DS bored in year 7

We'd warned DS that he'd be bored at the first term of year 7 and he was. His prep had covered most of the work already, but it was a good opportunity to get used to everything else.

They did new stuff in the second term (except for French)

If your DH is in too low a set for Maths and English then he must be producing work that is by far the best in the class. If this is the case, the school will move him. Sets are VERY fluid. If he is not coming way ahead of everyone else then he is in the right set. You needn't worry, he will find his level and the school will ensure he is moved if he is not in the right place. Schools move students all the time. No school will let someone getting 100% all the time in a middle set just cruise there.

With regards to science grading, are you sure your DS is properly understanding the teacher? It may be that they explained something and he misunderstood as it doesn't make sense that they want a predicted grade but then tells him they can't give him a predicted grade. I would clarify this with the teacher as no one here will really be able to clarify something going on between your DS and the school.

Tbh, it sounds like your ds feels like he's sticking out like a sore thumb for being different - no target grades, obviously not in the right sets, etc. It is harder work settling in if you are feeling, through no fault of your own or anybody else's, a little bit "othered." How can you establish your place when you know you have started out in the wrong place and might either be moved and have to start again, or end up stuck in the wrong place? If there are sets for English and maths and your ds is not in the top ones but ought to be, and sets a lot of store in his academic ability, he may feel he is missing out on getting to know children he feels he has more in common with.

whitecatsandblackcats - they do them because computers generate them as a result of the central government obsession with tracking data. Schools know how well government expects their cohort to do in their GCSEs as a result of their SATS and are judged on that, so create systems that supposedly measure whether they are on track to do that. If, statistically, the school does not get enough of that year group of children meeting or exceeding the levels that, statistically, children who got those SATS results should get, then the school is judged negatively for it, hence the silly systems for trying to work out whether or not children are on course to make the school look good or bad. On an individual level, they are, imo, ridiculous and unhelpful - just a stick to beat teachers with (eg refuse pay progression) if too many children in their class don't seem to be progressing like automatons/statistical data. They are not really hugely helpful to the individual child. It's not as if teachers can even accurately predict how children will do in brand new GCSEs when they have so very little experience of preparing children for the new exams and marking systems, anyway (and they aren't even teaching the GCSE syllabus anyway in year 7). What is important is that the teacher knows the syllabus they are supposed to be teaching and can identify where the child in front of them is understanding the syllabus and where they are finding things difficult. They work this out bygetting to know the children in their class as individuals, not as bits of government data.

TBH I would be pleased he doesn't have a target/flight path set on SATS. I have one DC whose SATS results were unexpectedly good so he has targets that he is nowhere near hitting which is completely demoralising. My other DC had a nightmare on the day of one of her maths SATs papers and did uncharacteristically badly and is so far ahead of her expected levels that they are entirely meaningless.

Assuming the school constantly assess and review their students (if they don't, you do have grounds to complain!) he will soon be moved to the "correct" set and set some targets based on his currently working level (if that's a thing your school do). It's still very early days in his secondary school career.

Sorry, if your child continues to be bored not board

I’ve worked in teacher education for over 10 years. I agree with lots of the posts on this board, but the thing that stands out to me as a massive red flag is Year 7 pupils doing lots of copying off the board. That suggests to me non-specialist teachers or really poor teaching. (Neither are surprising with the current teacher recruitment crisis). If your child continues to be board I would definitely be raising this with the head of year - with lots of examples from your child’s books. No one ever learnt anything from a pile of copying and it’s laxy, lazy teaching, possibly put in place to satisfy lots of senior managers doing book checks. I wouldn’t go straight in with this point in November, but perhaps ask your child to tell you how often it’s happening over the next few weeks.

Seems like main problem is he's not being set, yet.
Not clear when or if setting will happen? Doesn't he like being top of the class? DD got a big identity self-esteem kick out of that. It's fine to coast a term but I wouldn't want to coast for yrs either & at his age a month can feel like a year.

Sounds like he misses old friends, too. Success & happiness at school is mostly about the social life.

Yeah sure I'd ask his tutor about this. Just lay out that he's not being challenged & risks becoming disengaged. School need feedback.

Given the wide range of abilities of children starting secondary school the first term is usually consolidating knowledge especially in maths.

If he is finding the work easy then he should be getting full marks showing the teaching staff his ability. If he needs extension work because he finishes early then he needs to ask for it so the teacher knows to provide it.

Ds2 is in year 8 and G&T for STEM. His ICT teacher knows he will find class work easy (he teaches Ds1 too) and so knows to challenge him when his class work is finished. Same for maths.

As I have said to both my children, you are not in school to be entertained you are there to learn. Yes, some stuff you may have already covered in primary but it won't always be that way. Engage in the lesson and still give it your all and if needed ask for challenges as they are called in our school. In year 7 there is huge scope to challenge a child.

Stop worrying about putting your child in a private school. What's done is done, you can only move forward. I would possibly ask to speak to HOY about it all but I would warn your son you are doing it in case he wants to back-peddle in any way

Don't forget, whitecatsandblackcats, your ds has started at a new school, as has everyone else in his year. The idea that he would carry on seamlessly as though he hadn't left a completely different school is faintly ridiculous. Children in year 7 will have arrived from a variety of different schools, working at a variety of different levels. Give the school a chance to settle all the children in, get to know them and ensure that they all have solid foundations, rather than expecting them to act like they've known and worked with your ds for years. He's only in year 7 and hasn't even done a term there, yet. Also, if his focus is on the work, tbh, I would see that as a sign he is having issues settling in socially - unless the school is so dire, its GCSE and A-level results leave you to suspect he will be bored forever.

Other than Computer Science I'm not sure why you think he's dropped back? In subjects like Maths and Science it would be typical to recap a previously studied topic and then extend it by building on it - this sounds like your DS's experience.

History and German and English are new. If he's not finding English challenging has he raised this with the teacher? English I'd thought was one subject where it was very easy to work at a range of different levels even on the same topic.

I really wouldn't worry. Even at private senior schools, the maths will be consolidating what was learned in year 6. They need to make sure it is all covered and m DD is in the top maths set and even they are not doing much new stuff yet. Very little if anything new is covered at this stage anywhere so you don't need to feel your DS is suffering. In fact, the only other subject which is not new to him is Comp Sci. Everything else is new to him. That's no different than he would be getting at an Indie. My DD is at an academic Indie and I have met up with mums of DDs at other top Indies (our DDs went to the same prep) and it is exactly the same as your experience. Maths is pretty much going over old stuff, German is new. Our DDs did Latin at prep so they are recovering what they have already done but for most Latin would be new. Don't get concerned.

The first half of Year 7 is generally about consolidating subjects like Maths and introducing new languages at a fairly gentle pace. Does your school not have maths sets?

not in year 7 here yet but I have heard a lot of friends year 7+ children say the start of year 7 is quite easy after year 6, I presume it is a lot of recapping, checking people are at similar levels etc.

Lack of practicals in science can also be due to lack of funding for support staff (e.g. technicians) who help set up for and clean up after these practicals. It also may be due to lack of space (many schools do not have enough science labs for all science lessons to be consistently in a science lab).

They may also be taught by non-specialist teachers who feel less confident running practicals. There is a national shortage of science teachers.

Children do come up into Y7 with highly variable levels of knowledge- e.g. in year 6 some primary schools will do an hour a week of science/humanities, and some will do almost none at all. This may inevitably involve the re-teaching of some concepts with some pupils in Y7.

Is he doing no new topics though? That would surprise me, unless the prep school literally taught the Y7 curriculum in Y6, which has done no-one any favours.

Could you ask him specific questions E.g. What time period are you covering in history? What books are you reading in English? Would you know if these were the same as last year?

It could be that he's not finding the work challenging, and is having issues because of this, or it could be that he's having other issues and the "I'm bored" is cover for this. Have you spoken to his form tutor at all?

I've been surprised at how little practical stuff there has been in science

Just wanted to say that sadly, this is becoming more common because science practicals are expensive and have been, in a lot of schools, the first thing to cut down on. I know in my school they cannot afford to do practicals in Year 7 Science with the current funding structure.

I think sometime you're just damned either way. My brother went to grammar school. He was a borderline case and didn't get in on the first round and the primary school Head rang my parents and said they should appeal and she would back it. My brother was given the choice and chose to go, but as an adult has said my parents should have made the decision and he should have gone to our local comp. But realistically, I think my brother would have been a lamb to the slaughter there (I went to it).

DS2 coming from a failing primary is annoyed at how little science they did. He said when the teacher does the recap, it is consistently children from his primary who have no idea what the teacher is talking about. And apparently in maths children from another local school were taught numerator and denominator the wrong way around.

DS saying he's a bit bored in Yr 7 suddenly but we talked at length about why and realised the novelty of new school etc has worn off and now he realises he's in it for the long haul.

Know the feeling mate!

Anyway, he's learning loads of new stuff like Latin and languages he's not done before (State school) so he's not bored for that reason.

I'm sure it's just the calm after the anxiety of starting somewhere new. DS is happy and loving his lessons.

DS2 Yr7 is finding the pace of maths very slow. He is very able at maths, but has come from a poor state primary in to a good state secondary and I think I bigged up how much more challenging maths he'd get to do a bit too much. He is enjoying science as they did virtually none at primary. He is completely exhausted though (ongoing illness) so perhaps it's not a bad thing he can cruise a bit.