Transition to high school for gifted and mainstream students

The transition to high school is a very important event for early adolescents, and creates many different concerns for the students and their parents. The research reported in this paper investigated the perceptions and expectations of students in the final year of primary school in both gifted and mainstream classes, as well as their parents, regarding their transition to high school. Survey data were gathered from parents and students in four different school areas in New South Wales (Australia) relating to the background of the respondent and their perceptions, and expectations relating to the families' involvement in starting school, activities undertaken and skills that should be attained by the student. The data were analysed using the eight categoriesââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Âstudents' adjustment, academic issues, student-teacher relations, educational environment, family issues, physical issues, and rules--adapted from a previous study. These categories are based on earlier research dealing with transition to school from prior-to-school settings, which pinpointed the various concerns of all the stakeholders in the transition process. The present study analysed one component of the survey which asked parents and students what were the first five things they considered when thinking about going to high school.