What's your child done so far in year 7?

[MILLYMOLLYMANDYMAX]

My son has just started year 7. We chose this particular school on recommendation from friends of mine who's children go there already, it is heavily into drama and music which were ds favourite lessons and the fact that it was where his best friend and a lot of his classmates were going to. (We missed out on visiting senior schools last year as ds was home schooled until mid October of last year. Long story.)
Any way we are approaching the end of the 3rd week in the school and so far I have not seen a piece of paper, an exercise book or anything that would suggest any form of lesson is taking place. My son is completely bored. Apparently according to him they spend most of the lesson telling the pupils what is and isn't acceptable behaviour over and over again and if they do start to do a lesson and someone whispers or does anything that is not "acceptable" behaviour then the lesson is stopped and they go over the school rules again till the bell goes and then it all starts again in the next lesson. Spoke to a teacher regarding this and they seemed quite proud of the fact that they spent so long telling pupils how to behave and that the school is so strict. The drama teacher apparently rants so much ds comes home with a headache every time he has a lesson and now hates the subject.
I have spoken to his head of year and the conversation was something akin to a conversation with Beefy Bert from Horrid Henry.

"I dunno" or "we haven't got round to that yet"

Were the only replies I got.

Also after specifically asking which friend he wanted to be in the same class as, they have split them up so he knew no one in his class. Apparently they do this so they will go out and find new friends.

Whole thing has been a disaster as now he is refusing point blank to go to school and it is taking me a good hour each morning stressing out on how to get him into school.

Am I asking too much at this stage in a new school that I see some work or are all schools taking things slowly.

DD alo did tests today - MIDYIS ones which we were told she couldn't revise for and that there were no samples of tests to see, even online. DD has been told that she will not get the results at all and school will not inform them of them. We, parents, will get a sheet of paper with results on though.

Have already paid for a trip to the theatre for December, and a deposit for a French trip for September 2014, ie when in Y8!

Well I have actually seen exercise books. Really excited that he actually has them. But that is where my excitement ends.
From the 3 1/2 weeks he has been there he has managed 8 lines, in French to 2 pages (4 sides) of his exercise book in Maths. Absolutely Wild. What am I bothering getting up in the morning to get him to school for. Why did I spend nearly £300 on the school uniform. I have home edded before and if he had only produced what I saw tonight in nearly a month then I would certainly be expecting a call from the education authority.

FUMING

In French they start with a lot of verbal work "immersing" them in the language.

In maths they may well also be doing a lot of mental maths too, getting them thinking about numbers etc. They may be doing lots of working through stuff as a class on a white board, rather than individually in their won books.

You chose the school. You presumably checked out their results? If results are on the whole good then they probably do know what they are doing, even if it seems a bit strange to you.

On the other hand, maybe now is the time to start comparing with parents with kids at other local schools, to see if the approach of somewhere else might suit you and your son more if the situation does not improve by half term.

In Scotland so been back longer
History- ongoing project due in next week
Maths- Decimal work and BODMAS - regular assesments/tests each week
English- tonnes of comprehensions/book reports- by far the most homework
Art- various drawings for homework
French- lots of vocab
Science- test next week- workbook home to revise
Geography-various reports for homework but chose to do those in Library at lunchtime.
Joined 2 clubs and having private music lessons at school
DT- don't know
Exhausted!

We chose the school for the extra curricular activities, the fact his best friend was going there and on recommendation of friends who have children in upper years who say our experience has not been the same as there children. The school has just had a new head who I think is trying to make his mark.

Serious discussions to be had.

The lack of work does seem strange- where I work we have a big focus in getting the y7s into good habits and routines, especially with organisation which many find hard. Letting them sit there for days on end seems counter productive...?

In terms of exercise books- we have a general policy of keeping them in school so that they don't go missing ( theyre important 'evidence' for progress). Homework is usually set via website logins, email or worksheets etc. This may explain the lack of books.

lisad123everybodydancenow I have been to the parents evening. "I don't know" and "We haven't got round to that." were the stock replies to questions.

MMMM - that response from parents' evening is really rubbish. What stardust says about setting up routines in Yr7 is so important. At any good school, Yr 7s are learning a new routine of homework and organisation that they have to get used to from the outset.

Ds is having a really bad time at the moment. He was only at his last school for 8 months and made some really good friends. He started not knowing anyone in his form, but made 2 friends but that has now gone out the window as they have mixed them up this week and put them in different sets and he again doesn't really know anyone and the group he is with he says have paired up already. He has a different lunchtime to everyone who was his friend and he is also bored out of his mind. There are no school clubs that have started he wants to be in or they still haven't got around to starting the clubs.
On the whole I was going to assess how things were going by 1/2 term but after a chat with him this evening where just how unhappy he is came flooding out I think tomorrow might be his last day.
I think I am going to go back to home education.

It sounds like a huge step for him after having been home educated, and he sounds negative about it as if predetermined not to like it. What is the history behind home educating him and why is your dd privately educated and not him? This could be an issue in the future, if they wonder why one of them was treated differently? It does seem strange that they asked about friends but didn't act on the information. I think you need to go into school again and ask for help with settling him. Our school has peer mentors from older years who help the children struggling with friendships.

Is there an alternative secondary school locally ?

Long story coming up.

Ds went to school in reception but he is a summer born baby and he only went for the social scene and the Lego box. Any form of teaching went completely over his head. But he really enjoyed school.
In the summer holidays before he entered year 1 he seemed more excited to go to school for what he could learn. He went in on his first day in year 1 really looking forward to being taught to read.
There was a new teacher teaching year 1.
I noticed after a few weeks the initial excitement of school had worn off and for the first time he was reluctant to go into school.

One day in January when I went to collect him he came out clutching his sheet of spellings he had to learn. One glance told me he had given the more advanced sheet so I took it back into the teacher to tell her the mistake. I went in smiling and friendly and said
"oh I don't think ds will be able to do these spellings...." I was about to say "because I think he has picked up the wrong sheet." when this teacher flew at me screaming that he had been given homework and he had to do it. That was the gist of her rant which lasted a good 3-4 minutes with me stood there trying to get a word in. In the end I just left and took ds home.

The following week ds was very very ill and was off school for 2 weeks. The doctor said he could return to school as he was not contagious anymore but would have a cough for about 6 weeks more.

I told the teaching assistant and teacher this and packed ds off to school with tissues. It was on the 3rd day back that he refused to go into school. A girl from his class was passing and it was her who told me exactly what my son had to endure from this teacher. From day 1 she had taken an instant dislike to ds and at every opportunity had sent him to sit in the corridor for hours on end. Apparently the latest bug bear was his cough. So every time he coughed he was sent out till the following break then allowed back into the classroom as long as he didn't cough but when he did she would send him out again. I stormed into the head teacher's office and exploded.
The following day year 1 teacher was gone never to return. The substitute teacher was lovely but ds had lost all confidence and by the time he had built it up again it was the end of year 1
Year 2 was a struggle, the school gave him extra reading lessons and I got books from the library.
The school finished in yr2 and he went to another school in yr3. The new school assured me they had a fantastic SEN dept and for the first 6 weeks he was making great progress. Then it all stopped. The SEN dept went and he was left with a teaching assistant who shouted at him if he got a word wrong. I only found out about the SEN dept going from another mum.
He started to go backwards. The teacher would set homework each night which involved writing.
I would go in asking for more appropriate homework as he couldn't read or write.
She would state it was the curriculum and had to be done.
After hours of tears and tantrums the "work" would get done by which time we were all exhausted.
At the end of year 3 I was called in to be told that they couldn't grade him as he was below nursery standard. I was furious. They with held his end of year report and to this day I haven't seen it.
I took him out of school and home educated him for 2 years. He went back to a new school in year 6 being able to read, spell and being well above average in Maths. It was a fantastic school although not in our area and I regret that he didn't go there from reception.
And now he is in this senior school.
Sorry for the long post. I am not one of those mums who thinks home education is the only way to go but I feel I have been forced into it. The school I think with the new headmaster is trying to keep the kids on the back foot by mixing them up to give them the upper hand and the class detentions across lunch if one person is out of line is really getting him down.

Last bit should read "on the back foot by mixing them up to give the teaching staff the upper hand. There is a class detentions most lunchtimes because one person has stepped out of line."

That is quite a long and complicated background. I guess your ds has at the back of his mind that home education is an option, whereas my children for example, would never think of that, as they know legally they have to go to school. I have a ds in year 10 and a dd in year 7. It hasn't always been plain sailing. My ds was with his friends in year 7 but friendship groups change dramatically and he had a few unhappy weeks when he fell out with his friendship group. He has another group of friends now. It does sound not surprisingly, that your ds is finding it difficult being part of a group, but that is part of being at school. Very different from one to one. I think you do need to give it longer, but you need to speak to the school about your concerns.

Wow, your poor ds. To encounter not one but two dreadful schools.

I'd talk to the school before removing him, though. Give them a chance. Or is there another school locally that would work better?

Mixing with different people and learning to get on with them is a life lesson. I wonder as well whether your ds is picking up negative vibes about the school from you? I have to careful with this myself as my children's school has been perceived by some local people as not as good as the schools in the neighbouring towns and historically families have sent their children out of catchment. Also I find I am very positive about some of the teachers which means my children are too, and vica versa. I don't like the science teacher much and find that means my children don't like him either!

Legally they do not have to go to school. Otherwise home education would be illegal.

My son really enjoyed year 6 and home ed was the last thing on his mind when he entered this school. When we took him out of school we said that as soon as he could read and write he would be returning to school and he looked forward to this. He actually couldn't wait to return. He is a very sociable boy and likes to be around other children. He found it quite boring sometimes at home towards the end when we trying to find him a primary school.
This is not about him falling out with friendship groups but about making friends then the powers that be splitting the group up, making new friends then splitting them up again. To what purpose I have no idea.
If the school was actually teaching him, or the extra curricular clubs were there, or he had made friends in his form that he felt he could rely on the fact that they would be still in his form 2 days from now then I think he would be able to live with it.
They are not teaching him, the after school activities despite being advertised on the website either do not exist or will be put in place sometime in the future, no one knows when and the constant threat that anyday the forms and sets will be shaken up again and he could find he never sees half of his class mates again because of different lunchtimes doesn't make him feel secure about making friends.

As I have said this is a new head teacher who I think is trying to divide and conquer but it is not working for my son.

Bluebell99 I was quite upbeat about the school and so was he as his best friend and others from his year 6 class were going. A lot of my elder daughters friends go there and were really positive about it. But they were in year 7 under a different headship and even they are bewildered as to why there seems to be a constant change in year 7.

The new head stated at the open evening that the Ofsted report said that children's behaviour was Good but he wanted it to be excellent. I wonder if he thinks this is the way to go.