How has the 1st year at Secondary school been? For all of the DS/DD who are at the end of Year 7.....

[RTKangaMummy]

How has the 1st year in year 7 been?

It seems ages ago that we were worrying about uniforms, entrance exams, travelling to school alone, etc etc

How have you and them found it?

Have they had year 7 exams yet?

Kangaboy had his year 7 exams before half term.

He found all the revision very time consuming. He spaced it out starting during our holiday in Canada at Easter. He got up early {due to 5 hour time difference} and did work and then we had the day to be out and about.

The weekend before the exams was hard though

He had a friend ringing him to ask for help which was good in a way ~ that DS felt he wanted to help his friend but bad in another cos it stressed DS more

At least he can relax more now they are over and just enjoy school.

We are so pleased that we deffo made the right choice for him as far as schools are concerned.

For one thing, his best and favourite subject is Latin and so we are very pleased that we chose a school that did latin in year 7.

How have yours found the 1st year in secondary school?

Did you make the right choice re schools, how have they found the change from primary?

Do they still see the friends from primary that are at different schools?

Have they found it hard as they don't have so much in common with them? ie teachers/lessons etc.

I hope all of yours are happy

Am having panic attack now - What Y7 exams????????

Do they all do those? My ds gets "orders" each half term where he gets marks for effort and attainment in each of the 17 subjects, based on lessons,tests and homework. He hasn't mentioned anything about any exams.....

Anyway, Year 7 has not been easy for him. As I posted earlier in the year, my ds was the only one in his class who didn't go to one of 2 feeder primaries and the other kids were, perhaps naturally, extremely cliquey at first. He has now made friends with most of the lads (girls aren't on his radar yet), and has one good friend who he sees regularly out of school.

Still sees all his old mates who all ended up at the comp (He's at grammar) regularly.

Work wise, he's doing very well. It's obviously an academic school and he's holding his own, getting mostly Bs in his orders with a few As which is good enough for us.

He did go through a phase of wishing he hadn't passed the 11 plus so he could go into the comfort zone of the comp and all his old mates, but he does seem a lot happier now.

Hope Kanga boy is happy. He sounded like he slotted in quite easily.

my Y7 boy is doing exams this week - it's his birthday today and he has three exams poor love.
He loves school, has loads of pals and hasn't been too much of a monkey this year (phew)

mumblechum, it does sound like your poor ds has had a hard year - next year will I'm sure be much better for him. 17 subjects sounds a lot, my year 7 does maths, eng, sci (broken into phys/chem/biol from next year), geog, french, german, latin/classical civilisation, rs, ict, adt, pe, history and music. What else does your boy do?

Gosh, it does feel like a long time since all that Year 6 business, RTKM! Like your son, DS1 has done his exams (apart from a Latin one next week). As they were slotted in between ordinary lessons, with no let-up on the homework, there wasn't much chance either to revise or to panic. He seems to have done quite well anyway.

For the first few weeks we wondered whether he was sinking beneath an ever-growing pile of homework, but he got on top of it all quite quickly. He has termly reports giving grades in all subjects, mostly A*. At the parents' night I was told he was top of the class in several subjects, which was quite a culture shock - primary school would never have said anything like that. He too is keen on, and doing well at, Latin, which is one of many reasons why I'm sure we made the right choice. He's become very much more responsible and independent over the last year, making his own way to and from school, music lessons and chess away matches for which I've just given him a map and a railway timetable and left him to get on with it as there's not been any other choice apart from not letting him go at all. He's learnt when to give up on a train turning up and find a suitable bus, an essential life skill in this part of the world .

He complains a bit about the work load, but really seems a lot happier than he did this time last year. He's completed the football league reading project (anyone else's DC doing that?), so the pressure's rather less than it might be right now.

He still sees a few friends from primary school, when time permits. Having different school experiences has given them more to talk about rather than less. Almost everyone at his school is the only one from their primary school, so they were more or less all in the same boat at the start. He seems to have made plenty of new friends.

In a few weeks he's off on an end-of-Year-7 field trip to the Brecon Beacons - four days away and more stuff on the packing list than I took when going to the US for several months . He's looking forward to it .

He does
Art
Music
Drama
Dance
German
Spanish
French
English
Maths
Comb.Science
DT
IT
RE
PE
Games
Geography
History

He can't wait to ditch DT and French, & will start GCSEs in year 9, so only 1 year of those to go!

Glad they all seem to have settled

Yes it does seem ages ago the year 6 stress

The homework was a shock to kangaboy at first but now he is more organized

He quite often goes to the library after school and does it then, so when he comes home he is free to do as he likes.

He did Henry V as part of shakespeare festival ~~~ they are performing it again in a few weeks. Did anyone else do Shakespeare Festival?

He is off on School Choir tour to Spain in July to do several concerts. Which he is really looking forward to.

He hasn't enjoyed the sport very much cos of his weakness in his leg muscles and hypermobility in his joints also the dyspraxia which has affected his hand eye
co-ordination. But he tries hard and never gives up

What about all of the rest of them?

mumblechum

3 languages? wow!!!

Kangaboy does Latin & French until year 9 when he can also do Spanish, Italian, German, or Ancient Greek.

Milliboy is loving his school too (Good job after all the exam entrance stuff!).

He has had all his exams & getting good grades. Not top of class but in top third for everything. He has also been awarded his form prize so we get to go to Prize giving

Can't believe some Yr5's are looking around his school in the next few weeks.

Ds says he will warn them, you can't walk in a straight line down the corridor, Yr7's HAVE to walk around anyone bigger, or get squashed

I am very proud of all my Yr 7s who have blossomed this year in English - they are very sweet and very funny and we have some mad lessons. From a teacher's perspective (DS is only 4 but I like this thread so I thought I'd tell you about my 24 Yr 7s!)it's been so much fun to watch them get more confident and more happy over the year - and to watch them gain so much confidence in their abilities in English. I shall miss them like mad next year Year 7 is absolutely my favourite year to teach - all that bouncy enthusiasm and bravery in trying new things - so congrats to all of you for having great 11/12 yr olds

slayerette - you just made me cry! My dd is starting in year 7 in September and I am so nervous for her. What you just said, makes it sound like the transission period isn't nearly as daunting as I thought! I'll expect you to be here the last week of August to say something nice again please!

Your dd will be fine. After a couple of weeks where the school seems huge and the older ones even bigger, she will be full of all the new things she's doing and all the different teachers she has - some she won't like but some she'll adore - and she will learn all the ways of the new school just as she knows all the ways of her primary school.

Dd1 has really done well in year 7
We had an open parents evening 2 weeks ago and got to talk to all her subject teachers. Me and dh came away with our jaws to the floor
Her work was being used as an example for other parents to look at. She is the top of every subject Her German teacher said her German is so good it's as if she's been speaking it for years!! They are doing a German trip next year whcih dd1 is so excited about.
She is a bit dissapointed with Drama though, the schools drama dept was the main reason for us choosing this school but the head od the dept and drama teachers are not really consistent and there has been alot of illness and teacher swapping Hopefull it will improve next year.

Her head of house said she is 'prefect' material and an asset to the school

God Iam so sorry I am gloating but we were so worried at the start of the year that we had made a wrong choice in the school. Obvioulsy the right choice after all.

Glad all of your year 7's are doing well.

You reap what you sow Magnolia! You should be proud of yourself too. She is only like she is because of you! You boast away!

Awwww thanks
The thing is we have just always encouraged her and asked that she does her best but never any pressure. I don't even have to ask her to do her homework, it's done before I get the chance!
My mum says I was like this but at 14 it went downhill Hopefully dd1 will be different

Year 7 has been great for ds2 - a real chance to wipe the slate clean from primary school.

He is very bright and a real enthusiast, but his problem is that the minute a thought comes into his mind it has to come out of his mouth!

He's gradually learning to control this as he grows up, and is enjoying being seen as a 'good' boy.

He's doing very well in most of his subjects and it is a great relief that he has made the transition so well.

My lad is doing extremely well, which for me is huge relief as he has dyspraxia and before we moved from Cornwall to Warrington, the school he had been at had completely written him off, they just gave up on him. When he reached YR5 he got a fantastic teacher who took him under her wing and he soared and did well in his SATS. I thought that the change of schools and teachers might put things back to square one, but he is excelling in Maths, Science and IT, he is enjoying his other lessons as well and his teachers are really pleased with him. I am SO proud of him, I could hug him hard, but he won't allow it!

Well, DS thought his exams had finished, but this week was given a non-calculator and mental maths paper. Turns out they have now sat the entire set of last years Yr9 Maths SAT papers! Teacher expects them all to get a level 7.

Bit tough when level 7 is a great grade for a Yr9!!

Turns out ds has been having year 7 tests all last week and this, but they didn't givbe him an exam timetable or anything, he doesn't seem to have a clue what he's supposed to be revising. Spoke to his learning mentor today and she basically said to chill, they don't want them to revise , it's just for the school's info.

Anyway, he's already been told what sets he's in next year for maths and english, sset 2 out of 5 for both which is fine by me.

DD has settled in very well and has certainly enjoyed her first year, she has made many new friends but her best buddy is still her best friend from primary.

We had parents evening last night which went really well, she's doing well in all her subjects has exceeded her own and her teacher expectations in maths (has jumped from a level 4 at the beginning of the year to working towards level 7 now) I was stunned by her maturity last night and how much she has grown up this last year, all in all I'm one very proud mummy!