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?

At DC's school they take virtually nothing to and from school.
So I'd find out from a parent with an older child what's actually required in practice before you start putting systems in place.

I'd also say that you really need to get your DC to buy into any system you use and not come up with one yourself or they just won't use it. If the "system" is to put everything in a pile on the bedroom floor and go through tomorrow's timetable working out what is needed, then leave them to it unless they come asking for help/clearly keep forgetting stuff.

My DC also have pencil cases with all stationary that just live in blazer pockets. So they can always be sure of having a pen.

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.

DC's school just alternates weeks through the year, unless the whole week is a holiday in which case it is ignored. So if it was week 1, the week before half term, it will be week 2 the week afterwards. I would think most schools would do that or they would end up with a disproporationate number of Week 1s?

A box for all books
As well as stationary, 2 pens and a pencil in a pocket in his bag in case he forgets his pencil case.
A copy of his timetable stuck up in his bedroom.
A rule of 'do your homework on the day you get it'
Keep pe kit washed and in a bag ready to take on pe days.

You put the books in the rack for the next time. So Mon and Tuesday, book comes out of the bag for homework then goes back in the bag.

Tuesday, homework and then put in the folder for Thursday.

If you want to do it for all of the week you can put an A$ sheet with 'Maths book' written on it (laminate or put in a poly pocket).

You can do that for things that are not books so 'PE kit - football'

Interesting reading all this as my daughter is going into y10 and has never needed to carry books other than a reading book and planner. Their homework is all on Google classroom or online app type things. So no books to ever remember. Just her chrome book to charge once a week - there school requests all parents buy on and has a payment scheme and loans anyone who can’t. They have a 2 week timetable but she has access to her online portal from home so checks her timetable over breakfast each morning. Main thing to remember is PE bag but that becomes ingrained in their mind fairly quickly. Her school has a cashless system for food and uses fingerprint to buy. The can even pre order online and just collect. Some days she takes a lunch. My daughter is autistic so does need a lot of prompting re Chromebook on a Monday and snacks and water bottle being replenished. She does all homework at school at a homework club. My youngest starts in September in y7 so will see how she gets on but she’s been sorting her own bag for the last year or so of primary and making her own lunches. She has a whiteboard with a checklist which she sorted herself.

DS has a letter tray on a shelf of his bookcase where he keeps his school books. On the wall next to it is ikea memoboards which has his timetable stuck on. I made it on excel and colour coded each subject. His books are all purple though so I got some coloured stickers to go on the spine of his books so he can easily grab the ones he needs for that day without having to read the fronts.

We tried the folder for each day at first but it was too much faff.

He has stationary in his desk drawer as well as in his pencil case so he doesn’t need to take his pencil case out at home.

Getting in loads of trouble for forgetting things worked for me!

One thing that really helped apart from systems like the above and always packing the night before is having a Fitbit

Silent vibrating alarm can go off to remind of things out of the ordinary at the appropriate time - music lesson, lunch time club, after school session etc. I started off setting the alarms for him and eventually we are at the point he does that himself (mostly)!

They aren't allowed phones at his school at all (switched off in bag) so this really helps him.

What do they need to organise? My Ds is 13 and all he needs to remember is to keep his iPad charged and PE kit twice a week. There's nothing else to 'organise.' Don't make it more complicated or stressful than it needs to be.

Carry everything you need everyday is what I did at secondary school and my daughter. Absolutely no way is have ever coped with my daughter's time table as it was fortnightly. My son sends to manage to pack his bag watch day with what he needs but he definitely didn't get that from me.
They both had a pencil case in their bag and the contents of another pencil case in their blazer pocket because of they forgot things they can end up in isolation!
At college I used magazine racks, one for each day (including weekends for homework for that subject) and my folders were labeled for which ones to put them in if I took it out of my bag.
My daughter seems to be able to sort her bag out for college with our help but now only had 3 subjects and no one cares if she forgets things.

I don’t think anything beats just sitting down with them every evening, and going through the next day’s timetable. Checking lesson by lesson as they pack what they need, put out PE kit to wear etc.

Colour-code each subject. So English is red, Maths is blue and cover everything related to each subject in that colour.

Timetable copy downstairs at a separate magnetic board where all of DD's stuff is.

Set up a designated work space. She will need space and time to do her homework. If she has a room on her own, use that, not the kitchen/dining table.

DD has magazine racks for her workbooks/exercise books. Exercise books only really appeared at GCSE level, otherwise it was only the English Lit book she had extra. She emptied her bag when coming home and repacked it after dinner. If she has two teachers for a subject she may end up with two workbooks. DD had a detention for bringing the wrong one in (ridiculous but done). She put a large pink note on it and marked it pink on her timetable so she knew which one to pack for which teacher.

Second stationary pack is a good idea as well.

While we never checked what she packed, we reminded her in the first couple of months, especially when she had a late club or something else came up disrupting the usual flow in the evening. But they learn quickly how to do it.

For homework - we had a large calendar the first year where DD wrote down her homework for the day before it was due. We also had access to her intranet pages where the dates could be seen but for her it worked better with a visual one. The calendar also had her clubs on it so she could manage better when she could see the days she had more free time to do work faster.

My tip would be to encourage her not to leave any homework that requires using a computer - especially if it's logging in remotely to the school system - till the last minute, because things can and do go wrong and take time to sort out. It's up to them whether they do this but it doesn't always occur to them.

My kid's school told them to do the plastic folder for each subject system. I bought a bulk lot of the sturdier zip up mesh ones which handily had different coloured zips.

His school tends to do booklets rather than textbooks

It's kept in a big plastic box under his desk.

I kept a note of pe swim days and we worked out a system of leaving stuff beside the washing machine and telling me it needed washed and when for. Boots got cleaned when he came home but he would do this.

Name everything. Everything!

I thought it would take ages for him to get himself organised but he has managed well. Sometimes he is packing bags at bedtime which drives me mad, but he hasn't really forgotten anything.

Other kid starts this year. I think it'll be. A different story!!

Colour code everything, so English is red. Colour it red on timetable, a small red sticker on the textbook spine, exercise book and a red folder for sheets, novel etc.

If there’s something underlying like ADHD then you need to take a completely different approach

Ds about to enter yr9. I tried. But I'm also a teacher and have enough to try and keep organised myself. He has adopted the age of teenage boy method of blazer-as-general-holdall. If he doesn't do his homework, he gets detention. We get alerts on our phone to say what hw he has. I remind him to check, then I get on with my own homework.

The kids I teach think my kids live in some kind of educational hothouse. They have no idea!😄

DS has his timetable as a screensaver, and I think mostly takes everything ever day (though a bit older so has most subjects most days).

He doesn't get any textbooks to bring home - they all have an iPad and get online PDF copies of what they need.

This is genius - I have adhd and suspect so does my eldest. Might get my husband to do this for both of us 😂

It's probably best to wait and see what they come home with before you buy anything.

What worked for us was A4 or A3 clear plastic folders to store exercise, text books and folders, one for each subject. Magazine or box files or letter trays to store them on a shelf above the desk when they are at home, and a school bag big enough to hold a day's worth of plastic folders. Copy of the timetable somewhere nearby.

The routine was lunch box in the dishwasher, PE kit in the laundry, folders put back in the magazine files, school books and anything else (PE kit etc) packed for the next day, change out of uniform (if they want), and fresh uniform put out for the morning, as soon as they got home.

Ours had a homework diary but one of them preferred to have a wall planner or calendar to fill in to be able to see when things were due and to plan how to fit homework around extra curriculars, going out and chilling out. But this was in the days before 11 year olds had smart phones so there is probably an app for that now!

Just let your child get on with it, no need to over manage, they’ll soon get the idea of being organised when school pulls them up for forgetting. It’s all part of growing up.

Can you download copies of the textbooks (that’s how it works here in Ireland) and use an A4 pad for homework? No need to bring books home and only an A4 pad to carry back in (lots of assignments done in google classroom too)

Then put the books in a plastic folder for each subject and take those to class.

Another useful tip is to keep track of homework on a whiteboard just writing subject and day due. Wipe off as it’s completed. Good visual reminder.

DS needed a bit of scaffolding at the beginning but they do quickly get the hang of it.

My eldest managed herself from pretty much the beginning, and I think my youngest who is about to start will follow in her footsteps. Just the odd gentle reminders for pe kit etc.

The middle one is going into year 11 and he needs maximum support, I am doing a magazine file for each subject, but exercise books stay in school. It is more the screwed up paper in his blazer that needs sorting.