Y7- 2023/24 support thread

I know. My daughter is such a perfectionist and the fact she was rushing and there was no way she could go back and correct her answers was hard. She hates it 😞

Had tears and ‘I don’t want to go to school’ and ‘I just don’t like it’ this morning. Lots of cajoling and hugs from me to get her out the door to the bus stop - and then the bus driver stopped but wouldn’t open the doors to let her on (I imagine too full)! So back home she came and I ended up driving her and a new school friend in - not what we want, we chose this school as she can bus/ walk/ cycle but she was so upset this morning (and her friend couldn’t cycle) so I just said no problem, hop in the car!

I have to say, it’s so full on - they have thrown them in the deep end at her school: 4 x lesson/ homework systems to look at each day (!), homework already and emails, oh the emails! She is finding all the emails a lot so we’re trying to teach how to read them once a day, prioritise and do/ defer/ delete as appropriate…. But they are 11, not working professionals yet!!

Had such difficult science home work about 18 x 20 minute modules! I was shocked at the level of it for example what is the tail of a cell called its flagella and diffusement not even sure I have written that right there!

I have no other way but make it a thing to do together with my DS. I go upstairs in his room with him to do the home work and I take snacks and Apple juice to make it something to look forward to & help him a long with it and if he does not know the answer we just use Google. I say it's not cheating as now we know the answer as I know he will refuse either way as all homework since day Ds has stated has been long and straight into it.

I play roblox with him (I'm terrible) ha ha after when we have done it or we get the hamster out.

Not sure how long this will last!

Agree! At primary I refused for my child to do times table rock stars! It was no help the count down timer and the pressure it then resulted my ds clicking any button out of panicking!!!

Completely sympathise with all of the homework refusers and PTSD from lockdown!

DD has had homework but it's mostly been "decorate your book", "cover it in plastic", "fill this worksheet out". Apparently the real homework starts this week.

I'm grateful that so far most of her homework has been good old fashioned homework books and sheets. She does have an app called bedrock but not really used that yet. She did struggle when she did some work on it over the holidays so we left it.

I can sympathize re lockdown ptse. I'm pretty sure my daughter has this. When she was doing this online thing called TT rockstar which they're timed with their answers,my daughter literally was pulling her hair out and biting her clothes. She still struggles with timed online stuff now.

More tears last night and this morn from DD. She says there is nothing wrong, no one is being mean to her, no one has hurt her or excluded her. She just doesn't like secondary.

@Sazzlesw2 I can completely empathise with the PTSD from home learning during lock down. Except it's me that has the PTSD.

Every time a new bit of homework pops up on the app my stomach starts to churn because I know the resistance and subsequent melt down is coming.

So far we've had Maths, Science, Spanish and Art. Then Geography homework was uploaded last night.

@twistyizzy don't tell me that, my DD has just gone into year 8!
Yes, fingers crossed for a good one everyone.

🤞 for a better week!
A good friend who is an educational psychologist says not to be worried if things don't settle down until Easter 😵‍💫. Then for girls Yr 8 can be even worse as friendship groups can chop and change again!
I think I will be in an early grave by then!

Homework woes here as well. DS happily completed his Maths yesterday in about 10 minutes.

English on the other hand has always been his kryptonite, we talked about what he was going to do yesterday, came up with some good ideas. When it came to putting it down on paper today cries of "it's too haard" "I don't know what to do" and just loads of sulking.

I think some of it is PTSD from lockdown but I'm really hoping that it gets easier otherwise weekends are be depressing 😕

DS has his best friend round today too. They have known each other since they were babies and have never been at the same school. It seems to be helpful.
Meanwhile, I am trying to pack for his residential— Wed to Fri.

Hope all those who are struggling have a better week this coming week.
DD has her BFF from primary around today for couple of hours. Not sure whether that will help/make things worse, we will find out.

Oh yes we are mid homework hell this weekend as well. Lots of it is set for a week or 2 in advance which DS seems to think he can leave it. Well at the rate he produce the poster and storyboard today I think not. We did take a break to go feed and clean out the primary school ducks and chickens as my daughter was the rota child today. So that cheered him up a bit. He is still very tired and like @JassyRadlett DS he finds the in between bits at school stressful.

He has football in the morning but will have to do at least 2 of not 3 more pieces of work and look over his French vocabulary later in the day Will be another struggle I fear 😟.

@HalfasleepChrisintheMorning that is lovely 😊.

DS is currently chatting on the phone to a boy he didn’t know a week and a half ago, which is so lovely to hear.
We haven’t had any posters or big project homework, but he’s spent ages answering “what is art? Why do we study art at school?” Quite a large question!

@Walkingbkwrm it is so hard to know what the best time for homework is. Thankfully DD has some set every night for the next day so there's no getting away from it otherwise we would be in exactly the same situation. I don't think that there is a good time for them to do it these first few weeks, they are constantly exhausted!

Oh god so. many. posters. Mine is not very artistic and has the soul of an essay writer so it's definitely a tougher path for him.

Mine is also absolutely shattered despite seemingly enjoying it so far, he's in a form with a few kids from his primary school and he loves the subjects and different teachers. He's finding the 'in between' bits a bit overwhelming and there's definitely jostling and barging from the older kids. He's gone from being one of the tallest in the school to feeling very small.

Luckily the school are putting a huge amount of effort into transition, there's a separate part of the playground just for Y7 if they want to get away from the older kids, and he loves the clubs. But he's just fallen asleep after football so is clearly exhausted by it all.

Sorry some DC’s have had a tough couple of days. Here unfortunately as DS2 has been so wiped out in the evenings we left homework for the weekend - I have now discovered that this may have been a terrible idea. We have had yelling, tears and a slammed door and it’s less than half done…..In my defence it didn’t look like that much but apparently drawing posters is very very stressful. I’m thinking it might be a long term here too.
No friendship issues here apart from the fact I don’t think he has voluntarily spoken to anyone from a different primary school yet. I knew it would take him a few days but hoping he cracks soon.

We have a bit of a homework slog going on here today. DS was very teary last night, think just exhausted really, and adamant he wouldn't be doing any homework this weekend as he wasn't intending to return to secondary school!
We seem to have talked him down a bit today, I feel it's going to be a long term.

It happens in every school and all children.

It happened when I was at school too!

shouldn’t happen but it does!

DS says an older boy ruffled his hair yesterday as he walked past but otherwise not heard of any unwanted behaviour from the older ones. He thought it was a bit strange!

Luckily it's not affected my daughter but I've heard from a couple of mums that older children are picking on year 7s 😞