In our last blog we talked about how half of disadvantaged pupils who were top attainers in maths at eleven are no longer top attainers by sixteen, and that the evidence points to a drop off in KS3. In that post we explored how high attainers’ experience of maths changes in the secondary transition. In this one we will look at the impact of their friendship groups.
This post is based on an article from our CEO in TES magazine.
Our research
We surveyed 2000 pupils from Y6-9, from all backgrounds and with all levels of attainment. One of the things we did was to ask them about their friendship groups. To do this we showed them a screen with a large number of phrases about behaviour, such as “do their homework”, and asked them to select the ones that describe their friends. We used these answers to group pupils into those with studious friendship groups, non-studious friendship groups, and mixed friendship groups.
What we found
We found that there is a huge change as pupils move into secondary school – but only for more disadvantaged pupils.
The graph below shows what we found. At primary school around a quarter of all pupils have non-studious friendship groups. This is the same for disadvantaged (defined as the bottom 30% of IDACI postcodes) and non-disadvantaged pupils. But in Year 7 this changes. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils with non-studious friendship groups shoots up to around 40%, whilst the proportion for non-disadvantaged pupils stays the same.
This shift in friendship groups is most concentrated amongst disadvantaged pupils who were high attainers in their KS2 SATs. These pupils are by far the most likely to move into a non-studious friendship group as they start secondary school.
This may be linked to these pupils becoming increasingly self-conscious about being good at maths as they move into Year 7. The proportion of high attainers describing maths as “uncool” increases by 50% from Year 6 to Year 7, whilst there’s little change for lower attainers.
This change in friendship groups is important, because in our research the strongest predictor of attitudes to school and maths was a pupil’s friendship groups. The chart below shows a range of attitude measures for high-attaining pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. The grey bars are those pupils with non-studious friendship groups, and the green are with studious friendship groups.
This gap doesn’t just reflect a general grumpiness – both groups are equally positive about seeing their friends. But there’s a huge difference in how they see school and learning.
We don’t definitively know what’s causing this shift in friendship groups, although we shared some ideas in the TES article here. We look forward to exploring this more with our partner schools to build the evidence base further.
The importance of transition
One thing we do know is that friendship groups form early in Year 7, and that high-attaining disadvantaged pupils are forming peer groups that are negative about school and maths.
We need to act in this critical window of opportunity early in Year 7 to create a culture that prizes maths and to give pupils social groups where their talent is valued. Too many pupils feel like they have to hide their talent in order to fit in.
At Axiom Maths we support schools to run maths circles, where groups of like-minded pupils come together to do challenging maths for the fun of it. This gives them a social group where maths is prized, and there’s no pressure to be someone you’re not.
We have limited spaces for schools who’d like to join our programme for September 2024. Click here to express an interest.