Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
Titsywoo · 26/09/2016 11:39

They've been looking at causal links. We struggled to answer it too and are wondering if she wrote down the question wrong from the board. But either way we decided on the history of time - so the fact that humans came up with the concept of time to bring continuity and consistency to our lives (days, hours etc etc) based on the sun etc etc. I think we glossed over how things happen then explained causal links and how almost everything is a causal link as it happens because of something else. I don't tend to help her with homework but this was a ridiculous question - philosophy not history!

RaspberryIce · 26/09/2016 12:04

I'd have struggled with it too.

TeenAndTween · 26/09/2016 13:38

I would have struggled too.

DD2's homework so far has been correct volume and difficulty - a couple of pieces I remember from when DD1 was set them 6 years ago!

EndoplasmicReticulum · 26/09/2016 19:50

Turns out the boy missed his first music lesson last week as nobody told him when and where it was, they had to look at a notice board apparently but he didn't know where that was either, and nobody chased up re the missed lesson. Which is a bit annoying.

Leeds2 · 26/09/2016 19:56

Annoying, Endo. Are you paying for these lessons?

EndoplasmicReticulum · 26/09/2016 20:54

Oh yes, paid for the whole term upfront back in July at some point. To be honest I feel at the moment like I might as well just give the school full access to my bank account and be done with it. £20 for DT last week, direct debit for the bloody ipad, fiver for a locker.....

Leeds2 · 26/09/2016 21:13

Ah ........

Original poster
simpson · 26/09/2016 22:16

DS said that today he was an office monitor (whatever one of those is!)

All the kids who are well behaved are put into a hat & their name is called out. It is supposed to be an honour Hmm but they miss either the whole morning or afternoon of lessons but still have to do the work with zero input. Luckily DS is pretty switched on & said it was ok.

Anyone else have something like this??

OP posts:
EndoplasmicReticulum · 27/09/2016 07:32

Do you mean he is working in the office? Are they using year 7s on a rota to save on staffing costs? Sounds a little odd, how often will he do that?

Original poster
simpson · 27/09/2016 17:35

He worked with a yr9 kid. Apparently it's an honour to be asked Hmm

Not likely that he will do it again this school year from the sound of it.

Spoke to a friend who has DC at another secondary school & she said they do the same.

Basically it's just running round the school passing messages on.

OP posts:
Titsywoo · 27/09/2016 19:09

So it turns out she wrote the homework down wrong and she was supposed to write about chronology and why it's important.

I'm finding the homework thing difficult with her. Which is unusual as she was so good at primary and got on with it by herself no questions asked. Now she is dragging her feet and her writing is sloppy. She started her DT project today which is 5 hour long tasks. The first was to take a DT project she had done at primary and explain what she did, how she did it with diagrams etc. She just sat there not seeming to know what to do and looking upset. I had to coach and nag her through the whole thing and pretty much tell her what to write. This first bit is being assessed so I didn't want her to muck it up but it was honestly like pulling teeth and I'm worried how little effort she seems to be making in general. Not a good start and not like her at all.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 27/09/2016 23:02

Maybe they should abolish homework. This was in the news today:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-37489414

Some of it is just busy work, I think. Poor junior Titsywoo - I'd be a bit miffed at five hour-long tasks for DT, too. Can't imagine the DT teacher is really looking forward to marking it all, either.

steppemum · 28/09/2016 11:43

Titsy - I wonder if it is the unknown that is throwing her? What I mean is she doesn't know what is expected of her, what they want exactly and so she is paralysed and doesn't know where to start.

Titsywoo · 28/09/2016 12:09

It's 5 hours because they do 2 5 hour long projects every fortnight (so DT and Art this fortnight, history and french for the two weeks after) plus a bit of maths and english and french each week. Should work out at around 1hr 15mins per night (just during the week - I'm trying to keep weekends free!). I do hate homework though - DS is also really difficult with his so my head may explode very soon. It's more stressful for me I reckon!

Yes I agree Steppenmum she doesn't know what to do. I'm going to a meeting at school tonight about KS3 and it covers homework, assessment system etc so hopefully I will get a better idea of what they want and can coach her a bit for a few weeks until she feels more confident.

steppemum · 28/09/2016 13:03

I love the enormous assumption in

"take a DT project you did at primary school".....

because last year they weren't totally submerged in SATs to the detriment of art, DT, etc, and of course they can remember well year 5 work.....

Titsywoo · 28/09/2016 13:33

I know! I confess quite a lot of what she wrote yesterday was complete fiction Grin

I hope tonight goes better. I know she needs to get on with it on her own but clearly she needs some prompting.

Hope everyone else's dc getting on OK. Can't believe we are nearly half way to the half term break already!

colouringinagain · 28/09/2016 21:00

Hi Everyone, homework fun here too Confused dd just discovered some food tech homework.... Phew.

TwigTheWonderKid · 28/09/2016 22:54

This is DS's English homework: "Draft a poem detailing a new dramatic adventure for Beowulf in the style of the text we have been studying (NOT in old English!). This must be a rhyming poem that grips the reader and uses alliteration and expressive nouns and adjectives to describe the story and the people in it. This should be between 22 and 44 lines long." Really?!

Bluepowder · 28/09/2016 22:59

Wow, he must go to an ambitious school. Rhymezone.com is good. And include a lot about blood.

Original poster
simpson · 29/09/2016 17:09

DS has come home with 4 pieces of homework today

To be fair, none of them are particularly difficult.

He is well & truly settling in, made friends, swapped Xbox user names with them & so he comes home and then chats to his mates online too Grin

OP posts:
exLtEveDallas · 29/09/2016 18:06

DD came home today with homework for:
Drama (online, due tomorrow)
Food Tech (Due Mon)
Maths (Due tomorrow)
English (Due Tue) and
Geography (Due tomorrow)

I am really starting to get pissed off with it. She started at 4 and has completed Maths and Geog. She'll do Drama after tea, and then will prob do the food tech too as it's only one page of writing. English she'll leave till the weekend and add to whatever she gets tomorrow Sad

Titsywoo · 29/09/2016 18:13

So much homework for them all :( I know it's to be expected it's just such a sudden change.

DD got her first detention today. I've been helping her pack her bag for the last 3 weeks and today was the first day she did it by herself and she forgot one of her books.

Friendships are going ok although she has fallen out with one of the girls she originally made friends with and another has drifted off but she is still friends with one girl and is hanging around with her and this girls old primary school friends. Is also getting along well with some of the boys. I think she is still quite immature in comparison to many of them and this was an issue in the last year at her primary too. Still she seems happy enough.

TwigTheWonderKid · 29/09/2016 19:09

Thanks Bluepowder. It's just a normal comp. I've helped him but it's really hard and it's in such total contrast to the difficulty of the homework for other subjects I began to wonder if his teacher was having a bit of a joke.

steppemum · 30/09/2016 10:19

I am bit Shock at all the homework to be honest.

dd is at a grammar school. The school says 1 hour per night, and she certainly hasn't had more than that. That would be 2 pieces usually. Although some is given out with a few days to do it in, so it is an avergae of 1 hour.
None of it has been too bad so far, I did come in to find her and dh working at maths on the kitchen table, she told me she had asked papa because it was maths and I wouldn't get it!

Dd went to archery club at lunchtime and came home syaing she had found her personality twin there. She is in another class, but I am pleased she has finally found someone who is like her.

PatriciaHolm · 30/09/2016 11:40

Ours isn't doing homework until half term, and then a ramp up until Christmas. They have told them to focus on making new friends and joining clubs instead, which is just fab.