About to start year 7?

@Phox ours are in for 4 days of fun and games next week, so hoping they get to meet a lot of future friends.

@Phox unfortunately our high school is only offering the summer school to free school meals pupils.
It means DD will start there on 7th September having never stepped foot inside the school before.

No fridges at my sons' schools. I set up lunch cards for them but the older one prefers a packed lunch as he likes to play basketball at lunchtime and the queuing uses up valuable time!

I find it helpful to get completely organised the night before, so I clean the shoes, pack the bags, fill water bottles and put in fridge, put fresh sets of uniform downstairs for after their morning showers, and I check their homework every evening to make sure there are no morning panics. It helps enormously of they're calm and relaxed before school, instead of rushing around. Also a routine: breakfast, showers, teeth, shoes at the same time every morning.

Great thread. Can I ask what type of phones you are planning on getting your kids? I was thinking really basic brick one just for emergencies. Will that pass muster?
Definitely a smart phone that can cope with the WhatsApp and YouTube stuff, we usually let them have our slightly older iPhones when we upgrade, so still very usable but not £100s if they lose it and it has to be replaced.

Fingerprints- My school and DDs have actually changed to cards or fobs since Covid. This was seen as more hygienic rather than wiping the pad after each use. It is a pain though as I'm now seeing a steady stream of pupils who have lost their cards and they are charged for replacement.

Might be worth reading your pack to see what your school are doing and planning for this, I know some schools have lanyards, I'm putting her fob on her locker key ring until they go back to fingerprints.

re fingerprint systems - they are fab, nothing to lose and makes lunch queues much faster too.
(In case anyone worries, they don't store the actual fingerprint. They convert the fingerprint to a number and then store the number and use that.)

DD1 has a HP pavilion too, they use Google Classroom and it's been fine.

DD2 already has a laptop, she's been using GC at primary so is used to it. We have office on our laptop so if they need to use that it's available.

I bought DD the HP Pavilion 14-ce3602sa 14" laptop. Think it was £499 from Curry's.

She has quite severe dyslexia so uses a laptop for almost all lessons as well as homework etc. It works well for Teams and all the online classes school ran. Also holds a charge for the whole day so she doesn't need to take chargers with her.

It's not the nicest in terms of keyboard function etc, so I will probably upgrade to a Dell in Y9 or Y10, but DD has a long commute and I didn't want anything too expensive or heavy for the first years.

Protect My Bubble have good insurance deals on laptops/ipads/phones.

DD does have an ipad which she uses for graphic design classes, but I wasn't sure it was a good idea to learn to touch type on that if she's going to be doing all her GCSEs on a laptop, so didn't opt for the keyboard on that (probably need to look into that more, as it is much lighter weight and smaller).

@Malbecfan They use google classroom but then use office for work. They use the books for class for written work and some homework but things like computing are done online. What laptops do you reccomen or shoudl I get a ipad with a keybooard

Any tips for pacing walk to school? Mine (also ASD) has been practicing but the time it takes him varies wildly depending on how keen he is/ the weather/ how much wildlife he spots on the way....... No idea how I can get him to pace himself to get to school reliably on time.
My preference is to allow lots of time and risk getting there early but he is definitely a night owl already and struggled to get up for primary on time - secondary starts 30 min earlier so that may not work too well!
No idea what the plan for COVID tests, wearing pe kit etc is here. The school isn’t deciding until the autumn, which while sensible given all the changes in guidelines, makes it tricky to prepare. His induction days aren’t until September either, though he has met the ALENCO.
Great to have a thread to chat.

@Pinkfish321 our school provides devices for all students so I can't help there. Do you know what platform the school uses? Some use Google, we use MS Teams/Office 365. Make sure that whatever you get will work with the school's system. Have they said that they will need a device yet? Could it perhaps be a Christmas present once you know more about how things work?

DD1 had to cover a couple of books more than 10 years ago but that has been phased out, mostly by student pressure on environmental grounds. If there is an expectation of using books, do they even need their own device? If they need a device, will they be using books?

I have had this conversation with my Head of Department. The students' devices arrived in October 2020, by which time we had done almost half a term's teaching so started out with exercise books. To be completely honest, I haven't used those exercise books with my year 8s since then as they have to have their devices with them so it seems pointless having both. I asked year 8 at the end of term what they thought about books and the overwhelming consensus was: don't bother. My HoD wants to use them for y7. Fine, but I really can't be bothered with them, and all work can be submitted electronically.

Lettuce - I would email school/senco. The form teacher may not be accessing emails over the summer and will likely only see the class for 15mins or so a day. If its a level of anxiety that can affect school then ths senco ought to be aware (and may even be able to help .)

Frozen juice boxes for packed lunches-keep it cool in the morning and defrost in time to be drunk. Though ds is so overexcited at being able to buy his own dinner by the magical power of his thumbprint!

Our DC have to have the Oxford Scientific Calculator and they sell it at the school shop.

Re: phones, DC don't take them to school as it's a short journey and they're not allowed, but do have them for chatting to friends (texting or whatever) out of school.

Thank you UncomfortableSilence Does anyone have any advice for a laptop for school. I don't want her using the family computer for it and my eldest has his own laptop and im unsure what to get an 11 year old

The recommended calculator is usually the casio one (ime) I've never seen another recommended in 7 schools I've worked in. But yes check which one is used at your school.

Covering books is fun. DD didn't have to do that ever, I remember doing it at my school. I started writing instructions, but it is bound to be on youtube somewhere.

My daughter really wants a handbag and since she really really wanted one I let her get one form new look. Ordered uniform cost about 170 pounds. Got the pixel 4 for year 7. She is nervous but exited and seems to be happy to leave primary. Only worry is sticky back plastic. They say I will have to cover books it how do you do that

I think the washing now is covid related but he also manages to immerse himself in mud, dirt, food. So often does come home and need to wash everything anyway.

So although yes I think he has some real anxiety re covid, knows someone who got horribly ill, has had relatives in hospital with horrible respiratory illness. Actually it may be something I should drop a line to the form teacher about. Covid and Crime are the concerns he has and they seem real to him.

If you are a teacher would you want a quick email from a parent explaining that my kid has some covid anxiety concerns? I can always wait until nearer the start date to see if any of it dissipates over the holidays?

As a case in point, one day there was a big sporting event at primary and he just couldn't go through with it, even though he loves sport, as he felt their were too many people and he felt their was no social distancing. He physically could not attend it and it was horrible really. He got to the gates and just could not go in.

Malbecfan yes I realise now that the secondary school has a preferred brand - so thanks for that tip!