As the final term of the school / college year winds softly to its close, the collective thoughts of Senior Management inevitably turn towards those long, empty, weeks of the summer holiday and how they can be filled.
Mainly, it should be said, by teachers.
Because, just as rust never sleeps, neither does SM and one of the latest ways they’ve devised to keep you occupied, out of mischief and with your nose firmly to the grindstone is Transition Materials.
Or, as they’re sometimes known, “bridging tasks”. A set of materials students complete over the summer hols as either preparation for A1, if they’re transitioning from GCSE, or A2 if they’re transitioning from their first year of A-level.
And while it would be nice to think that these things magically write themselves, we both know that’s not the case.
As loyal supporters of this blog will further know – because as loyal supporters they will have read every single word of every single post I’ve ever written – I’ve previously posted both Sociology Transition Materials and Psychology Transition Materials.
It is, after all, what I do when I’m not doing the other stuff that I do.
So, you may or may not be thinking (I like to hedge my bets in order to preserve the mystique), “Why do I need yet another set of GCSE-to-A-level Transition Materials when I could spend most of my precious summer holidays creating my own?”.
And when you stop to think about it. There’s your answer.
This set of materials, lovingly crafted by some nameless teachers from King Charles School (and Sixth Form Centre), probably has way-too-much stuff in it for any sane individual to contemplate using in its entirety (it consists of 52 pages. I’ve written books that are smaller…), but there’s plenty here that can be usefully adapted to save a lot of time, effort and tears.
Although it’s designed for the AQA Specification there’s little here that wouldn’t be equally-applicable to other Specs, so you’re probably free to lift as much – or as little – as you think necessary. And while there are a few “suggested readings” from the Webb et. al. textbook in the pack (I’m not going to link to it because, honestly, Rob Webb doesn’t need the money), scans of these are helpfully provided (although you didn’t hear it from me).
Finally, the materials have one very interesting and (possibly) unique feature that caught my eye and could well be worth half-inching:
“What kind of Sociologist will you be?” is a short multiple-choice quiz whose answers reveal the type of sociologist you are likely to turn out to be (feminist, functionalist, marxist, interactionist or postmodernist).
Allegedly.
Anyway, to sum it up, this is a pack of materials you could usefully dip into and out of to select bits-and-bobs to serve up to your students to keep them out of trouble over the long summer days and, indeed, nights.