Advice for teachers from teachers to deliver the all-important first year of post-16 study
For many learners, the leap from pre- to post-16 chemistry can feel like stepping into a whole new world. The familiar periodic table is still there, and practicals still bring engagement – but suddenly, the questions are deeper, the maths is tougher and the pace is faster.
While post-16 chemistry is challenging, it’s also one of the most rewarding subjects for students who enjoy thinking deeply, solving problems and understanding the world at a molecular level. It provides students with a broad skill set which helps prepare them for many careers and not just for the laboratory.
With the right preparation and mindset, learners can make the quantum leap from pre- to post-16 learning not just successfully, but confidently.
This begs the question: how should we prepare students for this transition? We asked five experienced teachers of post-16 chemistry from across the UK and Ireland for their tips and strategies – and their responses were encouragingly cohesive. Whether moving from GCSE to A-level, National to Higher or building on the Irish transition year, the transition from pre- to post-16 chemistry is broadly a shared experience for learners and teachers across the UK and Ireland.
GCSE to A-level
At GCSE, students learn the building blocks: atomic structure, bonding, acids and bases and basic organic chemistry. But A-level demands more than just remembering facts. It asks students to explain, apply and analyse.
Suddenly, those neat circles with x’s for electrons become energy levels and spins. Pauli and Heisenberg arrive, and it feels like they’ve complicated everything! Redox isn’t just OIL RIG anymore – now it’s about reactivity and electrode potentials. This shift from description to explanation is one of the biggest hurdles.
Make a point of talking openly about the challenging transition to post-16 chemistry and celebrating when students persist with difficult problems
Continuing to use scaffolding, independent tasks, group work and familiar tools from pre- to post-16 lessons is a great help. For example, mini whiteboards are brilliant for both retrieval and deeper thinking: use them first for recall and then to explore the why, asking probing questions and encouraging peer discussion. This helps students shift from simply giving answers to reasoning like A-level chemists.
Likewise, A-level practical work goes beyond following instructions. We expect learners to use equipment like burettes and pipettes with precision, record data clearly and consistently, analyse results, identify errors and suggest improvements.
We assess these skills not just in the lab, but in written exams too – so attention to detail matters. It is incredibly important that schools perform as much practical work as possible. Time constraints make this difficult but it is often clear looking at exam papers who has had real practical experience and who hasn’t.
National to Higher
Chemistry has the fourth highest retention of learners from National 5 (N5) to Higher, behind PE, maths and English. Be aware of the Higher course content and lay strong foundations at N5 with a view to teaching the next steps at Higher. The jump to Higher chemistry from N5 is significant and some students may not realise how much work they need to do at Higher if they have found the N5 content straightforward. While your style of teaching does not need to change, the pace of content coverage does increase (3 hours 20 minutes a week to 5 hours). Ongoing integrated regular retrieval is important to ensure the increased pace of learning allows for consolidation of recently covered concepts. Interleaving can be a useful technique to improve retention and build links between topics.
Chemistry has the fourth highest retention of learners from National 5 (N5) to Higher, behind PE, maths and English (bit.ly/48sv5WA). Be aware of the Higher course content and lay strong foundations at N5 with a view to teaching the next steps at Higher. The jump to Higher chemistry from N5 is significant and some students may not realise how much work they need to do at Higher if they have found the N5 content straightforward. While your style of teaching does not need to change, the pace of content coverage does increase (3 hours 20 minutes a week to 5 hours). Ongoing integrated regular retrieval is important to ensure the increased pace of learning allows for consolidation of recently covered concepts (rsc.li/4aAh9Lw). Interleaving can be a useful technique to improve retention and build links between topics.
The maths challenge
One of the biggest hurdles learners face when moving from pre- to post-16 chemistry is the increased mathematical demand. Around 20% of the exam involves numeracy skills, and not just simple calculations. While pre-16 learners can get by with basic number work, post-16 courses require fluency in logarithms, rearranging equations and handling significant figures with accuracy. Tackle this head-on from the very start of the year with short maths for chemists activities which reinforce these skills in context rather than as abstract ideas. With regular low-stakes practice, students start to see mathematics as a tool for problem solving rather than a barrier and by the time we reach more complex calculations, they’re more self-assured and able to tackle tricky questions independently.
Find more content on maths skills and how to develop your learners’ confidence in this area.
Six tips for managing the transition to post-16 learning
Whatever the qualification pathway, these six teaching strategies can transform the transition period. Students feel supported, challenged and empowered to take ownership of their learning – and that’s the key to a successful start to post-16 courses.
1. Revisit key content
Start by reviewing essential pre-16 topics – many students forget them over the summer or never fully mastered them. A quick recap boosts confidence and makes new content less intimidating. You can even set pre-reading or a short task over the summer. Students often complete it just before term starts, which primes their memory and helps them hit the ground running.
2. Build independence early
Set clear expectations for organisation and study habits right from the start. Ask students to write down their goals for the year and keep them in their folder as a reminder. Do regular folder checks, awarding merits for good organisation – this keeps notes tidy and encourages regular review. Homework alternates between structured tasks and free study, where students create their own revision notes as evidence. This allows them to experiment with study techniques and develop independence before major assessments.
3. Develop a growth mindset around challenge
Many students arrive at post-16 chemistry lessons expecting their strong grades to guarantee smooth progress. The reality is that the complexity of the subject can feel like starting again and it’s completely normal for even able students to struggle at first. Make a point of talking openly about this and celebrating when students persist with difficult problems. With an encouraging classroom culture, students begin to see obstacles not as failures but as stepping stones and even the most cautious learners take more risks and tackle questions with confidence.
4. Prioritise retrieval practice
The volume of knowledge can feel overwhelming at first. Use regular retrieval practice such as short quizzes and multiple choice questions every week to assess their understanding of the previous weeks of learning. This can help students to keep older content fresh in their minds while adding new material. Use an online tool such as Carousel Learning to help students embed knowledge in their long-term memory. Doing this routinely means learners don’t leave revision until the end of the year and makes their summative exams feel much more manageable.
The volume of knowledge can feel overwhelming at first. Use regular retrieval practice such as short quizzes and multiple choice questions every week to assess their understanding of the previous weeks of learning (rsc.li/3KJYceW). This can help students to keep older content fresh in their minds while adding new material. Use an online tool such as Carousel Learning to help students embed knowledge in their long-term memory. Doing this routinely means learners don’t leave revision until the end of the year and makes their summative exams feel much more manageable.
5. Support self-study
The pace of each lesson needs to be appropriate for the class in front of you and backed up with supported study out of class. Supported study, usually run after school, is an important optional element of providing low-stakes personalised support for consolidation of classwork, or a space in which to complete homework with immediate support from a specialist. While excellent teaching forms the basis for learning, personal study is essential and forms the major part of understanding and successful learning. It also aids ongoing understanding of classwork. You cannot underestimate the importance of providing a space for this in school, particularly for students who lack an appropriate space or subject-specific support at home.
6. Offer regular feedback
Give good feedback on progress and understanding through tracking. Feedback in class and through tracking is a cornerstone of successful teaching and learning. Introduce learners to predicting their topic test marks just before each test, then use their predictions as a basis for pupil feedback. This is based on the Dunning–Kruger effect and can form a useful starting point for discussions around how well individuals think they understand the coursework. Overconfident students will achieve lower than their prediction, more prepared students might over perform, perhaps having more awareness of what they don’t yet know!
Ireland’s transition year model
Ireland’s education system includes a quasi-gap year – transition year (TY) – midway through secondary school, when students are aged about 15. It is offered as an option by most schools but has surged in popularity in recent years, with more than 80% of students now taking part annually. Students who choose not to take part in TY move directly to the final two years of secondary school, completing five years in total rather than six.
The core aims of TY are to give students freedom from the pressure of high-stakes examinations so they can focus for a period on personal and social development, vocational exploration and preparing for life beyond school. Students engage in two or three week-long work experience placements, which provide important insights into workplace environments and potential careers. Cultural activities, entrepreneurial and artistic projects, community involvement and trips away from school are also common, as well as taster modules for subjects such as chemistry, electronics, philosophy or languages that students might not previously have experienced.
Teachers of TY classes are afforded significantly greater autonomy to design their own curriculum compared to other grade levels, within broad parameters which have been newly-revised for 2025. This offers both opportunities and challenges. Previous research has shown that many teachers struggle to find or develop suitable materials for TY science classes, despite some efforts to collate suitable resources, while other teachers enjoy the freedom to customise lessons to their (and their students’) interests. Generally, TY classes tend to offer more opportunities for self-directed and active learning. This is reflected in a comparison of TY and non-TY science lessons which found that TY students were more likely to do experiments and work directly with scientific materials, while non-TY students engaged more with workbooks and textbooks. However, in STEM subjects as with most aspects of TY, students’ experiences can vary substantially across schools and maintaining student engagement in lessons is key.
Give good feedback on progress and understanding through tracking. Feedback in class and through tracking is a cornerstone of successful teaching and learning. Introduce learners to predicting their topic test marks just before each test, then use their predictions as a basis for pupil feedback. This is based on the Dunning–Kruger effect and can form a useful starting point for discussions around how well individuals think they understand the coursework (rsc.li/4aBazo0). Overconfident students will achieve lower than their prediction, more prepared students might over perform, perhaps having more awareness of what they don’t yet know!
Ireland’s transition year model
Ireland’s education system includes a quasi-gap year – transition year (TY) – midway through secondary school, when students are aged about 15. It is offered as an option by most schools but has surged in popularity in recent years, with more than 80% of students now taking part annually (bit.ly/4oJqWCB). Students who choose not to take part in TY move directly to the final two years of secondary school, completing five years in total rather than six.
The core aims of TY are to give students freedom from the pressure of high-stakes examinations so they can focus for a period on personal and social development, vocational exploration and preparing for life beyond school. Students engage in two or three week-long work experience placements, which provide important insights into workplace environments and potential careers. Cultural activities, entrepreneurial and artistic projects, community involvement and trips away from school are also common, as well as taster modules for subjects such as chemistry, electronics, philosophy or languages that students might not previously have experienced.
Teachers of TY classes are afforded significantly greater autonomy to design their own curriculum compared to other grade levels, within broad parameters which have been newly-revised for 2025 (pdf: bit.ly/4rJKx8n). This offers both opportunities and challenges. Previous research has shown that many teachers struggle to find or develop suitable materials for TY science classes (pdf: bit.ly/4pQnerz), despite some efforts to collate suitable resources, while other teachers enjoy the freedom to customise lessons to their (and their students’) interests. Generally, TY classes tend to offer more opportunities for self-directed and active learning. This is reflected in a comparison of TY and non-TY science lessons which found that TY students were more likely to do experiments and work directly with scientific materials, while non-TY students engaged more with workbooks and textbooks (pdf: bit.ly/3MmkPXn). However, in STEM subjects as with most aspects of TY, students’ experiences can vary substantially across schools (pdf: bit.ly/48HFdtC) and maintaining student engagement in lessons is key.
Aidan Clerkin, Amiera Davies, Duncan Short, Eurig Thomas and Niall Begley
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