Have we got a starting Secondary School Support thread?

Penguins phew that it went well.
Witch sounds like he really should be home and the struggle to get him back will presumably be the same after half term anyway.
spider the coasting would bother me too. I wonder if there will be something that will persuade him that top set is worth it.

Well the meeting went better than last week! We presented a plan to try after half term and they accepted it. And dd is on board so hopefully they'll see how she can be when things are good. So relieved.

great job on the walk penguin and fingers crossed for the ta.

HAPPY HALF TERM

Half term here - DS is back from the 7 mile walk and seems to have gone well. He said he was at the front the whole way and his class raised the most in his House. He said some children weren't sensible and tried to go ahead of teacher - I thought DS would do that but he said no he didn't and they threatened the group that did with detention.

They have put an ad out for TAs so hopefully that includes DS, looks like a re advertisement so don't know if they struggle to get staff. Though thought there was high demand to be a TA.

Witchend We have 'Y7 Success Evening' next week, which is a sort of semi-parents'-evening in which we see his form tutor and head of year, so we will be raising this concern with them and making sure he's not just left to cruise along unchallenged.

Sorry your DS is still poorly. Hopefully a rest over half term will see him right. We still have another week to go!

Spider that would be exactly what I would be concerned about when you first said about it.

Ds has had the rest of the week off. I knew once he'd had a day off he'd really struggle to get back, but he has genuinely managed to keep his temperature up, and he's as white as a sheet. Problem is that with dd2 I can send her in knowing that if she's not good she will go to the office and they will send her home. With ds he won't say and just struggle.
He's so much happier not at school though. (he's currently singing "half term, no school...")

He's settled into his new classes really well and says he prefers it because the work's so easy and that it's just like set 1 but with more support - which basically means that he's going to coast along and never get back into set 1. Frustrating. I mean, I'm glad he's happy, but I know he can do a hell of a lot better when he actually puts his mind to it. He's incredibly bright (I know all MN kids are bright but he really, really is!) but frankly he's also inherently lazy, doesn't see the point of schoolwork, doesn't see the need to write anything down - if he knows something, he's happy with that and refuses to accept that he needs to demonstrate in writing that he knows it! He's a lovely lad but my God he's frustrating sometimes!

Think its an annual sponsored walk - in the past its raised a lot for the school though this year quite a lot of people seem not to be donating. Though they were suggesting £20 donation per child which seems on the high side to me for an average donation.

Hope you get the blood test done fine Frayed

Spider Hope he's fine in his hoody. Sponsored walk is supposed to be non uniform and fancy dress. DS hates non uniform alone - he even wears school uniform on the weekends unless we are going out. I told him I was binning his old primary uniform and he said no I will wear it over the summer so he kept some of it.

Aornis Good luck with the meeting. Hope you get a breakthrough.

Today wasn't bad apparently - did 4/5 lessons just not history.

Aornis Disorganised is indeed a inherent feature as none of them had managed it. No consequences so all ended well!

Good luck with the meeting tomorrow. It is so bloody hard and I know how futile it can feel. Fingers crossed they see the light. The passing for normal/no support=success is so entrenched. I have it with DS3's primary school. I've brought them up short on it and they were all . I think I'm getting a bit blunt after years of SEN-ing!

I bet he gets lots of positive comments about his top spiderlight. How is he finding his new classes?

We have non-uniform day tomorrow as well. Has to wear something red. Much angst. Has a red t-shirt he loves, featuring a design from a car anime that he loves, but nobody else is into Japanese cars so he's worried that it will be 'wrong'. Wanted to wear his school PE hoody, which has red sides. I advised that he would probably stick out like a sore thumb, and have ended up buying a plain red hoody that he can wear over the car t-shirt and zip up if he wants to. Some days he worries so much about things like this and other days he wouldn't care if he was dressed in a bin-bag!

It's an inherent feature of 11 year olds en masse to be disorganised surely?

Dd's OK pottering quietly. I'm working. The minute we talk about school her anxiety visibly rises though. We're meeting them again tomorrow. I suspect we'll go round in circles with their self imposed things that must happen.

How is DD Aornis?

Glad DS has been o.k. at school for the last couple of days Penguins

I have the blood test form but I will take him next week now. DS2 was very keen to have the blood test this afternoon, as he's not looking forward to drama! Apparently they were set the task of working in groups to produce a 5-6 minute thing but they had to do it at break times as this was set at the end of the last lesson, and I don't think this has happened for his group due to them being disorganised. TBH I do see DS2's point, some have their lunch at first break, some at lunchtime, both have huge queues. So getting a consensus on when they were going to prepare just didn't happen.

Non-uniform day tomorrow, in aid of a mental health charity. The pupils decided what the cause was going to be and chose mental health. Very fitting, given the sad news the school had earlier in the term.

Ah yes 3k. My mistake. I'd cheerfully have swum that but my undiagnosed asthma didn't agree with running :)

Sponsored walk sounds good. Is that an end of term thing? I was a PE avoider too but that was due to being picked last for netball etc. Running and walking I can do.
The run was 3k not 3 miles wasn’t it?

I think 7 miles is far for them too and DS is small and not too active so may struggle. DD is much taller and very sporty so fine for her.

I think school grading for DS goes it was so bad I'm going to run away rather than discuss it, bad, meh and reaches a high point of OK. Though on Friday DH got a fine out of him - I suspect for Friday at 3.05pm or it was a fine, don't ask me any questions DH.

Did you get the form Frayed? I agree this is an ego thing. Daft twunts.
The gradings sound familiar Penguins! OK is pretty good I think.

I was a PE avoider too so 7 mile sponsored walks and 3 mile runs make me shudder!

7 miles! that's a long way.
good luck to your ds penguin

we will have some achey muscles tomorrow. dc finished a 3k run today without much training. they did a couple of 1k runs for selection yesterday.

hope all issues around your dc's extra needs will be solved soon and that they can be happy at school.

Glad they are assessing Aornis

DS said today was OK which seems to be one grade higher than meh which yesterday was. Think he did 3/5 lessons today in lessons and 2 in support room and I am told school is meh. 😂

Friday is a 7 mile sponsored walk. Hardly any parents have sponsored it and they keep reading out which parents have and how much. DS is happy I sponsored but dreading them reading out my silly message, he's giggling at it though.

That’s good news Aornis .
Another week until half term here, and we already have 2 big project type homework’s set. I’m sure there’s more to come.

I'm glad the LA have agreed to assess Aornis. It's so frustrating when a school becomes obstructive when it would take less effort to actually support the child. I'm sure sometimes it's more to do with egos than budgets!

last week before half term. yay. one week plus a couple of inset days.
cross country competition tomorrow, hopefully not too wet. they had the selection runs today, dc is shattered.

Frayed yes, they are going to assess now :) so that's a bright spot.

Struggling to get them to understand what will and won't work with dd seems to be impossible. They keep on about resources but it takes up far more of their time dealing with her when she's distressed than it would to do what her primary did.

We only have one more day before half-term, yay!

It seems to be the week for school discos, judging by my FB friends all around the UK. DD has already been ill so I'm hoping that a nice break if really going to help with that.

Sorry the school is still being difficult Aornis. Have you had any joy with the LA about the EHC needs assessment?

Glad DS has been coping o.k. penguins but the handling of the pupil in DD's PE sounds very concerning.

DS2 has been back at school this week, I wrote a note excusing PE as he's still not right. Blood test form should be ready to be picked up tomorrow. I will see how he goes, if he's off sick any more this week I'll take him, if not I'll leave until half-term. The clinic will only see children between 9am-3pm

Though after half term we have 7.5 weeks of school until Christmas - that is going to be fun. It's just whether you want pain now or later

3 more days till half term . OMG we have another week. Can I cope! Can the washing machine cope! How many more wobblies! Seems too much.