthen the early secondary years.
The ambition is not to introduce another programme or initiative. Instead the aim is to support the profession in doing something it already does well: learning from one another.
Across the country, many schools are already developing powerful approaches to KS3. Some are rethinking how they support pupils’ transition from primary school. Others are strengthening pastoral systems that recognise the developmental needs of young adolescents.
Many are working to ensure that literacy and numeracy foundations continue to develop strongly throughout the early secondary years. Some have fully integrated enrichment opportunities within the formal curriculum, while others are exploring wider use of electives to offer young people genuine curriculum choice.
Sharing approaches
But these examples are often isolated. They are not hard-wired into our system. Yet.
The opportunity now is to connect them more deliberately - to test ideas, share evidence and build a stronger shared understanding of what an excellent KS3 looks like in practice.
If the early secondary years are to become a stronger phase of education, several areas deserve particular attention.
We need to think seriously about engagement and belonging - these are not nice-to-haves. They are absolutely fundamental to a child’s success - we need to recognise that relationships and identity play an increasingly important role in motivation during adolescence.
Strong foundations
We need to continue securing strong academic foundations, ensuring that literacy and numeracy development remains a priority throughout Years 7 to 9. And we should develop greater clarity about the purpose of assessment in KS3, so that assessment supports learning rather than simply generating workload and data.
We also need to make sure that school is a place where children regularly have fun, and there is space for them to discover and explore their wider interests.
None of this requires a single national model. Schools will always design approaches that reflect their students and communities.
But by working together - sharing evidence, evaluating innovation and learning from effective practice - we have an opportunity to strengthen a phase of education that has too often been overlooked.
The early secondary years represent a critical window in young people’s development.
If we want to improve attendance, strengthen attainment and widen opportunity, key stage 3 is a very good place to start.
Rebecca Boomer-Clark, CEO of Lift Schools, and Dame Lesley Powell, CEO of the North East Learning Trust, are the co-chairs of the new KS3 RISE Alliance
You can now get the UK’s most-trusted source of education news in a mobile app. Get ÌÇÐÄVlog magazine on and on
