What did your ASD child struggle with in Secondary School?

[FiveHoursSleep]

It looks likely that 10 year old DD2 has ASD/ ADD and will get an official diagnosis in the next few months.
Academically she does well, and her learning behaviour at primary school has been good once she realised what was being asked of her. But socially she's a loose cannon , her concentration is poor, she has sensory issues, she is very emotional and she still has long and violent tantrums out of school despite her age.
She has various physical problems too- low muscle tone, hypermobility, poor proprioception and we anticipate her finding secondary school very difficult.
The school is aware of her problems and are on board to help her as much as they can.
If you have a child who has ASD/ ADD and they are at secondary school, what kind of things did they find hard? What sort of things helped?

Ahhhh sodding... I know teachers like that and am so glad they've never worked with ds!

My DS2 is enjoying high school much better than primary. only problem area has been the fact that he is in one of the lower sets for maths and, inevitably, he is therefore in contact with some of the less well-behaved pupils, they are teasing him when the teacher leaves the room, i am monitoring the situation and will be phoning the school if it continues.
DS2 is not bothered about being cool and therefore never hides his genuine enthusiasm for learning, the teachers seem to appreciate this and are less bothered about presentation etc.
There is also a critical mass of geeky boys for DS to hang out with and a refuge in the pupil support area at lunch and break.

Dd has aspergers and us in yr 8 of a non selective co-ed school but is in the top stream

She has done so much better in high school than I could have imagined

The fact that there is a timetable so she always knows what she is doing is great
It does throw her when the teachers take their books in and she forgets
She's also terrible at using her planner as the homework is handed out right at the end of the lesson when they are all rushing to leave

Lunch time she spends in either the library or the music practise rooms -they are supposed to be a different year group allowed each day but she's allowed in extra

She's made friends predominantly with a group of boys who apparently find her bluntness refreshing

I'm trying to teach her that if she wants to make friends with the girls then she needs to filter what comes out of her mouth and if its mean then not to say it!
Example being one of the girls dyed her hair blonde and the girls were all gushing over her saying how nice it looks. Dd said 'why is your hair ginger and do you realise it doesn't match your eyebrows?'

Generally though the transition to high school was a lot easier than anticipated

DS settled in better than we'd hoped in a class where he knew no-one. In first yr he was more prone to organisational problems and I was replacing bits of uniform and schoolbooks regularly. He didn't have difficulties with most subjects but ha struggled greatly with Irish which he's had to give up. I know that won't be relevant to you of course, but it led to nightly meltdowns during homework and in the end the principal got him exempted. It's made a huge difference. I don't know if your did could drop subjects maybe check out modern language options or exemptions if you think it will be problematic.

The only subject that concerns me now is religion as he is very opinionated and black and white in his thinking. He hasn't grasped spirituality or religious concepts he is rigid in his thinking and doesn't accept basic tenets that don't stack up for him scientifically. It lead to a stand off between him and a young sub teacher who wouldn't make allowances. She was quite hardline despite saying she'd never force a child to take part in anything they didn't wish to. She insisted he go to church with the class although it's not a religious school nor are we religious. She even asked for my consent to try to get him round to her way of thinking! So there were two of them in it I'd say.

He gets very stressed over exams even house exams and class tests. I am monitoring the foreign language situation closely though it is nowhere near as hard as Irish for him and is a requirement for 3rd level so may have to stay.

He got 5 hours a week resource teaching which sounds very little but it is the maximum here but with cutbacks I don't know if he'll get it next year.

DS settled in better than we'd hoped in a class where he knew no-one. In first yr he was more prone to organisational problems and I was replacing bits of uniform and schoolbooks regularly. He didn't have difficulties with most subjects but ha struggled greatly with Irish which he's had to give up. I know that won't be relevant to you of course, but it led to nightly meltdowns during homework and in the end the principal got him exempted. It's made a huge difference. I don't know if your did could drop subjects maybe check out modern language options or exemptions if you think it will be problematic.

The only subject that concerns me now is religion as he is very opinionated and black and white in his thinking. He hasn't grasped spirituality or religious concepts he is rigid in his thinking and doesn't accept basic tenets that don't stack up for him scientifically. It lead to a stand off between him and a young sub teacher who wouldn't make allowances. She was quite hardline despite saying she'd never force a child to take part in anything they didn't wish to. She insisted he go to church with the class although it's not a religious school nor are we religious. She even asked for my consent to try to get him round to her way of thinking! So there were two of them in it I'd say.

He gets very stressed over exams even house exams and class tests. I am monitoring the foreign language situation closely though it is nowhere near as hard as Irish for him and is a requirement for 3rd level so may have to stay.

He got 5 hours a week resource teaching which sounds very little but it is the maximum here but with cutbacks I don't know if he'll get it next year.

DS settled in better than we'd hoped in a class where he knew no-one. In first yr he was more prone to organisational problems and I was replacing bits of uniform and schoolbooks regularly. He didn't have difficulties with most subjects but ha struggled greatly with Irish which he's had to give up. I know that won't be relevant to you of course, but it led to nightly meltdowns during homework and in the end the principal got him exempted. It's made a huge difference. I don't know if your did could drop subjects maybe check out modern language options or exemptions if you think it will be problematic.

The only subject that concerns me now is religion as he is very opinionated and black and white in his thinking. He hasn't grasped spirituality or religious concepts he is rigid in his thinking and doesn't accept basic tenets that don't stack up for him scientifically. It lead to a stand off between him and a young sub teacher who wouldn't make allowances. She was quite hardline despite saying she'd never force a child to take part in anything they didn't wish to. She insisted he go to church with the class although it's not a religious school nor are we religious. She even asked for my consent to try to get him round to her way of thinking! So there were two of them in it I'd say.

He gets very stressed over exams even house exams and class tests. I am monitoring the foreign language situation closely though it is nowhere near as hard as Irish for him and is a requirement for 3rd level so may have to stay.

He got 5 hours a week resource teaching which sounds very little but it is the maximum here but with cutbacks I don't know if he'll get it next year.

Five I've messaged you.