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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Yr7 new starters

363 replies

simpson · 01/09/2016 00:11

Hi...

Just wondering if other parents/kids are worrying about starting secondary school. We have had tears (from DS) tonight and we still have another week to go!!

I am sure he will be fine but I am worrying (as is he).

OP posts:
PonderingProsecco · 15/09/2016 17:42

Thanks oklumberjack.
Think they have been put into 3 classes- sort of streamed. However maybe there will be more differentiated work later.
Or maybe they really think they have forgotten how to count in sequence etc over the summer holiday!
Back to basics big time......

Titsywoo · 15/09/2016 18:18

I think they go back to basics since year 6 is so focused on the SATs and certainly at DDs school they spent a lot of the summer term doing fun things rather than working.

Dickorydockwhatthe · 15/09/2016 18:31

Hi guys, sorry just come back to this. Ds seems to be happy to go to school still but finds it quite boring he seems to have an obsession with food from the canteen and keeps purchasing rubbish Despite having an pack luck!!!

Taggle your ds sounds just like mine he had a rubbish time in Y6 due to a class bully which lost ds lots of friends. He was hoping for a fresh start at his new school and was only 1 of 5 who joined. He also joined some clubs but does not know what days they start which didn't help with him taking time off due to a bug.
What I'm finding difficult is that he is in a mixed year tutor group and then in mixed lessons with other children, there are also established friendships from the local primary schools so it's hard to break through especially if you are quiet and not in the same classes as others. It just feels like it is never going to happen :-/

Susiesue61 · 15/09/2016 19:35

Sorry to join late, have been lurking! Ds2 had his first blip today, I saw him walking up to school on his own when he was supposed to walk with2 from primary school. I texted DD as she is at the girls school next door and she said she'd watch for hi coming home. Apparently (having fretted all day,) it was a mix up, his friend had texted to say meet earlier and he didn't get the message! So all fine 😁 His brother is horrified that he enjoyed rugby today, Ds1 is very anti rugby!!

steppemum · 15/09/2016 21:27

ds is at a grammar school, and when he was in year 7 I remember him saying that the maths was easy, even at his school!

I think they like to double check that they are all solid on the basics before they start the year 7 stuff. It certainly got hard enough after a while.

I am impressed you know anything about anything to be honest, dd has told me almost nothign at all, except she likes it and it is fine, and stop asking me questions it is boring Grin

The only thing I do know is exactly what she had for lunch!

EndoplasmicReticulum · 15/09/2016 22:57

Yes steppemum - I get a detailed account of lunch and how rude the older students are on the bus on the way home. That's about it.
He's really tired in the evenings though. At primary school he'd read late into the night but that's not happening at the moment.

PumpkinPie9 · 16/09/2016 08:16

At dd's comp they set about a month into year 7, so before that the maths would probably have been accessible to all levels. She seemed to progress through a lot of maths at the right level after they were set.

tinytreefrog · 16/09/2016 11:28

I wish dds school was making sure they were solid on the basics in maths! Apparently they have been expanding and the simplyfing equations with two sets of brackets!! Seems a bit much in the second week!! She's never covered this at all at primary, so was in a bit of a flap about it yesterday!! She said that one of the primary's had done it, and that her teacher expected them to know how to do it. Neither my dd or her friend (different primary) had a clue!

Would you say something? She is good at maths and enjoys it, but this seems a bit complicated for the first term of y7. Or maybe this is just what they do now.

steppemum · 16/09/2016 14:35

don't say anything, if none of them can do it, they will go over it again, or rethink.

Original poster
simpson · 16/09/2016 18:03

DS on the whole seems very happy although his maths seems very easy going by his homework which he was being taught in yr5.

He had a wobble on Wednesday as head of yr7 came to chat to him at the end of the last lesson before lunch to see how he was doing (she has kept an eye on him since the first day disaster) & to tell him he did v v well in cats test but this resulted in him getting out late to lunch & his mates had all eaten so he wasn't going to eat by himself as they were all playing football so he joined in the game & had no lunch Sad so we had a few tears about that.

Tbh I am very proud of how he is coping with it all and he must be the youngest kid in the year.

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steppemum · 19/09/2016 11:18

well, dd seems to be settling in fine. But we had the mother of all homework battles this weekend.

She was tired, and homework not due til Tuesday/wednesday, and I said it had to be done. One piece was art. Blimey that art teacher can go hang.

You need 100 points by Christmas. Chart with different activities, each worth varying amount of points (10, 20 or 30 points)
Chose whichever one you like to do by wednesday.

Dd, being the child she is, wants to do one of the 30 point, open ended free ranging, no details type activities. I am trying (through clenched teeth) to point out that this will take longer than the time available, and as I she doesn't understand all the words in the question yet, but might do after a few lessons, perhaps we should chose an easier one to start with.

dd I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!
me (for the hundredth time) well, here are 2 things you can do today, and we have just twenty times talked through them, and they are quite straightforward and you just need to FRIGGING CHOOSE ONE.

She did it in the end. And i have promised we will start taking photos as part if one of the harder ones.

Original poster
simpson · 19/09/2016 17:07

Steppemum - I bloody hate homework where they have to choose Angry DS can dither for ages, drives me mad!

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PonderingProsecco · 19/09/2016 18:10

Maths still ludicrously easy. Would be best if they explained that going back to basics to refresh or something. Ds losing interest here and ironically will probably make sloppy mistakes on the easy stuff knowing him...
English grammar going back to basics too but seems to move quicker looking at booklet he brought home. Also can see benefit to ds of refreshing grammar stuff.....
Lost jumper today. A book gone missing but he says teacher lost it- we shall see.
Still some blips due to missing school due to injury. Injury ongoing....
Does seem generally ok though fingers crossed.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 19/09/2016 18:35

I have told the boy that I will help with homework up to a point but as soon as he's rude to me my help will be withdrawn. He's another one who hates an open-ended task. He'll happily do pages and pages of sums, but anything with an element of thinking-stuff-up-yourself leads to tantrums.

Maths has been hard this week. He had to work out Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common Multiplier without being told how. Or so he says.

Original poster
simpson · 19/09/2016 18:56

DS has been moaning that maths is too easy & the homework he came home with he was taught in yr5. But at least he has been told that they have 2 more weeks of this and then it ramps up.

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TeenAndTween · 19/09/2016 20:38

Endo In case you need to know:
HCF and LCM: break the numbers down to their prime factors, probably using a tree diagram for each. HCF is then the intersection of the prime factors (ie the ones that appear in both), LCM is the union (ie all of one, and then the extras from the other you haven't yet got).

EndoplasmicReticulum · 19/09/2016 21:34

Thanks Teen. We looked it up on GCSE Bitesize. Thought it was a bit much for year 7 though especially to work out on their own!

steppemum · 19/09/2016 22:41

to be fair HCF and LCM were definitely done in year 6. Not that that means they would remember it!

Funnily enough, the task she wanted was the vague open ended one. She didn't want to do the prescriptive not nearly so interesting one.
It was the choice that floored her.

and she is soooo sloooow at everything, whether getting clothes out for tomorrow or doing homework. I think she has been very lucky that she hasn't had too much homework so far!

Original poster
simpson · 20/09/2016 17:38

Another bad day today...DS home in tears saying everyone is rude and there are naughty kids in his class. He got a detention today (10 mins as the whole literacy class were kept in)

OP posts:
steppemum · 20/09/2016 19:13

Oh simpson, poor ds Sad

EndoplasmicReticulum · 20/09/2016 20:25

Whole class detentions are not a sign of a good teacher, sorry Simpson.

Boy surprised me today when he told me he had been to club sign-up and signed up for two games clubs. Turns out he meant board games, which is much more like him than the sports I was thinking he meant.

The demands for money are coming in fairly thick and fast at the moment - does anyone else have to buy / provide an i-pad?

Original poster
simpson · 20/09/2016 22:30

Once he had eaten & blood sugars restored he told me that in PE (football) he played so well that the PE teacher asked if he had signed up to be in the team (he has) so he was chuffed about that.

IIRC there were tears last Tuesday too and tbh I think the day is just too long for him as he leaves the house at 7.45 and doesn't get back till 5.30 (football training) so is knackered and then has at least 45 mins homework to do.

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Original poster
simpson · 20/09/2016 22:31

Buying an iPad??! Shock

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colouringinagain · 21/09/2016 15:25

Simpson really feel with you re your ds. Hope today was better.

Comprehensive school here so no, no iPad...

I'm feeling v guilty, because dd has been freaking out about sec school since about Easter, she's taken all my attention. But yest worked out that ds hasn't been well for months. Got an emergency doc appt this morning, gp has done an urgent paed referral. Feel bad. And exhausted.

colouringinagain · 21/09/2016 15:26

Dd also in tears again this morning - doesn't want to do netball club after last week's. Told her she needs to give it a few more weeks...