How to prepare child's room for secondary school

[user1461609321]

Hi everyone

For those of you with older children already in secondary school how have you organised their personal space/bedrooms for maximum efficiency eg do they have a desk in room for homework, where is the homework computer or laptop for homework?

Where are Oyster cards, school bag etc kept?

Are there any furniture items that have proved really useful for your preteen?

Do they have their own hygiene products in their room?

Own wash basket in room etc?

Finally did your year 7 have their own room or share with siblings?

Sorry for so many questions but really want to get it right

Me and dh leave the house before dd and get home after her. She has nobody to remind her and has so far only forgot one thing, her pe kit, once. It wasnt a pe day though, it was just a lunch club she missed.

do they have a desk in room for homework, where is the homework computer or laptop for homework?
She has a desk and laptop in her room.

Where are Oyster cards, school bag etc kept? She keeps her bus pass in her phone case. School bag in her room.

Are there any furniture items that have proved really useful for your preteen? a desk. A desk chair. A box for her books.

Do they have their own hygiene products in their room? my dc have their own bathroom, but dd keeps her face wash in her room.

Own wash basket in room etc? no. Clothes thrown in the general direction of the one wash basket.

Finally did your year 7 have their own room or share with siblings? dc have their own rooms.

My dd also does her own packed lunch every evening ready for the morning.

Not quite what you were asking but my top tip at the move to secondary school is make a shower in the morning part of the routine from Day 1. I did this (on the advice of another MN'er) and my DS now automatically goes and has his shower as soon as his alarm goes, no complaints, no nagging, no body odour! Whereas friends who continued with the primary school routine (bath/wash/shower in the evening; not a biggie if it's occasionally missed) are now having a constant battle to get their Year 9 boys clean.

@Tarnation

Not quite what you were asking but my top tip at the move to secondary school is make a shower in the morning part of the routine from Day 1. I did this (on the advice of another MN'er) and my DS now automatically goes and has his shower as soon as his alarm goes, no complaints, no nagging, no body odour! Whereas friends who continued with the primary school routine (bath/wash/shower in the evening; not a biggie if it's occasionally missed) are now having a constant battle to get their Year 9 boys clean.

Thanks for the tip, they currently shower every morning and after school so will keep up this routine

Please keep the tips for managing the transition to secondary school coming, I really appreciate these

My eldest share a room. They have a desk with PC and a laptop so they can use which ever they prefer. School books kept in ikea unit with cupboard doors. With a copy of their timetables on the inside of their cupboard door.

They keep their wallet and keys in their blazer pockets usually.

Other than that everything is as it was. Plan to do the same for Dd empty out one of her desk drawers for school books and make more space for uniform in her wardrobe but that’s it really.

Desk somewhere quiet that isn’t the bedroom is optimal, but not often possible. If it’s a smallish room those desks under mezzanine bunk beds are great. Own room if at all possible.

Pack sports/music kit for the week and hang in in bags on a hook by the door or in his room. Label the days if necs. Keys bowl for card / lunch card, either In room or by draw. Washing basket - either in room or collective in bathroom. Book box so everything doesn’t sit in the bag. Get a decent back bag. Clean shirts as well as underwear for everyday. Wash caddy in the bathroom, second deod in bedroom. Phones and iPads charger in the kitchen - have a docking station. No phones in rooms over night. Ditto games controls (make it a rule for you and partner too so he doesn’t feel singled out.) Lunchbox always collected from same spot in kitchen.

Lots of healthy snacks around.

Firm rule that he puts washing in basket, lunchbox in dishwasher, brings cups down from room and puts them in dishwasher (no full meals in rooms). Throw in a bin bag for him to do a clean up sweep and strip bed every week/ other week.

Make allowance dependant on household cores, homework, good hygiene, screen and sleep hygiene and a basic amount of exercise. Life skills innit.

@Tarnation

Not quite what you were asking but my top tip at the move to secondary school is make a shower in the morning part of the routine from Day 1. I did this (on the advice of another MN'er) and my DS now automatically goes and has his shower as soon as his alarm goes, no complaints, no nagging, no body odour! Whereas friends who continued with the primary school routine (bath/wash/shower in the evening; not a biggie if it's occasionally missed) are now having a constant battle to get their Year 9 boys clean.

Not sure I agree with this. I'm glad it worked for you, but my Year 9 couldn't be persuaded to get out of bed one second earlier than necessary so any morning washing was a very perfunctory affair. Whereas at night time you have at least time to firmly suggest that some application of soap might be a good idea (I think Year 9 boys just hate washing, frankly).

How to prepare child’s room for secondary school.

1. Open all drawers and wardrobe and pull clothes our and throw on the floor.
2. Get wet towel and leave in the middle of unmade bed.
3. Get all the clean glasses from the kitchen and fill with squash, juice, milk and leave for a week on desk, bedside table, windowsill.
4. Empty contents of dirty linen basket onto the floor and mix with clean clothes.
5. Leave half eaten food under the bed.
6. Get school books and throw on desk along with loose papers, pens etc until you can’t see the desk.
7. Leave school bags strewn over the floor.
8. Hide all important letters from the school in obscure places around room.

That should about do it! 😜

Thanks for the tip, they currently shower every morning and after school so will keep up this routine

Ah, you're already one step ahead then!

Another one - timetable printed/written out and displayed in as many places as possible - school bag, locker, bedroom, kitchen. Less likely to forget books/kit that way.

Oh and if you can afford it let him choose a few things like new duvet set and desk tidies - helps him feel like a grown up when you are establishing new rules.

The other thing is homework routine.

@MerchSwyddEfrog

How to prepare child’s room for secondary school.

1. Open all drawers and wardrobe and pull clothes our and throw on the floor.
2. Get wet towel and leave in the middle of unmade bed.
3. Get all the clean glasses from the kitchen and fill with squash, juice, milk and leave for a week on desk, bedside table, windowsill.
4. Empty contents of dirty linen basket onto the floor and mix with clean clothes.
5. Leave half eaten food under the bed.
6. Get school books and throw on desk along with loose papers, pens etc until you can’t see the desk.
7. Leave school bags strewn over the floor.
8. Hide all important letters from the school in obscure places around room.

That should about do it! 😜

I could have written this word for word 😂

My top tip would be not to overly involve yourself in what they are doing. By all means provide scaffolding/support e.g. if they are struggling to work out how to organise homework, but at the end of the day it is their homework and not yours and you need to accept that their way of doing it is not necessarily yours. Even if sometimes that means letting them "fail". Giving your child the tools to be independent is probably the best thing you can do for them.

(It removes your morning stress as well - just worry about yourself and other child and let your oldest sort himself. )

My ds is in year 9 and my DD is going into year 7 this year.

So...ds keeps his oyster card in his blazer pocket at all times. He has a storage box in his room for his school books. He does have a desk but does his homework at the kitchen table on his laptop. I prefer that as I can see he's actually working.

I am planning to get my DD a desk this summer.

If you have more than 1 child in secondary with school-branded rucksacks, get them to triple check that they have put their things in the correct bag. Bitter experience has shown me this.

Photocopy their timetable and have a copy in their blazer, by their desk and in the kitchen. Use a highlighter to highlight PE days/Food & nutrition days/any day that requires extra kit or equipment.

Make sure water bottles are absolutely leak-proof. Nothing spells disaster like soggy school books.

Get them into the habit of doing homework as soon as they get home.

Suggest they note in their planner if a teacher has taken one of their books in for marking. It prevents last minute panic tearing the house apart looking for a missing book .

Embrace the fact that you won't remember the names of any of their teachers!

Oyster cards go in the back of the phone case. There are around 1000 phones with Oyster tucked into the back of the cases in every Secondary in London. If the charger is downstairs/with you overnight (which I recommend), you can make sure it made its way back in there for the morning.

Back of door for bag, coat, blazer.

Small desk with comfortable chair helps, good lighting/lamp is useful.

Second set of all equipment (pens, pencils, etc) for when they're lost each week kept with you.

Big tub with lid for books, paper, letters from school, everything to be dumped in there - when he says there isn't any homework, you'll be able to check the tub for the non-existent History homework that'll be at the bottom.

Linen bin for aiming in the general direction of uniform.

And have five sets of shirts, three jumpers, three sets of trousers by Sunday night each week. You don't want him wearing the same shirt two days in a row, not when puberty is rapidly approaching - get him in the habit of needing clean stuff every day. Two ties would be a plan as well - keep the spare with the spare pens and things with you or it'll disappear by September 22nd, never to be seen again.

You keeping the spares and then insisting that they come back again as soon as the task is done keeps him on task and trains him to not leave a classroom with the teacher's supplies bought with their own money.

PE bag is replenished with clean kit immediately so there isn't a pair of greying football socks rapidly decomposing with what may have once been a banana in the bottom.

And if he's in the habit of using deodorant, make it a neutral smelling one. We don't need to breathe in that amount of Lynx every day. We really, really don't.

@MerchSwyddEfrog

How to prepare child’s room for secondary school.

1. Open all drawers and wardrobe and pull clothes our and throw on the floor.
2. Get wet towel and leave in the middle of unmade bed.
3. Get all the clean glasses from the kitchen and fill with squash, juice, milk and leave for a week on desk, bedside table, windowsill.
4. Empty contents of dirty linen basket onto the floor and mix with clean clothes.
5. Leave half eaten food under the bed.
6. Get school books and throw on desk along with loose papers, pens etc until you can’t see the desk.
7. Leave school bags strewn over the floor.
8. Hide all important letters from the school in obscure places around room.

That should about do it! 😜

🤣🤣🤣

Also, remember that every school does things differently, so you will have to tailor some of these tips accordingly.

DC's school sets all homework online and they are only allowed to bring their books home before exams. So having a space for books/homework is not necessary, but remembering to check the online portal is.

Oh! And check blazer pockets for hurriedly stashed bits of food from a rushed lunchtime BEFORE you put it in the washing machine.

Make sure they keep a pack of tissues/hand sanitizer/age/a couple of age-appropriate painkillers in their bag.

Invest in a foldable waterproof they can keep in their bag. They'll never wear it but it makes you feel better when it's chucking it down and they're walking home.

Spare pencilcase at home so they don't have to take theirs out of their bag and forget to put it back.
Photocopy of timetable in blazer pocket, on desk, on kitchen cupboard.
Get a locker if you can. DD keeps her games kit in their for the full half term unless she's played rugby in the mud.
Top up lunch account beginning of every month without fail (if they do not have packed lunch). Don't wait for it to run out to top up.

We were lucky enough to have room for a separate study but none of the DC used it after the first couple of years, in fact, by GCSEs one preferred to work on a laptop in bed (which is where he wrote his BSc dissertation), the others asked for desks in their rooms . If you have the space, it is better for sleep hygiene not to work in your bedroom but don't expect your DC to think that! It's a bit like every teenager thinks they concentrate better with music playing...

Where are Oyster cards, school bag etc kept?

In the study. It became a glorified cloakroom/storage room. Anywhere is fine, as long as it has a place. Oyster cards, homework planner etc in their blazer pocket.

Are there any furniture items that have proved really useful for your preteen?

No but they all used ziplock pouches to keep everything (writing book, loose handouts, textbooks etc) together for each subject. It was DS1's idea in Y7. They would come in, empty out/clean lunch boxes if they had one, take their bag up and empty the pouches into magazine files in the study and put the pouches they needed into their bag for the next day. Blazer and tie were hung up in their room, usually they got changed too.

Do they have their own hygiene products in their room?

In their bathroom.

Own wash basket in room etc?

Ditto above, in their bathroom. They were laundry bin trained from a young age. Hanging up wet towels took a lot longer to master...

Finally did your year 7 have their own room or share with siblings?

We were lucky enough that they all had their own bedrooms but it isn't essential as long as there is a quiet space for homework somewhere in the house.

My advice would be to let your child sort this stuff out for themselves, if you do it all they will never be able to do it and become organised.

@doodleygirl

My advice would be to let your child sort this stuff out for themselves, if you do it all they will never be able to do it and become organised.

The child concerned will be 11 years old.

Most people have to be taught organisation, it doesn’t magically happen.

My dc shared a bedroom. There was a desk but homework tended to be done in the kitchen or living room. One child asked for, and got, a whiteboard to write on. Neither had a laptop. They used the family pc if needed. Their Oyster cards and school bags and uniforms were their own responsibility. I didn’t get involved. They had to put their uniforms in the washing basket if they wanted them washed. We had one washing basket - it was in our bedroom.

The child concerned will be 11 years old. Most people have to be taught organisation, it doesn’t magically happen.
Yes but you don't start at 11. You build on it from when they are toddlers. If you're trying to suddenly teach your child how to be organised and suddenly giving them responsibility at 11, you've missed years of building a solid foundation.

Do you realise how few secondary school pupils actually have or need an Oyster card, let alone somewhere special to store one?

Not everyone lives in London.