Y7- 2023/24 support thread

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Hi, just dropping in a thread for those of us who have kids starting secondary this coming September. There was a lovely thread going last year and they are carrying it on into Year 8, so here is a place for us the year behind.

How is everyone feeling as they finish Primary and prepare for Secondary?

Dd is moving from a single form entry "family feel" type cosy Primary into a large 8 form entry, multiple building secondary. She's going alone, her primary class are really split up across multiple secondaries.

The transition days helped, and she is excited,but has been really sad this weke saying her goodbyes

Is everyone prepped for uniform etc?

@Busornobus67 could set 4 be a higher set? Ir 1 is lowest? Maybe they do mixed classes? My daughters school have 2 top sets then the remainder are mixed ability. They also don’t set in yr 7.

Unfortunately they were told 1 was highest.
I am surprised they set them straight off with no extra test yet.
There are 9 or 10 sets in 2 halves so actually she would be set 7 or 8
She is quite difficult and doesnt /didnt get much work done in class in y6 so could perhaps be teacher opinion.
The other girl from the waitlist isnt in this class so it maybe down to lack of info from dd primary particularly.
Which isnt that surprising, they were very ineffective with transition and at no point did dd get anything sorted for the sen. So im not even convinced they send any info re that to this school either!
Im not convinced the sats should be used in this way. (Obviously tney are affected by age in year, but now there is not level 6 type paper the difference between 110 and 120 might just be accuracy and they arent stretched. The difference between her getting the 106 school predicted and 113 was just practise and speed. So actual potential was higher. Similarly in english i expected her to do better than the 110 she got on that tricky paper. She does work slowly and didnt finish.

But they arent set for English anyway. Primary did i think get 2/3 so maybe 40 kids to get exceeding on the maths sats, so that will affect slightly the sets over the 2 secondaries. But looking other local school data they get more like 10-15% exceeding. (The tricky bit being those schools would be more enthusiastic about the kid's ability).
For eg dc2 got exceeded on ks1 sats this yr with 111. But that wasnt put as exceeding on her report nor was she offered a special maths club.

Well my boy has a Fab day and seemed so happy….

Apart from a boy who keeps getting kicked out of class...and who apparently the class are all annoyed at.

yesterday my was his target he apparently chucked a pencil at him at one point and called him c** for no reason…. My boy says he can't concentrate the boy is always swearing tripping up people… got asked what he likes about English and was banging his head on the side and because it's alphabetical order he sits quite close to him🫣

Teacher and Ta both seen it and gave him a immediate warning telling off so seem hot stop this behaviour.

my boy says he dosent really care and it’s not just him targeted… so…

I realise there is always that one disruptive kid so what can I do?

I’ve said just keep wel away best you can sounds like a waste of space and will soon hopefully be removed from normal classes.

Talking on he can’t wait for Monday and seems to walk around speaking to lots of people.

Raves about some of his teachers and could not believe in re that the teacher wanted to hear the classes thoughts on religion etc he said his teacher told him he was an atheist too! (His primary were attached to a Christian academy, he found re boring and was stopped At discussing his 💡 ideas and thoughts!)

First week finally over as DD just walked through the door.
Bad timing that I now have to rush her back out of the door to a family 18th birthday party when she could do with just chilling for the rest of the day! Hoping we can make a quick getaway by 5pm so she can have a PJ and movie night.

Glad your DS had a good day @Yoyo2021 . Not sure you can do anything about the disruptive boy but at least they are noticing that it’s a problem.
No clue on the maths sets but I would at least raise it @Busornobus67 even if it’s just a quick email asking for more info. Here they also seem to have been split into sets for maths despite explicitly telling us it wouldn’t be until after Christmas. Luckily think they have put DS2 in the right set and he likes his teacher so leaving it.
Hope your DD copes ok with the party and you get her back in time for some chill time @twistyizzy
Here we have had a frustrating morning due to more technology fail. Having sorted out the homework app, the maths website appears not to be working (for him or his brother) despite them being set homework on it (so that didn’t get done) and his login to the school system given to him yesterday also doesn’t work. Remind me - is technology supposed to make life easier or harder?

Busornobus67 will it not just be that your child has for the timetable of another child who has not taken up their place?

I imagine if there is a waiting list, then all classes are full. They can only fit your children in where there is a slot. To put them in a higher set would mean another child would have to move out and could actually impact a number of children.

I am sure it will all even itself out over time. Some kids will move down sets and some will move up sets.

@Busornobus67
Don't over think sets at this stage, kids will move up and down a lot as the school makes own assessments. They'll spot eg the heavily tutored ones

Interesting thought re the other childs timetable. But unfortunately /fortunatelythat doesnt explain it. As the places.were.given up.by twins and the other child who got th e waitlist place wasnt in the same set. Also.they went t o private school so would assume they were higher than set 4 ? If they passed an assessment to get in.
i also doubt the sets were set up prior to mid july? Though its true it could be done straight away when they get the sats results.
The maths classes were the only ones not showing online early last week so seemed like it was done on the Wednesday.

It does sound like they move.kids in first few due to tests. But looked like just the ks2 arithmetic which wont tell them anything as at our primary almost all.the kids got 40/40 or 39.
Really need a level 6 paper to differentiate.

@Busornobus67 I'm sure there will be lots of movement in sets throughout Yr 7 as the results of assessments come into play. So if your DC are in set 4 now then this may change by Christmas or possibly sooner.

@Busornobus67 do they use google classroom

No but have online homework and app.

Aghhh getting that Sunday night, school tomorrow feeling!

Shirts and trousers all ironed. I will be worrying all day again hoping it went well as this will be the first full week x

@Yoyo2021 ditto! My DD had a mixed bag of a half week. Came out of school happy each day but 2 out of 3 mornings she had tears at home and refused to get dressed. I'm really not looking forward to the coming week.

Not helped by the fact that my work hours increased last week. I tried to push it back a few more weeks but last week was as far as they would they would accept.

Same here@Yoyo2021 . Uniform all hanging up, bags out. DC should be in bed and aren’t…..DC1 stressing over whether he is allowed to wear his pe kit in the morning as he has PE first thing (no idea), DC2 is stressed about going back to school full stop. Think it’s going to be a long week :(.

Fingers crossed that your DD isn’t too upset in the mornings @gingeristhenewblack43 . Does she leave before or after you now your hours have gone up?

Good luck for the start of the new week, everyone!

I hate that Sunday night feeling too @Yoyo2021 😣 and I’ve aggravated my sciatica doing the ironing 🙈

So far, DS has waylaid a pair of PE shorts (which he hasn’t even worn yet, so that is impressive). Hopefully he can get away with his rugby shorts tomorrow… and I think I will stick up on 2nd spares of sports kit.

@Walkingbkwrm luckily I work flexi so can start when I want (within reason!) but obvs the later I start the later I finish.

DD has gone off to sleep tonight without any tears. I've text the mum of the girl she has met every morning last week to check if we're still ok to meet this week but had no reply.

@gingeristhenewblack43 maybe they are expecting the kids to just get on with Ito

Good luck on your second week, everyone, and your dcs.

Some new lessons this week (two week timetable so Biology and Music only fall into every other week). Dd still seems positive, hopefully she gets at least 1 more week under her belt before any drama or stresses. Just seen she has more homework give out today so it's steady, but probably just a bitesize item.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz I am reliably informed that drama doesn't usually start in a big way until after half term once they are starting to feel more settled and confident. Can't wait 🙄

DD went to school without any tears this morn. Despite it being a 10 min walk from our house I dropped her off as I was passing on my way to work anyway.

She came out in good spirits but was a bit perturbed that in 'learning for life' they are going to be learning about 'the development of the vagina throughout puberty'.

I'm clocking on for 50 by the end of the year. The most we had at secondary was the period talk. I might ask to join the learning for life class!

Think I might need that class too @gingeristhenewblack43 . That sounds very um detailed.
We have a 2 week timetable too - what with that and a few cancelled lessons (replaced with extra tutor time) in the first week DS2 won’t have a couple of lessons until next week!
Bad morning here (didn’t want to go) but seemed happier by evening- think the number of teachers is starting to get to him though, he’s started complaining he can’t remember who they all are.
Still no logins to systems so no access to the canteen. How long do you guys think I should wait before emailing?

At 7_we found the picture dictionary open to all the sex organs drawings to dd had educated her self about all that. Lol.

@Walkingbkwrm I found a paper with logins scrunched at the bottom of DS's schoolbag. But failing that I would ask other parents/ students if possible, to see if anyone else has got anything. Failing that I'd call school. Surely they should have them by now!

DD had tears again this morning. I think she is just tired and feeling a bit over whelmed. She's struggling to get off to sleep at night then struggling to wake in the mornings.