Have we got a starting Secondary School Support thread?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I’ve just just asked DD what the sandwich box and bottle are for in the fridge. It turns out she’s made her first packed lunch ready for school. She doesn’t start till next Tuesday

I rang the school. Apparently the "Achievement Director wouldn't do that" about pulling him out to talk about his illness. Maybe they need to tell the PE teacher that! They're going to look into it and call me back. They raised his absences being odd days here and there, I said I could keep him off for longer if they would prefer that, we've just been trying to keep him in school.

Bit worried DS2 is going to get a hard time for telling me and he has PE again this morning.

Nothing from school but DS2 texted me to say thst head of PE (who I've never spoken to) said to him that I'm "rude and annoying" (DS2 used speech marks). Argh this is not going well

I hate it when teachers start having a go at kids as I have raised an issue - though I think mine can both be "annoying" at school too.

Apparently the teacher only referred to me as rude though DS2 felt the teacher was annoyed with me.

I had a very frustrating conversation with the Achievement Director. PE teacher denies making any comments about the AD being able to work out what is wrong with ill children and was just trying to push back on me. Gave me email contacts if I want to complain.

Yes DS’s form tutor apparently told him I should stay out of school matters when I emailed to complain about something. I’ve sat on my hands for an entire half term but this was too much to ignore.

That's horrible cheminotte, did you get the issue sorted out for DS? I'm sure if school ever raise anything about your DS they would not appreciate you telling them you don't get involved in school matters!

I sent an email, now half regret it as I think it's just going to make things worse for DS2. At least he hasn't got PE until next week now. I'm going to ring the GP surgery to see if they will write a note about PE. I know they will charge which is fine, they are just so busy. It's so silly as he isn't just struggling with PE, he says using equipment in design leaves him shattered and he looks like utter crap when he gets home every day.

I am always sending e-mails to school then thinking oops phrased that a bit too strongly though primary were fine with it, secondary seem to be passing me round people. 😂

DS said today was OK and I said was it better than yesterday as you seemed sad then grumpy and he explained he had been grumpy yesterday as a berry dropped on him. DD announced she put effort into English for the first time and teacher said it must be her best subject as it was so good so at least she's pulling her finger out there.

Glad DS had a better day and DD with her English. Long may it continue!

I got a letter today inviting me to a meeting about DS2's attendance. Not compulsory, but if I don't attend then they will assume his attendance will improve and issue a report detailing as such. So I've made an appointment.They use a 3rd party for attendance issues, google tells me they are all ex EWO who have set up their own management company. I rang the GP, they said I had to write a letter to them to ask them to write a letter for me. Which I did, just hope they will do it, and in time for the meeting. £18 which is less than I thought it would be.

Well my email did result in a chat with the Head of year so it was worth it. I think the issue is just ongoing really and it’s a case of managing rather than solving.

Glad the Head of Year was responsive and not of a similar mind to the form tutor cheminotte.

All quiet from DS2's school, not really sure what to do about PE on Monday as it's all somewhat up in the air. Things going somewhat wrong for DS3 at his school, so I'm a bit schooled out. Just managed to write an email to the LA but send it to myself rather than them. Very glad it's the weekend!

Hey everyone,

I didn't realise this thread was still going! Haven't posted since Oct as DS has been doing ok. However we got his report yesterday and his results for english, maths and RE are a bit concerning (RE is also a core GCSE subject at his school). Teacher assessment mark for the term is 3 in maths and 2 in english and RE (they use the GCSE grading so this is D in maths and E's in english and RE!). He has always been good at maths and got 110 in his SATs, english isn't great for him as his ASD means he struggles with a lot of the concepts. Luckily we've got parents evening in 2 weeks but I am concerned. He says the teachers do things too quickly and certainly in some classes he is struggling with the noise of the other kids. Mainly though he is happy and gets on with homework with no fuss (amazing for him!). Classwork, homework and behaviour on his report are all good or excellent so that is something! He seems to be in the top maths group so I'm confused as to what the issue is. Anyway not much anyone can say to any of that but it's nice to get it all out! Hope everyone elses kids are well - I'[m just going to go back and read what I have missed on here!

We got given a report and I can't make out what the mix of numbers and letters means at all.
Why couldn't they keep it simple with using A to G

Titsy is that a 3 target at the end for the actual GCSEs, target for end of year 8/9 (depending on school)or a working at 3 now?

If it's working at D grade in year 7, that's doing pretty well. If it's target for GCSE that's a bit concerning.

Ime the grades they give on reports are not quite a random number generator anyway.

Welcome back Titsy I would ask what numbers mean but both my kids reports are all over the place with grading and some are very clearly way out. DS I can understand as he hasn't gone to some lessons so they've stuck some random guess in and DD they are refusing to use last school's data or SATS so also full of random guesses and average seems to be default guess. It's quite annoying in DDs case but like banging head of brick wall asking them about it. In English she's gone back 1.5 years in grading in 6 weeks.

If my child's report says end of ks3 a mix of 1, and 2 's and end of ks4 mainly 5's is that good/average or bad?

NoLogic issue is you need to ask the schools as they can set their own scoring systems. If they're talking GCSEs then 5s are around a High C (which sounds musical )

Ds came out of school smiling for the first time for a while. I found out why when he got in. He sang "Two more weeks" until we were home. They have a lovely long Christmas holiday in return for very short lunch times, so they break up then.

I'm pretty sure its GCSE target as that was how my DDs reports were 2 years ago in year 7 plus for computing he has a grade 8, science a 6 etc etc. We did get an email about 3 hours ago from the assistant head saying something has gone wrong with the reports and some columns had gotten mixed up so he is going to redo and resend - will hold off on panic until we get that!

Ours is working at, so if they were to sit a gcse today they would get an 8 or whatever. Definitely double-check with school.

Ours have emerging, developing, achieving, surpassing, excelling - developing is average at start of year so presumably a C at GCSE when taken, well whatever number that is now guessing a 5? I think 7 is A. DD got developing in drama (didn't do it last year and went up to teacher and said I got 120 in sats and teacher said if they had inputted that she would be on surpassing). They are claiming her sats marks are lost, quite conveniently I suspect.

How can some schools be so rubbish at being clear what their reports mean? Our reports come with a half page description of what it means. (My youngest is y9).

We have
'Attitude level' (1- > 4)
'Current Attainment suggests on track for GCSE grades'
'Progress made from the start of year 7' (Excellent -> Some)

Your 'average' child would be on Attitude 2, 'Steady progress' with GCSE grade 4,5 which is expected standard for GCSE results).

They are very clear that progress ratings may go up and down, and that in KS3 the GCSE grades are more 'flightpath' than 'predictions'.

Departments have their own defined criteria or where pupils should be to be on track for what each year (from old NC levels but adapted in house for new GCSE requirements).

My suggestion is that if your report comes with no explanation then push back to the school. If enough parents ask, maybe they'll learn to provide clear info!

GCSE grades:
1,2,3 - G-D (can't remember the breakdown)
4 - low C
5 - high C , low B
6 - high B
7 - A
8 - high A, low A*
9 - top A*

For now the:
% getting 7+ is pegged to % getting A/A* in old system
% getting4+ is pegged to % getting C+ in old system

I have no idea how DS2's school do reporting, we don't have a parents evening until the summer term either. They used to use Go4Schools for reports but have apparently decided not to renew the licence so no one knows what is happening. Asides from the whole attendance thing I've had text messages from his French and History teacher with some feedback but that's it.

DS1's school send termly reports, all quite straight forward. I don't pay them too much attention as he's in the ASD base.

Is anyone else's child really tired after school.?
Starting to worry about my son as he actually asked to go to bed early and normally he tries to push it to stay up later but recently he looks tired and is getting harder to get up in the morning.
What time are yours going to bed and getting up?

1130 and 0700

Neither of mine get tired from school but we live 10 mins walk from school or 3m run for DS . DD gets tired but that's from her refusal to sleep. DS goes to bed about 9-10pm takes himself off and up around 7.30am. He loves his sleep. DD the song I'll sleep when I'm dead was written for, she's hyper 24/7.

Ed psych meeting for DS on 12th which is good. DH working in Switzerland next two days. Got a migrane that won't shift and umpteen work projects coming in at once, all very interesting but just want to sleep. DS told me had a geography test and he'ld been graded surpassing but said I only got 63% but if I had noticed there were 5 more questions I could have got 75% but how was I to know there were 5 more questions. Located his Squidcard, been lost a month, been asking him to go to school office or taked packed lunch, didn't want to do either so I messaged them today and they've had his card for a month. At least he has it back now, TA went to get it for him. He eats loads as soon as he gets home at 3.10pm but still. He never told me he had lost it, only discovered when checking balances. He's only spent £35 since start of term but has negiotated plain pasta for 50p saying all other school meals are robbing people. Just like DH.