Preparation for starting secondary school, year 7 in 2018)

[itshappenedagain]

Thought I would start a thread to get someone to hold my hand as I prepare ds for starting secondary school in 2 weeks. I've bought the uniform, labelled everything, set him up a desk, but now I have to do bus routes and passes and bank accounts! I feel a little overwhelmed. Please tell me others feel the same way!

I am more fed up with the holiday homework end the endless list of things to buy.

I still have to label clothes and see if DD needs a new PE bag. She also gets really anxious (on top of her usual anxiety).

Come on 5th September and I can relax again (for a day) and until then it is a drink or two or three...

Holiday homework???? I don't remember hearing anything about that! Oh dear, I hope my DD won't be getting off on the wrong foot even before she starts at secondary school. We havent done any studying. Do most schools request this?

We have t got holiday homework and I did all of the uniform shopping the first week of the holidays. My biggest worry is that he'll get off the bus at the wrong stop or lose his key/wallet/phone and won't be able to get home. Up until July he had always been taken to and from school and the from school into after school. His school is over 6 miles away and 3 from my work! So it's two buses and a 10 minute walk.

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I’m really looking forward to it and so is my son. He will be starting at my school.
I have bought uniform, stationery and the (very expensive!) PE kit. Just need to get school shoes now.
Fortunately, we only live a five minute drive from the school but I’m insisting on my son taking his bike most days to get some exercise. He thinks he’s getting a lift with me every day.

I used to work at the school that my ds is going to ( I left 2 years ago) it's a great school, that's why I chose it, but I feel so unprepared for this bit!

Try and do the journey with him several times over the next couple of weeks so that it stuck in his head. When DS first started using the bus, I wrote out a little route card for both ways - which stop to get on/off at, bus numbers, bus stop numbers etc, which he could keep hidden in his blazer pocket until needed (it wasn't).

Go over what to do if it does go wrong - alternative bus numbers, phone calls to make etc.

Find out the number for and opening hours of the lost property offices of the transport that DS will use now. Makes it much easier when he discovers his PE kit is still on the bus to be able to contact them straight away!

Programme all the numbers into his phone - yours, work, school office etc. Write them down somewhere (his planner if he gets one) so that he can still contact people if he loses his phone.

Keys - I got a clip that could be fixed into a blazer pocket and then keys attached to an extendable string so he neve had to remove them. Could also safety pin to school bag and attach with elastic.

Label everything

theconstantinoplegardener - we have:

1 book review - A4 page

1 letter to her future self about her feelings at starting secondary, closed envelope, they will be open at the end of Y7

piece of writing, can be anything, DD wrote 1 1/2 A4 pages about the first pony she ever rode and how she felt when he died.

9 science questions - all answers should fit on a A4 page

6 maths puzzles, they kept DH busy as it took ages to get 2 of them.

I think it depends in our area. Based on what the teacher wrote, the science is about the topics they will cover and the book is part of English in the first term. DD's friends at a different secondary do not have anything.

It's normal. The only way through is through. If he goes on a bus that other kids are on, he'll just follow the lemmings. If not, if the bus stops near the school, he'll see other kids in uniform. Can't speak for all schools, but DS's school were very geared towards helping them develop as independently capable boys, and the ideology in the first year regarding getting lost, being late, forgotten books, prep etc., was reasonably (tho not entirely) redemptive!

He's done the bus route to school independently today, and we'll try to do the one home this week ( as it's different buses).

Good advise about a card with bus numbers and stops, I'll do one and laminate it.

10 days to go!

DD2 had some optional holiday work that they were given on induction days in July. Only a few of them bothered to do it. She was one of the ones that did, and got a prize for her efforts, so that was a good start.

She also needed her PE kit on the first day, which caught a lot of people out. They did induction activities in the morning and then went straight onto their timetable in the afternoon. PE was timetabled, so PE was done.

Pop a £5 inside a pocket in his backpack for use in an emergency when he has left his bus pass somewhere.

Find out how much the deposit for a locker is and get him to get one. Very useful for leaving PE kit in. Definitely take PE kit in on the first day.

Check how the dinner money system works. He may not be having school dinners, but he will probably want the odd snack or drink which is usually paid for using a prepaid card.

Take a look through his homework diary or whatever they call it on when he comes home on his first day. There are usually all kinds of things you need to sign for in it, such as school/parent contracts, whether he can be sent home by himself if the school shuts unexpectedly etc.

Run through the online calendar sooner rather than later. Find out if they have any half days scheduled for things like prospective parents' evenings in September or on the last day of term. You will rarely get hard copy letters and Parentmail isn't always failsafe.