Have we got a starting Secondary School Support thread?

We pay £8 a year for locker,no deposit

Witchend at the fellow dog. My DS also once only answered the Headmistress as a dog - he would only woof and answer questions about dog treats. He used to spend lunchtimes as girls pet dogs.

He also would only learn swimming with me as a dog. One time off he goes swimming lots of lengths doggy paddle woofing at the top of his voice - I have to be Mummy Woofie who cuddles Woofie at the end of each length and gives him bones. Then realise another Mum from school is watching us - thankfully she's just laughing a lot and nice.

Penguinesetpandas I don't think there's much of a hunting season in England, so I'll risk it.

My ds also had a time of communicating as a dog at school. His first headmistress thought it terribly funny that the first conversation he had with her was entirely barks.

The problem is it's a huge school and it's been like this for ages as no room for lockers for everyone, either you have a shared locker or no locker.

No, NoLogic I wouldn't be happy with that. We had to pay a £20 deposit for the key and £20 locker hire charge for the year, but it's for DD2 only. DD2 couldn't reach her assigned locker and one of the older kids noticed and told her to go to pupil reception and tell them, and they immediately took her key back, and the next day she was given a new locker that she could reach.

Does anyone else have shared lockers? I've never heard of this but all kids at my sons secondary share lockers which is causing problems as my sons friend is forgetting to lock the locker and already had his own pe kit stolen

Witchend I'm sorry to hear your sad news.

Witchend So sorry about your friend but please don't identify as a brown bear as its brown bear hunting season, at least in Finland! My DS did once have a policy of only communicating with school staff as a dog but not sure if that works for parents

Thanks very much for all replies on school clubs etc, very useful. We've agreed to 3 x per week, gymnastics, 1 gym with friends or after school club with friends and army cadets she wants to join. We will see how it goes but she's getting much better though not sure if restarting will trigger things OK.

I did do one of DDs homeworks but she generally always does them and I was bored. DS I have no idea what is happening with his homework other than its patchy. His homework system doesn't work and school haven't corrected it. He's really scatty at noticing homework - partly absent minded partly selective memory loss. So I have no idea what homework he has. Asked him if needs help no. Though at this stage just getting him to go to school and do lessons is main target and homework can resolve later. I do know he's got a massive 5 sides of A5 English project to do and I can take a good bet at how much of that has been done. Had to sort out things for my work all weekend though so not got time to sort this.

My DD eats loads too but she's 5 foot 6 and very sporty - about 8 hours a week of sport so she stays thin. She's vegetarian but doesn't like many veg!

DD did the one piece of homework due in tomorrow, took her over twice as long as the estimate - all of them are taking at least twice as long at the moment though!.

Sunday is a packed day because I nag her about homework, then she has to fit the top 40, strictly and the x factor in before bed

We had bold declarations of taking a detention over speaking in front of the class. Work is now done, but I am not sure how tomorrow will go for DS2. Especially as he also has PE which he hates.

Ssh...can't you hear the sighing

DD is doing homework.

We are managing homework fairly well here - 5 lots with weekend although some of it is not due for a week. We have a rare day of doing nothing today so DD is currently holed up in her room doing 2 lots of project work.

Trying to keep up with DD's appetite at the moment - she is constantly hungry as her sports training has ramped up this year after winning a national title in June. She now has to travel 45 each way straight from school to training 3 times a week and then trains for 2.5 hrs so she eats a food flask of pasta on the way there and when she gets home she has something else (soup or a sandwich etc) . She also does 2 lunchtime sports club and 1 afternoon sports club so there is only one day a week that she is home straight from school. Been trying to get more fruit and veg into her diet but she is living on carbs at the moment.

Lougle that kind of homework does not go well in my house either. DS1 just can't, DS2 can cope better, but it's usually a painful process.

Witchend, sorry about your friend . Your poor DS too, it must just be overwhelming atm. I hope you're able to work something out with the school. I like the sound of becoming a bear. I think I have the skills, I'm an excellent sleeper. When given the chance!

DS2 hasn't finished his homework as he "forgot", so I'm expecting a tense and tearful day tomorrow. I actually hate homework more now than I did when I was at school.

DD2 is killing me slowly with homework. She doesn't see the point of it, and can't see it from the teacher's perspective
I can't see the point a good deal of the time. I suspect sometimes the teacher's perspective is simply "oh no I have to set something."

Ds has finally managed to complete his homework for the week. Lots and lots of tears and that he couldn't manage it, and how he didn't understand it. Took a lot of patience and calm from me.
Until the incident on Tuesday he was doing it as soon as he got home with no fuss at all. Now we're back to square one, just how he was at primary. Woopee.

I just hope that they understand how dreadfully this has effected him. It's also been dreadful timing as a friend of mine (that he knows well) had a stroke 10 days ago, and we now know won't recover. I'm port of contact for a lot of people and so I'm having a lot of emotional phone conversations and emails etc as people ask what's happening.
I can't really separate my feeling about both, and I think I'm perhaps focusing more on ds' situation because I feel I can maybe do something there, whereas I can't do anything about the other.

I am thinking of self-identifying as a brown bear and eating a lot then hibernating all winter. I'm sure work can't object to self identification under some sort of discriminatory act can they?

Mine goes fencing twice a week from 6 to 7.30 and is back by about 8.15. His friend from the next street turns up randomly several times a week, calling for him to play out on their bikes, which I don't mind because he's an only child and it gets him off Fortnite! He has to be in by 7.30 though, and that will get earlier as the evenings draw in.

DD has 1 weeknight (scouts) and 2 weekend (ballet/recorder group)
which works out ok. She also does stuff at school lunchtimes and drama after school Tuesday. DD never switches off though and behaves much worse when bored.

I would say 2 x weeknight max and possibly one at weekends is reasonable penguin . We just do riding and scouts but scouts sometimes has weekend activities. You mention money but it’s also about how much time it takes and impacts on others with lifts etc.

I've caught up with the thread. Witchend your poor DS .

DD2 is killing me slowly with homework. She doesn't see the point of it, and can't see it from the teacher's perspective. She has a 5 part art homework that starts with researching an artist and his work, saying what you like about it, etc. DD says "What if I don't like any of it and find the artist completely boring?" I've explained to her that the point of the exercise is to find out about the artist, why other people think he's important, what it is about his work that changed art when he did it, why he painted the things he did, what mediums he used and why, what effect they had, etc., but she just says "Well it all just looks boring to me!"

I can't do her homework for her. At the same time, she seems to be having a complete mind-block on this, because she can't understand how she can look for interesting facts when it seems so boring to her. This is only part 1 of a 5 part homework.

Give me strength!!!

oh and music lessons on saturdays.

dc does a sport once a week 6-8.
plus after school clubs rugby and cross country 3-5 once a week each.

hmm sandwich toaster. might did dh's old one out from the back of the cupboard...

In our house the sofa eats lots of socks but only boy socks. Tend to get industrial quantities of socks as DS gets holes in his all the time, don't know what he does with them.

How many activities / meeting with friends do your kids do after school / at weekends and for how long per week. DD is ungrounded from Tuesday and asking for Army Cadets 7-9pm on Thursday locally, gymnastics on Fridays 3 hours incl 1 hour travel and paid for until Dec Dh takes her there and back and youth club on Tuesdays which again is 7 to 9 locally on a school night. She said she would just come home on Mon and Wed but know there will be nagging for gym for an hour or so after school and then there are parties and meet ups at weekend. Want to give her a weekly limit of number of nights and hours but may need to also veto one by one. I think three late ones in the week is too much. She's saying she will give up gymnastics but she begged for that and we have paid until December. Army cadets maybe OK, that is only £15 one off payment. Not at all sure about youth club. Saying no to hanging around. Gym after school I quite like and that's £1 a time. DH isn't much help. Not much homework but ramps up in y9 but would rediscuss for year 9.

DD has done surprisingly well in religious studies and ok in everything else. So my nerves are less frayed than last week. But where oh where are all the black socks?

How infuriating Witch.
Titsy I've got a year 7 eager beaver and an older slow coach too. Luckily they walk so just leave at different times. I wonder if the school will go along with your dh's request.

Oh witch poor ds