Help DS set up system to be organised for starting secondary

'Sticky backed plastic'

Are you really Valerie Singleton, Happy?

Can I recommend covering all of the books with sticky backed plastic at the start of term? It really does make them more hard wearing.

notin I wish I had shares in Ikea. We just live very close to one and the OP said she wanted to be organised like an Ikea family

Amazons there are loads of "family command centre" ideas on Pinterest or google where you can have a magazine file thing on the wall, a notice board and calendar etc.

I print my own calendar every year but there are loads online that have been done for you, lots of free stuff but also some very beautiful ones on Etsy. Again Pinterest have loads under planners or organisers.

I'm looking to do the magazine file method for September, but in the kitchen rather than bedroom. Coupled with timetables and calendar.

5 mentions of the same store in one post. Do you have shares in them?

Nice colours!

This is our system, all Ikea wooden folders just painted with the colours of his room and labelled.

Every night takes everything out of his bag and puts his books into the correct day, then re stocks his bags. They sit on an Ikea shelf above an Ikea Gallant desk. Under the shelf are LED strip lights to light up the desk area. Under the shelf on the wall are those plastic pots that you hang from a rail from Ikea's kitchen section. They hold pens/pencils/post it notes/stapler etc

He also has this noticeboard from Ikea, any homework he has is written on a precut piece of paper and put up there on the day it is due in with the topic ie English, book report and the date it is due in as some things are 1 week some are longer. That way he can see at a glance how much homework he has. It has his timetable on it and then anything to do with his homework is pinned to the bottom.

I made him a daily schedule so it reminds him to take his games kit or his book for his music tuition etc.

Key to the house is on a long piece of elastic sewn into his bag so he can't lose it.

Sent my dc on a workshop specifically to get him organised. It was called 'Study Skills for Secondary School' or something like that but covered having a workspace, folders etc. Really helpful so PM if you want details - they're held in London (SW).

DS school is also detention after 1 missed h/w. A bit OTT but has the desired effect with the vast majority of the class.

10 missed homeworks before a detention? At my ds's school they get one for one missed homework - or if it's late, or if it's not completed 100% or if it's not completed to the standard the teacher expects. Much harsher than my school - we just got told off and it didn't get marked.

DD gets no homeworkstamps, 10=detention. That works.

Inspired thread! 'Helped' my DS to declutter his room today. He now owns some empty Ikea wooden magazine files on his desk. He has his pens/pencils in a DIY pen holder (the bottom of a whiskey box) and his rulers in an empty jam jar! Anyone got any desk tidy recommendations?

We bought a filing box, with a carefully-labelled hanging file for each subject. It is a thing of beauty. It is also totally empty.

Whereas the top of the piano contains a large, slithery pile of exercise books and completed work and her school bag contains a veritable stationery shop full of writing equipment.

So do be prepared to be flexible when he discovers his own "system". Especially if it works

Not sure what I did there with question marks!

Good luck ealing ????

Also, clothes ready, bag packed, money, travel card, whatever, in pocket, etc., the night before, so there's no last minute panic in the morning. Get him to work out what time he needs to leave the house and how much time he needs to allow before that for breakfast, shower, getting dressed, working it so that he's not wanting the bathroom at the same time as anyone else.

Get him to take charge of his own morning routine so he knows what he should be doing at what time in order to leave the house on time.

Just shown my daughter notinminutenow That's the system she wants to try and maintain. Sold! Thank you

It's a £50 but sadly just a napkin! :-)

I want to know what goes in that file too...and is it a tenner or £50? (Showing how ignorant I am on what a £50 note looks like)

I like the photos and tips though!

What goes in the file with the tenner on it?

DS just finished y7. This is his 'system'. In theory books move from black to red when homework is complete. Worked - no detentions for missing homework or books. At the moment it is just an end if year mess!

Folder with watch on = stuff, other than homework, that needs action. They get a lot of stuff!

We have a timetable on the fridge and one in DS's room.

Only tips are make sure he writes homework in planner - even if there's an Internet homework package like 'Show my Homework', not all teachers use it; do homework on the day he gets it; pack bag the night before; keep a 2nd pencil case at home; label everything!

Just be there to support and guide in the early days. My DS needed help initially with organising homework.

Good luck!

ds (ASD) had coloured folders which had text book and work book in them. Copy of his timetable went up in the kitchen and I put a velcro strip on the fridge and made pecs symbols with his subjects on so that when he was set homework that subject went on the strip, once done, it was taken off - visual cues were in obvious places rather than in a homework planner.

Also had a check list which I laminated and put by the front door. On it was Coat, train pass, folders for the day, PE kit, pencil case, lunch money, student ID, Water, tissues, phone.

^ the folders I mention are for worksheets/letters/loose bits of paper

For taking in to school

3 transparent, coloured envelope files. One for Homework To Do, one for Homework Done, and another for 'Other'

Mine don't have text books, and he has his school books loose in his bags.

It's called a CEP verticep modular something. Expensive (the ones in the photo came to £28) but has lasted well (DS1's have been going strong for four years so far). I bought them from here