Y7 hates school

[alliejay81]

DS is 12 and in Y7. He's got a lovely friendship group and is doing well in school: "working above" the expected standard in most "academic" subjects and glowing report for attitude to learning. Problem is he hates school. He has mild SEN (mainly motor skill related, but does also mean he finds organisation more difficult).

He just finds school really tiring and stressful. He feels like he hasn't adapt to secondary school yet (lockdown hasn't helped). He feels he has to put 100% effort in to meet the standard but the amount of effort he's putting in isn't sustainable (particularly given he's in year 7 and the workload will increase). I am going to talk to the SENCO, but I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions or similar experiences?

Commenting to bump this for you OP. While I have no experience as such (my 3 are all primary age still) I see a lot of kids of all ages in my job. I'm a music tutor and often teach people from quite young until the time they go off to college. When they hit year 7 it is a massive massive adjustment for all of them. Plenty talk about giving up their instrument in that 1st term or 2 because they are exhausted and can't work out how they'll fit in practices. I keep it light with them, make sure there's no pressure from me, and usually they're still with me 5 years later! I think what I'm saying is that yr 7 in a way is the hardest year, although obviously the work gets harder, the transition is a massive shock to the system. Obviously SEN makes things harder, (DS with autism for me so I have some experience there too) but I still think it will get better. Xx hopefully someone else might see this with kids of similar age or experience to help you too..