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

Can I join? DS started last week and so far it’s going surprisingly well. He has ASD and there was a lot of support put in place but he’s been rejecting lots of it and being really independent. He casually mentioned today that he’d been to homework club at lunchtime one day last week!
Luckily it’s just a walk to school. He could have got a place with an autism base but I wanted to try the local option first.

Welcome, cheminotte. Giles DD2 has a spiral bound planner with a space for her timetable at the back. All her homework is set online, although a lot of it will still be paper based, apparently. She'll still need to acknowledge that she's completed paper based homework online, so they can track that she's done it. So if they've set spelling homework, she will still need to tick a box to say she's done it in her online homework system to have officially 'done' her homework, even if she's done her spellings practice as she's been asked to. So I'm guessing her planner is more for jotting down specific instructions, notes, etc. I know another Mum at the school who has older children there and she said it's helpful to be able to write something like "X is not feeling well today and has had paracetamol. If x comes to first aid today, please phone me immediately.", to avoid them being sent away when they are feeling unwell.

Thanks Lougle . DS1 has a planner with lots of useful info in and a diary for writing homework in. But there’s homework on the portal too which is a good back up.

The swimming kit has not come home yet. The book is open on how long she will leave it to fester in her locker.

DS has gone to school but woke up saying he wasn't going. Phoned and emailed SENCO to warn them, they seem to have missed he is special needs.

Hope your DS is ok Penguins . I think the new routine must be especially hard.

Thanks, hoping he makes it through the day. Hope you get the swimming kit back, DS is terrible at bringing his back.

Oh penguines what a worry. Really hope he's ok

Hope DS is ok penguins. It's great he's managed to go in.

Well done to your DS for going in penguins I hope the school are up to speed with him shortly.

DD plodded off this morning complaining about the weight of her bag. It is heavy tbh. I dread the days with sports kit as well.

Ds has a planner. It's used for homework and for parent/teacher notes. So I've written in his sister's before now things like "Dd has removed as much makeup as possible but still looked a little blue after the facepaint she had for a performance at the weekend" which she then shows to any teacher that stops her.

There's also paracetamol permission to be signed in it and other things of use.

Hope your ds is ok, penguins

Dd2 is falling apart.

She can’t cope with all the change, all the new people, new systems, new routines.

She had a music lesson yesterday, which should have been an oasis of happy amidst all the stress, and it wasn’t. It didn’t go well, and she now wants to give up (she’s a music scholar!) Partly this is her usual panic response to not being as perfect as she thinks she should be (a series of errors meant she had no instrument for her lesson, borrowed the teachers but it didn’t feel right, so she made more mistakes than she thinks she should have, etc).

She was up half the night (and me with her) in floods of tears.

This morning she asked, for the first time ever, to not go in.

I think her form teacher (who is being as supportive as possible) is a little taken aback by the extent of the issue.

Am just off to collect her, so fingers crossed today has been a little better

My dc have a planner for noting down homework and for messages between home and school. There is also an online thing that bigger homework projects are put on and revision. I think they've updated it this year.

Thanks for all the kind messages. DS went to all his lessons OK so that's good and the SENCO has asked to meet soon so its getting sorted. Asked him if he had homework and just got a confused look and said he's not sure. Apparently school have not set him up on the homework system or DD as we got places late (they also seem to have not set us up on their payments system properly so can't buy lockers etc). School are sorting the password for DS but wondering what else we are missing.

Hope your DD had a better day Permanent, its so sad watching them distressed.

It's such a big change, at least mine can walk to school but its still new area, new (well old thatched cottage!) house, new school. Hope all the other children are getting on fine. DD seems to have meet up with new friends pre school and after school as well as messages from friends at her old school, not sure when any homework fits in

Hope DD had was o.k. when you picked her up permanent

Brilliant that DS went to all his lessons penguins. Hope all the missing bits get sorted soon.

DS2 found his trainers and football boots. Phew! He's still pretty over-sensitive and tetchy, the cold isn't helping. PE was apparently marginally better as they played football today. Still no homework or books home.

Well still no sign of any planner of any kind no log in details for homework app thing and dd wasn't sure if I had consented to the biometric payment system despite me telling her about it ages ago so she didn't get herself set up

But I guess it's not to bad really. She's tired but enjoying it so far

Glad mini Penguins has had a better day.

So sorry your DD is struggling so much, PermanentPortakabin :( It must be so overwhelming for them and messing up something she's normally so good at was probably the last straw - so unfortunate about the instrument and she probably felt under pressure as well. How was she today? Hope she's had a better day.

Mucho excitement at DS's school today. A fire drill that turned out not to be a fire drill - actual fire engines and everything! It turned out to be a small pizza-related fire in the kitchens but they missed an entire lesson so DS was happy!

(We don't have a planner either, or login details for the homework/behaviour portal)

It must be so hard to be really quite gifted but with additional needs as well, portakabin - expectations coming from everywhere with no release valve.

DD2 is seeming very contained, until I drill down gently and find that she's had little incidents through the day that have bothered her. She's coping, but little things like not knowing that the science room door was on the outside of the classroom so she was trying to get in from a corridor will panic her. A teacher helped her with that. A boy in another year came up behind her while she was on her way to a class and made some bizarre loud noises, apparently, which scared her, but some girls in the same year scooped her up and said that he was a really rude boy and not to worry, so she felt a bit better.

She really panicked about algebra today, but once I'd convinced her to look at it with me, she knew what she had to do, she was just panicking about not being fast. I told her that being fast isn't important, as long as she's getting it. Take her time, ask for help.

She made some nice muffins in food tech!

I think it will all hit the fan once homework starts.

Bit of a wobbly day today. She was alone at break time and she seems a bit out of sorts. A girl in her form said something kind today to her and dd is too frightened to respond. I might ask the TA if she can find out the girl's name for dd.

Lougle It's great you're able to walk her through the things that are bothering her and it sounds like she's feeling better about school compared to a week ago. Horrible that the boy scared her, but it's also lovely to read that the girls scooped her up and reassured her.

AornisHades Hope DD has a better day. DS1 goes into a panic when he encounters "unexpected social interactions", no matter how nice they are.

DS2 fell down the stairs this morning. Not the whole lot, but enough to end up in a heap at the bottom. Just a bit bumped and bruised fortunately but not the best start to the day either! He has texted me to say he has a really sore throat and I'm hoping it's not the start of tonsillitis again. He is still very up and down, and overreacting to the smallest things.

Spider DS would be very happy you called him mini penguins, he was much smaller than average at his old school and very proud of it. Was quite disappointed to find he was average height at new school. DD is really tall 5 foot 5 already. My DS also loves a missed lesson.

Sorry to hear of continued struggles. I managed to message senco yesterday told him all history as they weren't aware he is sen. DH had a meeting with senco, head of house and maths teacher today which is good, DS has apparently been talking a lot about logarithms already, started around 7. He's the mad professor type. DS and DD left for school at 7.40ish, we are 5 mins walk away

DS said today was good. 😱 He told me he's going to gym twice a week at lunch as its free and was very proud he got macaroni cheese for lunch and it was only 1.50, he loves money saving. I said but you don't like macaroni cheese and he said I know I am lactose intolerant but I don't mind being a bit sick. 😉

What a lovely update penguins. at the macaroni cheese.

DS2 has homework! He helped DS3 do his but is going to do his own "later" . I've told him he needs to be organised as it will soon pile up. I'm dreading when he gets English homework as that is always a painful experience.

So glad he had a good day pengine