Helping your child be organised at secondary school

[KenAdams]

My child can't walk up the stairs without losing or forgetting something.

I really need to help her to be more organised for secondary school so she knows which books to take in each day etc, but I'm not going to manage it for her, she needs to learn to get herself sorted.

Does anyone have a good system that helps their child please?

We haven't done it yet. But the school have said to help support for the first few weeks, as they will forget, they expect it. I am going to get a white board and use that to show a check list for what's needed each day lesson wise. We also have two sets of stationery, one for home and one for the school bag they never comes out unless at school

Two sets of stationary is a genius idea.

I thought maybe 5 of those magazine files for organising books?

My daughter is just heading into year 8. She is very organised so not me but she got herself folders last year and then would keep all her stuff for each lesson in them so night before she would get the right ones and pack them in her bag.

Our school also suggests coloured plastic wallets and to put the text book and exercise book / notes for each subject into a different wallet. If they have a locker you can sometimes squeeze a magazine file in so they can store stuff upright and just grab the right colour wallet.

We had:
2 sets of stationary - school stuff never needed to come out of the bag. And enough spares to make a temporary pencil case.
A big box that fitted all books/files. With the timetable photocopied and stuck to the lid.

Initially I checked he had packed his bag, and prompted the night before PE days. Then I started prompting less and less. I didn't check the contents.
I also prompted for homework - I had parental access to an app that told me what was set.

We have the extra fun of a 2 week timetable, so every other week is different....

He's about to start Y10, and I pretty much did no prompting in Y9.
I very, very rarely prompted his younger brother. Some just need more initial scaffolding than others.

Just seen the extra messages. I cant get my head round the foldee/magazine rack for each day, as e.g. Maths is needed Mon, Tues, Thur, Mon, Wed, Fri. Seemed to complicated for us to cope with, but lots of people suggest it, so must work for some.

Get them to take a photo of their timetable.

They can get clothes ready the night before.

My DC gets everything ready the night before. School books are either in their school bag, or in a plastic box in their room. This is a cast iron rule. Any book not in either location has been collected in by the teacher. At the start of Year 7, I would assist to check exercise books, planner etc were packed, now this is done without my input.

There is a copy of the timetable on the fridge, for double-checking purposes.

I blu-tack a little note to the inside of the back door (which we use to leave in the morning) on relevant days. The note says 'Have you got your PE kit?' It's necessary because my child is the sort of dreamboat that will step over a carefully placed PE kit instead of think, 'Oh, look! My PE kit! Mustn't forget that!'

I step back with homework. That's DC's responsibility, although I do give a gentle nudge on the mornings when I know particular homework is due, as my child has a habit of completing homework then leaving it on the desk instead of putting it in their schoolbag to hand in.

If the school has a cashless, card payment system, make sure your child knows what to do or where to go when they lose their card. Likewise locker keys. My child has a (discreetly named) zip up purse for these things, including bus pass, which is kept in a particular blazer pocket.

I think it's useful to remember that whilst it is your child's responsibility to be organised, it is a lot for some kids to manage to start with. I don't think there's anything wrong with providing lots of organisational support to start with, especially if your child finds remembering things really hard. I teach, and it's awful to see how upset these new starters get when they forget things or make a mistake in the first few weeks. Anything parents can do to mitigate that is good, I reckon. There's a lot of stress for Year 7 (big new school, new students, grieving the safety of primary etc), without adding in a nervous breakdown because they've lost their bus pass. Poor little tykes!

Thanks, she will have a 2 week timetable actually so that makes things even more complex.

Have one place where books are kept. We have a desk downstairs that my DC uses and I bought a filing rack for it. That's where any books she is not using go. They always always go back there after doing homework. That means if a book isn't there she knows the teacher has it, and isn't running round the house panicking because she can't find the English book.

I spot check her WhatsApp groups and every single day in term time someone in her form is saying "I can't find my maths/English/science book, does Miss/Mr X have them?" Don't let them leave books around the house!

I think the idea is that when you take the books out your bag, you put them into the next day you’ll need it, so on the Tuesday night of week 1, you’d put it into the Thursday folder, then on Thursday night you’d put it into Monday’s folder, and so on.

They soon get it and adapt easily to secondary school life.

My 2nd is quite forgetful. She's found organising ok because she has the timetable (I also have a photo). Keep all school books in a box somewhere.

I have spares of everything though. Tie, stationary, blazer. We've needed the spare tie the most!

Mine also always packs her bag the night before so mornings aren't a panic.

As a secondary teacher, I would echo using the coloured plastic wallets with a pocket to store exercise book plus any smallish textbook, this seems to work well as they can grab everything for each lesson in one go. I do remember one Y7 student having one of those concertina files which they carried around where he stored every book he possessed but it was much too heavy and we had to tell him just to bring the books he needed for each lesson.

My DS is still only primary but he has a 5-drawer plastic thing in his room, one drawer for each day of the week. His uniform and anything else for the week goes in there on Sundays with the right gear for PE days etc. I plan on carrying this on for secondary and books etc will go in the relevant drawer. He has ADHD and it helps massively in the mornings to just have the things he needs for the day in that drawer.

Teacher and parent here. Timetable in the fridge. Colour in each subject differently so it's easier to see at a glance what's happening. Get a box full of spare rulers, rubbers, compasses, glue sticks etc so you can replenish the pencil case as needed. One place for books to live. Either their own desk or the kitchen table or whatever but always one place.

Don't be afraid of hand holding and helping in Y7..for most kids it's a huge change and they will work out their own systems but it can be overwhelming and not all schools are overly sympathetic beyond the first two weeks. There's lots of time to step back and leave them to it and they'll learn from each other too.

Do kit the night before and if finances allow, have spares so there's no panic. Plain navy or black joggers will be better than nothing if you can't get two pairs of school branded ones.

Teacher her . I think it is vital to have plenty of stationery but not anything expensive. All clothing needs to have a name tag in it. I would suggest a copy of the timetable in the area they work at home. Bag to be organised the night before. Know when they have PE so u have adequate time to wash kit. I always think thst it is easy to forget the 6 weeks ago they were probably being dropped off sbd organised for school. S helpin hand is fine in y7. Good luck OP. They will be looked after

Mine goes for the "carry everything in case you forget" approach. His back has got a lot stronger!
I have suggested other approaches but he's having none of it (he's autistic and dyspraxic and often puts up a mental wall about new strategies)
I can't complain too much because I used exactly the same strategy all the way through school.

It's not been as bad as I feared. The satchel app with homework avaliable for us both to see and his timetables have made it much easier than my youth of writing it in the planner (which I cocked up on many occasions) and finding paper copies and copying out by hand.

This is sooooo helpful!

@Gargantuan2023 Do you mean these for the subject folders?? Are they deep enough to take a textbook? My memory is they're better for loose sheets but not that capacious...

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My exceptionally disorganised DD has got into the habit of taking everything every day. Her bag weighs a tonne so I keep trying to stop her!

Timetable stuck to fridge, door, somewhere visible.
Pack bag the night before - get into the routine of doing it from Day 1.
Spare pencil case with stationery at home in case things get lost.
Name every bit of uniform and PE kit, including shoes and boots.
Have done this for 10 years with my own kids and also work in a high school. It works but it's inevitable that things will get lost.

They may not bring any books home! My son didn't in year 7 as he had no reason to, all homework is online. Agree with labelling all uniform, not taking anything valuable (including expensive coats/bags etc). We both work full time and DS did a couple of PE clubs so I got 3 sets of PE kits to avoid the need for much washing mid-week.

DS has dyslexia and dyspraxia so struggles with organisation but managed fine and there were maybe 5 times all year we had messages to say he had forgotten things, mostly we could drop them in.

Same as above really…one big box for books (putting them in a different box each day sounds too complicated!!) so we know where they are, loads of pens & pencils, 5 shirts each week in the wardrobe, on a Sunday eve we fill the whiteboard on the fridge in for the week with the lessons & anything else (PE kit, clubs, food tech ingredients etc). We’ve accepted that we’ll have a mixture of canteen food & sandwiches most days, often they want to go into the canteen but are only allowed if they buy something so it’s a bit of a mixture.
It’s amazing how quickly they get the hang of it & seem to grow up loads…scary!!

@FusionChefGeoff
They aren’t deep enough for a big textbook so might not be practical for your DC but I have seen them work well for KS3 students at school I have worked in who have a slim textbook/ reading book plus an exercise book. We used them in English, for example. It helped them keep everything together and stopped them getting in trouble for leaving reading book.

Worth a try and not super expensive. I will get some for my DC when they move up in the next few years to use if it helps them and they want to use and fit any loose sheets etc…

Echo getting school bag ready the night before too and Taking a photo of timetable as well as having a copy in bag and a spare on fridge or something as lots of Y7s seem to have no idea what their next lesson is and just generally confused for first few weeks! We do try to help them though and give them support but if home does too, it’s so helpful!

I have a Dyspraxic DD who has just finished y7. She is enormously disorganised and loses everything and anything but surprisingly only had a couple of days where she forgot anything.

She just has a shelf in her bookcase for books. When she started I did pack books with her - she would read them off to me from her planner and I would get off the shelf but after a while I left her to it.

For her it's routine - get that going and she manages fine.

My eldest is dyspraxic and dyslexic, so needed a lot of help and reminders to start with. She's just going into year 10. I remind her to sort her bag each evening. Whether she does or not is up to her these days.

My youngest is going into year 8 and has never needed much organisational help.

At their school they don't take the books home - it makes sense, there's 2000 pupils so that's a lot of text books the school doesn't need to buy, that don't get lost or forgotten, or damaged and that children don't have to lug about!
And they only have 4 lessons a day - but a two week timetable.

They get a print out of the time table, they photograph it on their phones, it lives on their desks.
Fairly frequently we have the 'is it week 1 or week 2?' discussion. Especially after half term as it doesn't always revert to week 1.
There's an app they (and I) can check on.

Pencil cases stay in bags, including maths calculators, and it's generally just exercise books she needs to take. The idea is that DD1 keeps them in her bureau in one pile.

PE bags are kept ready loaded. Including trainers (they have to have black or white for school so they have a school pair and a home pair each). When I wash PE kit it goes straight back in the bag afterwards.

Rucksacks and PE bags generally live in the hall in a basket in term time.