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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Yr7 new starters

363 replies

simpson · 01/09/2016 00:11

Hi...

Just wondering if other parents/kids are worrying about starting secondary school. We have had tears (from DS) tonight and we still have another week to go!!

I am sure he will be fine but I am worrying (as is he).

OP posts:
exLtEveDallas · 22/09/2016 20:30

She finished her homework at 9:30 last night.

Tonight she's done a written page on Auschwitz and a PowerPoint on Hardwoods. Thankfully she thinks her maths tutor 'forgot' their homework tonight Smile

Original poster
simpson · 22/09/2016 19:39

DS just came home in tears (again!) over a nightmare journey home.

The good news is he made it into the school football team.

I have just bribed him into doing 2 pieces of homework tonight.

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Noofly · 22/09/2016 16:50

DD has much more homework than her brother ever did. Apparently it is very common for girls to have far more homework...

Titsywoo · 22/09/2016 16:39

Just got a letter about the year 7 summer camp. There goes another 330 quid!

EndoplasmicReticulum · 22/09/2016 14:31

We had quite a lot of homework in the first week but it has really tailed off this week. Either that or he's not writing it down, which is entirely possible.

Titsywoo · 22/09/2016 13:05

We've just had a big piece of dt homework. At dds school they get two 5 hour projects a fortnight. This one looks horrible. It has 5 tasks. Think she might get a music one today too so will have to do an hour a night from now on plus English, maths and languages homework.

steppemum · 22/09/2016 11:10

Oh wow at all the homework!

dd has had about 4 pieces so far, each very easy. Several were 'create a title page for the topic'

I am very relieved that they are giving them a gentle start, there is enough to adjust to.

ipads!!!!!!

That would be a No then.

ihearttc · 21/09/2016 21:55

DS also didn't get in the school football team either despite playing for a local team. He is no Wayne Rooney but he is quite good so he is all upset about that as well.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 21/09/2016 19:55

Also hope your son is OK.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 21/09/2016 19:54

Colouring - it's a comprehensive school here too. Just with ipads.

exLtEveDallas · 21/09/2016 19:02

DD is a bit better this week after a spectacular meltdown last week over 'not knowing ANYTHING except SATS' but we are both finding the homework heavy going. She's been doing at least an hour, and often two every night, which I think is far too much for the first few weeks of high school.

Last night was two pages of maths, a (nother bloody) poster for IT, two pages of science and a French quiz online. Tonight is more maths and yet another poster for D&T - which is less, but she won't start it until 8pm as she's at Netball right now.

Oh for weekly primary homework again...

Original poster
simpson · 21/09/2016 18:51

Iheartttc - that is exactly what DS has been doing, place value. He is so bored, but at least he has been told after next week things ramp up.

He is finding Spanish v hard and a bit demoralised by it.

He finds out if he has got into the yr7 football team by Friday, am keeping my fingers well & truly crossed!

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ihearttc · 21/09/2016 18:38

DS1 is losing the will to live with Maths as well...in fact I have never seen him so completely demoralised by it all. His school don't set for maths/english at all in Y7 and Y8-they are all mixed ability sets.

He spent the last 2 lessons ordering numbers and doing place value...which he could about 4 years ago. He said it took 5 minutes and he spent the rest of the lesson sitting there after he asked the teacher for some harder work but she wouldn't give him any.

colouringinagain · 21/09/2016 15:26

Dd also in tears again this morning - doesn't want to do netball club after last week's. Told her she needs to give it a few more weeks...

colouringinagain · 21/09/2016 15:25

Simpson really feel with you re your ds. Hope today was better.

Comprehensive school here so no, no iPad...

I'm feeling v guilty, because dd has been freaking out about sec school since about Easter, she's taken all my attention. But yest worked out that ds hasn't been well for months. Got an emergency doc appt this morning, gp has done an urgent paed referral. Feel bad. And exhausted.

Original poster
simpson · 20/09/2016 22:31

Buying an iPad??! Shock

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Original poster
simpson · 20/09/2016 22:30

Once he had eaten & blood sugars restored he told me that in PE (football) he played so well that the PE teacher asked if he had signed up to be in the team (he has) so he was chuffed about that.

IIRC there were tears last Tuesday too and tbh I think the day is just too long for him as he leaves the house at 7.45 and doesn't get back till 5.30 (football training) so is knackered and then has at least 45 mins homework to do.

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EndoplasmicReticulum · 20/09/2016 20:25

Whole class detentions are not a sign of a good teacher, sorry Simpson.

Boy surprised me today when he told me he had been to club sign-up and signed up for two games clubs. Turns out he meant board games, which is much more like him than the sports I was thinking he meant.

The demands for money are coming in fairly thick and fast at the moment - does anyone else have to buy / provide an i-pad?

steppemum · 20/09/2016 19:13

Oh simpson, poor ds Sad

Original poster
simpson · 20/09/2016 17:38

Another bad day today...DS home in tears saying everyone is rude and there are naughty kids in his class. He got a detention today (10 mins as the whole literacy class were kept in)

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steppemum · 19/09/2016 22:41

to be fair HCF and LCM were definitely done in year 6. Not that that means they would remember it!

Funnily enough, the task she wanted was the vague open ended one. She didn't want to do the prescriptive not nearly so interesting one.
It was the choice that floored her.

and she is soooo sloooow at everything, whether getting clothes out for tomorrow or doing homework. I think she has been very lucky that she hasn't had too much homework so far!

EndoplasmicReticulum · 19/09/2016 21:34

Thanks Teen. We looked it up on GCSE Bitesize. Thought it was a bit much for year 7 though especially to work out on their own!

TeenAndTween · 19/09/2016 20:38

Endo In case you need to know:
HCF and LCM: break the numbers down to their prime factors, probably using a tree diagram for each. HCF is then the intersection of the prime factors (ie the ones that appear in both), LCM is the union (ie all of one, and then the extras from the other you haven't yet got).

Original poster
simpson · 19/09/2016 18:56

DS has been moaning that maths is too easy & the homework he came home with he was taught in yr5. But at least he has been told that they have 2 more weeks of this and then it ramps up.

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EndoplasmicReticulum · 19/09/2016 18:35

I have told the boy that I will help with homework up to a point but as soon as he's rude to me my help will be withdrawn. He's another one who hates an open-ended task. He'll happily do pages and pages of sums, but anything with an element of thinking-stuff-up-yourself leads to tantrums.

Maths has been hard this week. He had to work out Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common Multiplier without being told how. Or so he says.