How's life at the end of year 7?

[timeandtimeagain]

A bit of a copy cat! Just wonder how are your (our) dcs coping with secondary schools. Mine is becoming more and more of an annoying teenager! She learned many designers clothes & shoes and hair & beauty stuff. Started wearing make up and will not leave the house without wearing eye liners.

At least she still likes her school. So far no experience of being bullied. End of year 7 report got mostly level 5s. She has gained more confidence in the last year and become more of a pain.

My DS is even more embarrassed by his old mum! He's impressed by my knowledge of current music and understanding of how shit it can be to be his age.
He uses hair gel and deodorant. (Thankfully after showers. Not instead.)
I can still hug him but only in private!

DD has loved this year. She started year 7 having never been to primary school as we home educated.

Good things -She settled in really quickly.
She showed by the end of the first term that she was more than capable of handling the work. They moved her up two sets in one go to the top set. Yes I am slightly bragging, but having been a little concerned that we might have missed out vital things it gave me a sense of pride and was very reassuring.
She got a glowing report and has worked really hard.
She made some wonderful friends, and still hugs/kisses her Mum in public. She doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her likes/dislikes (thank goodness for confidence!).
She is slowly becoming more organised.

Bad things - The worst for her was realising that some of the people she knew already/met very early on in the year are not how she thought they were. We had quite a lot of tears and turmoil over that.
She hates how little time she has had for reading.
She hates when people ask her if she is glad she is no longer home educated. "Can't they understand that I can enjoy both separately."

Mychild, i wish i had the patience, confidence, energy, knowledge and skills to home ed my children.

Can anyone see this thread?

I can though I should be in bed :)

DD has taken to high school like a duck to water and is thoroughly enjoying being in a class who have the reputation of being the best behaved in Yr7 (this after 7 years at primary of being in a really difficult year group where disruption due to bad behaviour was almost constant)
She is loving all the different subjects and, to my utter surprise, is rather good at drama (she has always been a quiet one who hates being the centre of attention!)
She has kept her old primary school friends but found lovely interesting new ones too and seems to stay out of any dramas that go on, thankfully.
She has also manage to outgrow 2 lots of trousers in a year and is up to my nose (and I'm 5'10" )
She is spending the summer sleeping and eating for England so obviously has more growing to do!
Couldn't have wished for a better start and hope it continues for there next 4 years :)

timeandtimeagain It was an absolute joy home educating her, and bittersweet in a way that she loves school so much. I have to admit I am glad that we don't have to go through the secondary years and GCSE's from home but at the same time it was a massive change. MY DS is 8 and still home ed (for as long as it works and he wants to be).

Patience - Wasn't too much of a problem because she works hard, and we have a really good relationship (mainly because she is nothing like I was as a child/teen).
Confidence - That grew, but I think we all question if we are doing the right thing most steps of the way.
Energy - The flexibility of it meant that if we were tired we could take a day off whenever we wanted.
Knowledge and skills - We learnt a lot together, I discovered that things that had bored me rigid at school were actually a lot more interesting when you find a way to learn about them that works for you. Being a nanny prior to having children helped a lot, kind of like a dry run and gave the insight about what did/didn't work with children.

It doesn't work for or suit every child, parent, or family, but then neither do any of the choices we make for raising our children.

The primary school my children went isn't very good. So I had to do quite lot with them at home. So they are partly home ed. But still I don't have the confidence to take it on entirely on my own.

Academically very good,it's behaviour that's letting mine down.
Came top out of all 170 year 7s in Maths.
But keeps doing extremely worrying things.

We have survived, I think that just about sums it up.
The positives........academically dd has done well, apparently in top 10% of the year and her friendships have thrived and she has made new friends. Some of her teachers have been exceptional and a lot of them very good.
The negatives........the SEN department is a joke, the SENCo is a waste of space, most of the TA's haven't got a clue.
One safeguarding fail and two complaints mean that we have ditched the useless TA's, have sole support of the only TA who seems to have a clue and as the SENCo says "I can have whatever I want" (in exchange for me keeping quiet about the safeguarding) So next year dd will get the support I want,delivered how I want and by the HLTA I want, documented as I want and everything overseen by the HT which will be a vast improvement.