Well our little year 7's are coming to the end of their 1st year at "big big "school..!! How has it been for everyone ..and have you noticed any "big"changes in them ??

[bizzey]

That's it really ..I am nosey curious if anyones child has had a big metamorphis in to a ...well I don't know what ....

The only difference I have found in my (pfb) ds1 is...

He is now taller than me

His feet are 2 sizes bigger than Sept

He has spots

He has worked hard all year ,not got into trouble and was late once (properlY) due to road accident (the other time he was late was day 4 and he forgot to get off the bus and ended up 10 miles the wrong way !!!)

Any one else with their stories ??

Minesawine, yes I do remember the upsets of the early weeks and I'm really pleased to hear that the school stepped up and helped him. Good news indeed.

We had a steady procession of children at our tea table at primary too, and this seems to have stopped. I don't know if the increased after school clubs have replaced 'come and play' , or if it is less cool to invite people home, or they are tired, or the homework has taken effect. DS spends a lot of time on BBM.....

Great to hear it's been so positive for so many. Mine doesn't bring friends home either but he lives a bit away and is tired, homework gets in the way too. Happy socially but worried about grades despite us telling him he's trying his best, that's what matters. Size wise, not much different to Sept but will need to get new blazer cos it's falling apart - possibly used as a goalpost a bit too often...

DS still has his old friends over, but less often. Part of the problem is that new friends live further away so spur of the moment arrangements with the boy across the road are not possible, and so far 11 year old boys show no ability at all to plan in advance, inform parents, get permission, remember what night they said they would come.... In primary days I saw all the parents anyway and we would say 'oh, would XX like to come home with YY after school today?".

Forgetfulness. DS packs his bag and then goes out of the door without it, fails to tell me he needs a packed lunch because it is sports day...then I make an emergency packed lunch and he leaves it on the table. He remembers all of a sudden that it is PE, decides to take his black trainers out of his bag and wear them, but in doing so removes PE top and shorts and fails to re-pack them after trainers have been removed, so gets a detention for not having PE kit....

The relationship with secondary school is so much more remote - and made more so when the main communicative link is an 11 year old with a brain like a broken sieve.

My DD has never really had friends over due to me being a working mum - it's actually quite a relief now that it's no longer the norm to do this.

She and her best friend from primary were split up - the school does this deliberately - but they are still very close, and she has made a lot of really good new friends. Her school streams rather than sets in Yr7 (which I'm not happy with but am stuck with) but it does mean that she has found herself a friendship group of kindred spirits - girls and boys who are interested in learning, are intelligent and behave well, and are proud of being geeks. There are almost 30 of them in her year, which really helps prevent bullying as it's a bit difficult to bully such a large group of people who really stand by each other. This is a change from primary, and for the better.