First Day at secondary school

[rosieamber]

On the first day that my son started secondary school, the school let him down big time. Due to over running building works some classes were unable to be used. School still went ahead and began the term. They decided to do some taster classes and not follow the new timetable, but this didn't get explained properly to my son. He was sent to lessons with no other children that he knew and on top of this was sent to 3 out of 4 incorrect classrooms. A shy child he was devasted and humiliated when other children laughed at his misfortune. I had serious trouble persuading him to attend the next day and felt that the school had let us both down BIG TIME! Anyone else had first day issues?

tbh I think rather than getting annoyed with school work on building his ability to deal with this stuff. This kind of stuff does happen and tbh I think being devastated over getting sent to wrong classroom is an over reaction. If he's just starting sec school there is presumably no guarantee he'll know anyone in some of his classes.

Sorry looking back I don't mean to be v unsympathetic - I do sympathise with his upset but think you need to help him not vent about school

Rosie I can see why this should be upsetting as you want things to go as smoothly as possible at the start of any new school. It's a hard enough transition afterall and if your DS is shy it's even harder.

Hopefully on Monday things will become clearer,otherwise if possible, have a word with school as soon as he comes home - or if you pick him up. Tell them straight that it is upsetting and worrying your DS and ask what measures are being put in place so that children know where they are going, it shouldn't be that difficult for the teachers to do this, surely assisstants or even the children in Year 10 and 11 could be dotted around school to help the new ones. It is not at all unusual for your child to be in a class with people they don't know however, and it's probably a good thing in some ways as they get to make friends with new children.

Try not to show your DS your stress and upset or he will feel worse. Be positive about it, tell him things will get better and that if he has any problems to tell you immediatly and you will listen and deal with them.

Hope it all goes more smoothly this week and your DS begins to enjoy his new school.

How come it wasn't explained properly to your son, but all the other children knew? Seriously, he alone was sent to 3 incorrect classrooms
Either someone was playing a joke on your son and he was being very gullible, or he's grossly exaggerating the extent of his problems.