Anyone’s child blossomed at secondary compared to Year 6

Another one here. I worried about Ds in years 5 and 6. Now year 10 and absolutely flying. DD year 7, not so much-

Yes! All 3 of ours did. ☺

Absolutely yes

Every year at y7 parents evenings we get parents saying how much their child blossomed at secondary. Usually there's no criticism of the primary school, but the child was ready to move, ready for a broader curriculum and works better not in a SATs training factory (fyi no criticism of ks2 staff there, we all have our own pressures and tests. It is what it is).

Slightly difference because Scotland, so P7 is the top of primary school, high school is S1. Both of mine flourished at high school, really came into their own. DD1 had been OK at primary so it was more of the same for her but DD2 had struggled - she's dyslexic and and had become very quiet and unconfident in her last two years at primary school. She was a clumsy child so no good at PE and sports which were very popular at her primary, and she had some very particular interests centring around film-making (she went on courses run by our local indy cinema which she loved) but she didn't have a peer/friendship group to hang out with at primary school and that contributed to her becoming a bit withdrawn and on the outside. By the end of her first term at high school she was thriving. She loved the technology subjects and there was a wider choice of peer groups so she found her 'tribe' and never looked back academically or socially. Hope it works well for your DS.

Both of mine preferred Y7 to Y6 by a long shot. Hang on in there x

Gosh yes! He was so bored at primary school, he's in yr 8 now and absolutely thriving!

DS is thriving at secondary. He likes doing proper science, IT and so on. He has really found his tribe, while at primary he didn't always manage to connect with the much smaller pool of age peers.

This is all good to hear. My dd is in year 5 and hates school. She’s academically average but is finding it a real slog so hoping secondary might be a better option.

So many children really blossom when they get to secondary. Usually secondary is bigger so they are more likely to meet children like them and do a greater variety of subjects so find something they are good at and be exposed to a greater variety of teachers.

DD hated Y6 so much we home educated for one term. She made lovely friends at secondary and so much more enjoys it and is thriving academically too.

Yes! One of the problems with Primary is they are stuck with the same teacher who often isn't good at teaching every subject.

DD struggled with maths at Primary but was moved top set during Yr 8 after having some good teaching.

And it's not all about top set anyway but a variety of subjects taught by a variety of teachers.

DS1. I very nearly pulled him of primary in Yr6. On reflection, I probably should have! He's Yr8 and doing brilliantly (he has ASD and goes to a school with an enhanced ASD provision)

My DD loved her time at Primary and dreaded moving to Secondary this year. She was worried about making friends as she found this tricky in Primary.

She met a lovely friend on her induction day for Secondary and they have stuck together, and she's met others too. Similar to you OP, I talked about the different lessons and said that she might really enjoy them because I thought that she might have outgrown her Primary school.

Secondary has been so much better than she thought it would, although she does find moving after every lesson and remembering all the stuff to take with her a little stressful. Too soon to say if it is a better move academically just now, but I am not a fan of SATs and wasn't very happy with her Year 6 although she enjoyed it.

Yes ds has much preferred year 7 to year 6. He hated primary school with a passion but is enjoying secondary - more people, different teachers, different subjects etc. He's joining clubs and meeting new people. He's autistic so I thought it would be a nightmare but it's been great.

Yes yes! I was beginning to think my eldest needed some sort of intervention in Y6 but he's flying in Y7. I don't know if it's the independence or the very much separated subjects but something has clicked in a very good way.

Yes. DD was pretty average at primary school. She acheived AAA at A level last year.

All of mine much preferred Secondary. Just moving on to a new teacher and a new subject after 1 hour helped.