Growing up in Ireland: National longitudinal study of children. Off to a good start? Primary school experiences and the transition to second-level education.

Primary schools can influence young people’s later engagement with education in a number of ways. First, having a positive experience of primary school and good relations with teachers can enhance children’s engagement with school and thus provide a firm foundation for later engagement. Secondly, having a positive experience of school subjects such as Irish and Maths at primary level is likely to influence young people’s attitudes to these subjects in the longer term. Thirdly, acquiring key skills in the form of literacy and numeracy provides the bedrock for later engagement with the second-level curriculum. The analyses presented in this report show that all of these factors came into play in shaping young people’s engagement with school at the age of 13. Having had conduct difficulties at age nine was associated with the nature of interaction with teachers four years later. However, teacher-student interaction was more strongly related to current levels of misbehaviour, suggesting some changes in the nature of student behaviour over the transition period. The frequency of positive interaction with teachers was associated with fewer transition difficulties among young people, while frequent negative interaction was related to transition difficulties among the most disadvantaged groups. The study findings point to the importance of both primary and second-level experiences in shaping student perspectives and outcomes. Thus, even taking account of the profile of students, the individual primary and second-level school attended shape the nature of the transition and of skill development among young people