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?

Just been to buy school shoes & football boots for the year - size 9 (boots 9.5 to allow for massive socks). 2 sizes up in a year!

Ugh we still need to buy rugby boots.
I emptied out the shoe cupboard and we have about 6 pairs of trainers / boots that have been grown out of - couple barely worn!
DS is excited to go back, but we’d both really like to know the new timetable! DS likes to know what to expect (ASD).
Last stationery bits arriving tomorrow, so I’ve got a bit of labelling to do tomorrow eve.
He’s not really seen any school friends this hols… I hope they pick up where they left off!

Good luck to all new Year 8s xxx

Sorry for the kids that are having the back to school collywobbles. DD is the same.

Yesterday her new form tutor, timetable and teachers were uploaded to the app. She was 50/50 pleased / not pleased.

We are now at peak collywobble here :(. Neither of them are sleeping well which doesn’t help. On the plus side some of DS2’s friends called for him yesterday and they vanished all afternoon. So that was good since he’s needed to be bribed off Minecraft recently. Today he’s firmly ensconced back at the computer! So I’m making muffins by myself….

@Walkingbkwrm same here! It's got to the point that DD has slept in my bed with me last 2 nights and doesn't want to go to her dad's this eve 🤦🏼‍♀️

Mine had to go in for an hour today to get her timetable. I assume it went well as she's still out 3 hours later with occasional updates about trips to the mall and bubble tea!

First proper day tomorrow.

Fairly positive first day back here for DS2 though much complaining he didn’t get to sit next to his best friend in any lessons. Also he was rather put off by the maths teacher giving them a long talk about how given they were in set 1 he expected them to get all their work right and not make any silly mistakes (which he is known for). I’d be a bit put off by this too as expecting 100% all the time not very conducive to giving harder maths a go! Taking it with a slight pinch of salt though as he had the same teacher last year who did in fact give them more challenging maths from ks4 to do so suspect the silly mistakes was the thrust of this argument.

Sadly his older brother had a less positive day - still could have been worse! Hopefully they (and I) will get more sleep tonight.

How did everyone else’s kids do?

Mine was only in for two hours this afternoon - they had Y7 and Y12 in all day and the rest just had form and assembly.

He was excited to go back and I think today was a bit of an anticlimax - he doesn't know most of his teachers and he had quite a few he adored (and adored him) last year so fingers crossed that settles down pretty quickly.

Really worried I've forgotten something essential for the children's bags tomorrow 😕
There's been an IT migration so no info is now where it used to be. Thankfully another parent pointed me in the direction of an app for the kids which has the timetable on (albeit someone has managed to upload it to 2023 instead of 2024 😂) - but at least that means DS knows what should be happening tomorrow, which will help him a lot.
Tomorrow morning is going to be a painfully early start!!

If they have lunch, a water bottle and pens/ a pencil that’s probably ok for day 1 @TeaandHobnobs . But sure you have it all covered and are second guessing yourself. Just remember at least 2 alarms! Wasn’t looking forward to this morning but we made it - mind you on past experience the tricky bit is a few days in (less adrenalin but not yet back in routine).

IT changes are a nightmare - hilarious they got the timetable year wrong though - bonus points to the parent that tracked the timetables down.

Fingers crossed the new teacher turn out to be good @JassyRadlett

1st day of year 8 successfully navigated, what a difference to the boy who came home looking like a zombie on the 1st day of year 7! I can't believe how well he's grown in himself in the past year and hats off to the school in supporting him, they were brilliant, hoping this continues this year now!

First day went ok back last thursday. But not sat with any friends.
She did ebd up doing the second language. Which is probably the right choice as it will be the top language sets. And does mean shes with one of the friend group for those 7 or so lessons per fortnight.
Shes also got moved in maths to parallel class and woth friends for that now too.
But ... Online saoc they would have a ks2 arithmetic test but is was not it sounds like work from y7 which is fair enough and more sensible but then they should update the schedule online. She didnt finish (which i think is one of the most obvious signs of adhd/asd) but said the lesson finished then anyway so there wouldnt have been extra time anyway. Her primary school classmate seems to have finished despite nipping to the toilet and asking another kid in front the answer! The test also included factorising which the kids didnt know what this was so perhaps shows set 1 have learnt more. The problem woth ks3 now there are no sats that what is taught easy year seems to vary so i cant even locate past papers to try to speed her work up.
Im going to see how badly it went but probably need to flag to the teacher she isnt finishing the maths, i dont think shes finished any test last year. (This maybe where constant topic tests are worse than a proper end of year test as that timing would likely be longer.

First week and half gone well although she's not happy about the return to Saturday school!
Got all lessons apart from French with friends so she's happy about that. Top set languages and now does French, Spanish and Latin. She hates languages and scored her lowest score ie 60s in end of Yr 7 exam so we can't figure out how she's in top set.
Retained top set for English + now also top set Humanities. Thankfully set 2 for maths as she was really worried she would get top set after fantastic end of Yr 7 exam result for that.
Seems to have slotted right back in to school life and happy that she's not a newbie any more. Lost some of her favourite teachers but said she bumped into her Classics teacher yesterday lunch and they had a good natter about the Greek myths she's read over summer, he then sought her out at end of the day and gave her 2 new books to read so she's over the moon about that. We've got a book buying embargo in the house at present as we spent over £200 on them to help fill a 9 week summer!!
Wishing them all a fantastic first term back.

How are things going with you all? Here not brilliant- friendship issues have reared their ugly head already and he’s started claiming all his homework is stupid and pointless and trying to avoid doing it. So far he always has (mostly when DS1 tells him to not me!) but this may not last :(.
On the plus side we have started a new (very hard) jigsaw at his request which so far is tempting him off tech for a bit and good bonding time.

@Walkingbkwrm can sympathise with the friendship issues. DD is being targeted by a group of girls she went to primary with, one or two making nasty comments then the rest of the group sniggering behind their hands.

I went to see HOY earlier this week as DD is not wanting to go to school. HOY said it wouldn't be classed as bullying but is 'unkind' and was going to speak to the group involved.

Today is DD's first day back after being off poorly for 4 days so I'll find out this afternoon if anything has been said.

🤞The HOY made an impact and things were better today @gingeristhenewblack43 .

Good news

That was a wish not an update I’m afraid! How did it go @gingeristhenewblack43 ?

Sorry I mis-read it 🙈

Just a quick check in as DD breaks up for half term tomorrow. Compared to this time last year this half term has flown by!
Everything seems to be going well and she's settled into Yr 8 well. Fingers crossed all the other DC on here are settled too

Great to hear @twistyizzy! This half term really has rocketed past, hasn't it?
DS doesn't break up until next Friday, but he really needs the break... he was super happy to be back this year, but since he had a couple of days off first week of Oct for a singing competition, he's really struggled to get back into the groove - homework is like trying to get blood from a stone, he looks permanently exhausted, and he is even starting to get the odd conduct point for just not being switched on in the day.
We had a form tutor meeting on Monday eve, and his tutor wasn't concerned at all about him, but I am a bit!
He's joined junior orchestra this year, and really enjoying it (I had to twist his arm to get him to try!).

Just thinking....maybe we should start a new thread titled yr 8, or request a name change on this one?

Could do @ElvenDreamer! I think I assumed we were going to fill this thread by the end of Y7, but it seems we didn’t quite get there!
You could start a new one, and we can tag the posters from this one so they know where to find us?

If no-one else gets round to it 1st I'll do that tomorrow👍

We don’t have half term for another week either. DS2
also feeling tired and looking worn out. I’ve been ill too (on the mend now) and DH has been on work trips a lot so it’s been a hard half term.

Hope everyone else is ok.

New thread sounds good.