new Year 7s

Things have improved since I went to secondary school. One of my first pieces of homework was to embroider a hymn book cover in a design of our choice. This had to be done in one's own time, not in needlework or some such. And we had to provide our own piece of hessiany stuff and all the silks.

Can you just imagine asking a load of 11-year-olds today to embroider? As it was, I had no idea and my hymn book cover was all baggy with strands of thread hanging off. I remember some people had beautiful covers. I think a lot of grannies had been busy!

RYman

Bogof

where the chuffing norah do I get sticky backed plastic to laminate his excercise book? Only one teacher has aksed this, I anticipated book baking so bought plain wrapping paper.

Every one of ds's books has to be covered in a "creative" manner. I don't have a creative bone in my body and have passed down my ham-fistedness to ds. We had a big fight on Day 2 because he had tried to cover his history book and it was an awful mess. We were tugging this book back and forth and ds ended up storming off to his room. He was out five minutes' later though as he realised that bossy, ineffectual help is better than no help at all!

For RE he has to design a poster. That's going to ruin the weekend. Please, can he have some written work?

ds has binned his old mates largely it seems and has new ones

thats whats normal I think - they bin primary mates pretty fast

Well, DS1 has already misunderstood the instructions for covering his French exercise book and had the first attempt thrown in the bin , though he's been surprisingly cheerful and robust about it, misunderstood what he was supposed to learn for Latin homework, and, today, forgotten to bring home his maths questions for homework. He is demanding to go in early tomorrow morning so he can get it done before registration - he assures me it's 'pips' and 20 minutes will be enough. He's also lost his fountain pen (not expensive at all, but still...)

On the other hand, he's chuffed he's made the E rugby team!

Roll on Week 2!

Do you think his form teacher would be receptive to a concerned phone call? A friend's son was very upset after his induction day and the tutor was very sympathetic and helpful. I know they can't make friends on the child's behalf, but at my DD's new school the children had to fill in a sort of profile booklet listing their interests and so on - if your DS's school has anything similar, maybe they could use that as a basis for a bit of social engineering and sit him with someone who might have something in common?

Otherwise, sympathy. This is my first day of this new life, and I don't know much about how it works. Somebody more experienced will be along soon.

he started on monday (after an induction day on friday) and it is like living with jeckyll and hyde...

Is this his first day, or is it not going too well so far?

hello, checking in for some hand holding
He doesn't know a single soul at his new school - except for one boy who 'hates' him.

DS had a little bit of homework - according to his 'homework diary' he should be getting 2 or 3 pieces every night! So far he has done them without a fuss but don't know how long that will continue as i guess they will start to get harder and more involved. Serenity - we've got decorating the RE book - I think we'll have to look up religious symbols as otherwise it will just have crosses on it! And it may be HIS homework to cover books with stickyback plastic but that really ends up as MY homework unless we want them to look a mess

Ds complained that most of the boys played football at breaks - he's just not sporty - but he has been collecting conkers at break times and there are some other boys also conker collecting that hopefully he can get friendly with.

Ds has had lots of homework already, and it is meant to be 1 and a half hours a night, but hasn't got to that much yet.

DS1's making friends too which is a relief. He's getting homework (we were told hour/half as well) but so far it's been decorating and covering his exercise books, and a short piece of writing for music. I'm nervously waiting for the deluge to begin!

He is even happier today, so I don't think I need to worry any more! Think you are absolutely right roisin about forcing them to make new friends.

His only problem today was complaining that they had to keep their blazers on and it's really hot here - seems a bit mean or aibu?!

We were told that they would be getting about 1 1/2 hours of homework per night, so that might be the next thing I am posting here about!

Dd1 starts on Wednesday and so far seems unfazed.

Luckily dd seems to already know quite a few people in other years, including 6th formers and she will talk to anyone so i'm not worried about her being stood on her own.

My main concern at the mo is that dd will not keep up with the homework as she always leaves it until the last moment.

My DS started last week. He is the only child from his primary at his new school. Everything seems to be going okay, but he cannot keep up with the writing pace in one subject. The teacher has gone on to the next slide before he finishes writing. I am waiting to see if she writes anything in his book when she sees all the unfinished paragraphs.

It is hard at first if they're in a class on their own, but it does force them to get to know others.

Ds1 last year for yr7 was put in a class with 3 friends from primary school (the only boys going to this secondary from his school). They are taught all lessons in their form group in yr7, and he hasn't really got to know other students very well, because he hasn't needed to. He's generally just worked with the other mates from his primary in his class.

Now that he's set for most subjects, I'm hoping he will be forced to branch out and make some new friendships.

Thanks serenity, I'm sure you are right. He's just come in and seems ok, so I'm just fussing I think! Said he'd just met the shoutiest teacher, but he didn't shout at him!

DS1 is the only one from his primary school at his new school, so he's in that position too Dazmum. He seemed to be OK though. I was the only one from my primary too, and it took a week or so but it does work out ok. Speaking to another Mum with slightly older children, she said that the old friendship groups don't always last anyway. As they meet new people, and do new things they make new friends!

Waved off ds this morning. In fact I was still fondly waving and realised he had disappeared round the corner.

His bag was so heavy, and he hasn't even got a textbook in there yet. I sent him off with a packed lunch and some dinner money, just in case everyone else was going to the canteen and he didn't want to be left out. Strict instructions though that the dinner money was to be returned if unused!

I promised I wouldn't conduct too much of a Spanish Inquisition when he gets home. I know I'll be tempted to sit him under hot lights and fire endless questions at him though.

Curiousmama, my DS didn't have a good day on Friday either . He had been for familiarisation day in July, and had just one other boy in his new form from his old school, so he was quite happy. But this boy asked to be moved to be with his other friends, and the school moved him into a class with 3 others boys from the same school, leaving my poor DS on his own! We asked if he could also be moved and they said no. It wasn't as if he wasn't friends with the boy either! It really set him back and although he's a friendly little chap, it's hard for him to go and try and break into already established friendships.He was quite low on Friday, just because he hadn't made any new friends yet. We made lots of encouraging noises about it being early days, but I did cry on my friend when I told her about it on Saturday!

Anyway, he's gone off again today and seems quite happy so I am keeping my fingers crossed that today is better. Hope your ds1 has a better day and that your dds3 does too hocuspontas.

Just seen dd3 off

All her clothes are too big and her bag is a big as her! I was up until midnight last night embroidering initials and names onto things - they look like a drunk person did them eek! Hope she won't be judged

She had a whole book of work to do and I'm sure most girls aren't going to do it all but she was adamant. You needed some year 6 work, photos of family, to write a story, a poem, do a poster of the moon landing, do quizzes on science, books etc. I was exhausted just reading it!

Am nervous about 4.30 now, I hope she enjoyed it. She didn't like the taster day, nor the teacher- I'm not expecting miracles...

our Y7s share loos with 6th formers, so although they are big, (and quite scary from the point of view of a Y7) they are nice and helpful, rather than scarily scary IFSWIM.
Loos are still horrid though.

Hi my ds1 started comp today and hated it He'd loved the taster before the holidays. He got quite a bit of homework to do. I've never seen him look so down it's awful I hope it's just a shock to the system and then once he gets used to it he'll be ok?