First day at Secondary school....missable or really important?

[Richard1974]

Next year my sister is due to go away for a big holiday with us, but is thinking of cancelling as her son is due to start secondary school, and isn't keen on him missing his first day.

How important would you say this is? Would it disrupt him much by missing that first day?

Did you not go to school yourself? Of course it's important. Good on your sister for putting her son first.

Could they go and come home early rather than cancel completely? I wouldn't want my child to miss the first day of school.

DD started secondary this year. The first day was a tour of the school and getting their planner books, logins for the various online learning platforms, photos for ID cards, fingerprint scans for the canteen payment system etc.
It would've been terrible to miss it.

I missed my first day due to being too ill to get out of bed and never really settled in at all, to the point where I refused to stay there to do my a levels (it was objectively a good school but I hated it)

The first day is absolutely crucial.

But he must be missing more than the first day, if she already knows he is missing a day, as she wont know which week day the first day for year 7 will be...

When are due back from the holiday? Could your sister change her flights?

Many schools have a teacher training / inset day on the first day of term, and year 7’s would go in for the second day. Your sister needs to check with the LEA and school what the likely dates will be.

And yeah, he can’t really miss it

I'd say the first day is absolutely vital. Why on earth was a holiday ever booked where he would miss it?

In the first day they'll have the day to day routine explained, meet their tutor, be shown around, shown how to get lunch, be introduced to their classmates etc etc. The poor boy will just be thrown in blind a day later and where the others will have gained some confidence he'll have none of the introductions that they'll have had.

A friend did this to her daughter a few years ago. It truly took her about 2 years to settle and school refused a lot. The missed start might not have been entirely responsible but it most definitely didn't help.

They may do tests to move them into sets, there will be lots of introduction talks and events. Our school does team building exercises for the first two days.

Y7 is always in first before all other years are back so they are not overwhelmed with too many children so if the school is publishing a time table and known to keep a similar structure it is easy to know when the first day will be.

Agree it's essential. If he misses it others will have begun to make friends. He will miss important information. It makes going in the next day harder. I would avoid if at all possible.

100% should be there for the first day, I can't believe anyone would miss it for a holiday.

I wouldn't plan to miss the first day of a new year, let alone the first day in a new school.

Really important. It's where those first friendships and relationships are formed.

Vital

Can they not just leave a couple of days early and still join the holiday rather than cancelling the whole thing?

It still annoys me that my parents booked a holiday so I missed the start of the new school year and I’m 30! It wasn’t even the first year of secondary, it was year 9.

Don’t do it. All the kids start making friends, you get excited about your timetable, learn what will be expected of you etc

One of our local schools takes Yr7 to an Outdoor Adventure place in the first week for team building.

I was a year 7 tutor last year. It is a very big day for them! Like a PP said do check that the first day isn't an inset day though.

I'm still annoyed at my parents 20 years later for being in France on gcse results day!

Seriously, don't do this.

Would it disrupt him much by missing that first day?

Yes is the simple answer to that! Really to be avoided if humanly possible.