secondary school routine

[kamanmama]

Hi there, i am new to UK secondary school system. Can anyone help me with that? My girl is going to year 7 this Sept. I am worried about her. I know that everyone in primary school goes to the same class every day. they have same break time and lunchtime. So they can easily to make friends with her class or next class. How about secondary school? i heard that even they are in same class, but student may get different timetable or in different tutor group? someone say student may have different classmate in different subject? how that would be? how can they make friends? cos i move to different area from primary school. i sure she know nobody in secondary school. feel very nervous for her, especially i dunno the secondary school format here.

Secondary schools will have different ways of working, so noone can answer exactly what will happen in September for your daughter.

ALL the schools will know how important it is for kids to make good friends, and will structure the day for how they believe it will work best for their size of school.

In some ways, it is good if the kids are mixed up between classes, because it gives them more chance to find the really strong friendships. Yes, it might take a bit longer, but it gives them a chance to find the people who really get them.
I've yet to come across a school that doesn't have all of a year group with the same break and lunchtimes - but not all the year groups will necessarily have breaks at the same time.

Usually there are transition days in July so every primary school year 6 child spends the day at the high school in their new form with their new teacher. There will be a myriad of school uniform colours in the class. For those (like mine) coming alone from a non-feeder school there was an extra morning put on for them so that they could see they were not alone and it was another set of familiar faces to spot when they start.

The first day in September was a no teaching day just going over rules, uniform expectation, planner stuff like getting it signed every week and also a map of the school and a sort of treasure hunt ie find room H4 and what is written on the door? ie which teacher's name. That way they navigate their way round for a bit. They are all usually in form together and for the first few weeks will move round as a form to their lessons, Ds was sat alphabetically and stuck to the kid he was sat next to. Thar kid had friends from his primary and Ds tagged along. They are now 21 and still mates. Everyone is pretty keen to make new friends and the schools usually encourage new friendships because not all primary school friendships are positive.

They are all in the same subjects as their form for the first couple of years. They will sit CAT (cognitive ability tests) as well as taking their SATs results in the first few weeks and will go into different maths and English groups but they are all still timetabled for that together. For my sons' school the lunches are in separate areas so years 7 and 8 are separate from years 9-11 due to size differences, they have separate dining halls.

The schools are in blocks so the English classrooms are usually together, same with maths so even if they are not in the same set they can walk together. There are clubs both lunch time and after school plus homework club where they can also meet people. There should also be a welcome to our school evening for parents to tell you how to support your child, parade a couple of kids in the correct uniform and sports kits. I hope that helps.

There will be absolutely loads of Y7s in the same position - she’ll be fine!

From DD’s experience they had a tutor group for registration and their core subjects (maths, English, French, Latin, Geography, PE, RS), this functions a bit like a primary school class and is typically where they meet their first friendship group as they spend the most time together. For the arts and science subjects they had a ‘split class’, which was a mixture of two tutor groups. Again they spend quite a bit of time together so that’s another easy opportunity to branch out a bit friend wise.

Even though almost all of DD’s primary school went to the same secondary school as her the girls that she became friends with were all from different schools, so it’s not the case at all that they’ll just stick to their old friends - it’s all about making new ones

thanks a lot. but still confused the concept of class and tutor group

also, confused of different subject and different set
now, i know that they will go to different tutor group, different class, different subject and different set? feel more complicated

Tutor group is just their core class

Honestly you are overthinking things a bit - every school works differently so nobody here on MN will be able to give you 100% accurate information. She will manage just like every other child, they’re all in the same boat!

Well in our primary school in year 6 they are going to 3 different classrooms for Maths and English depending on the set they are assigned to. The split for English has been since year 5 and this year they do that with maths as well.

The local secondary schools often keep they7 class together for most of the subjects at the beginning and they do sets only later on.

true. i just overthinking
maybe the offer day is coming, make me more nervous

What my child has...

The year group is sit in two. They only have lessons with their half. Within this they have...

• their form group. Random arrangement of children.
• their humanities group... the set they are in for English, French, history and geography. This is mixed ability
• their STEM group (science, maths and IT). This is ability set, mainly based on their Maths.
• their arts class... these are smaller for practical reasons Its subjects like music, drama art, food, dance, photography etc on rotation.
• PE. This is split into Boys and Girls.

So they have different classes throughout the day, but the same groups repeat.

On top of this, not affecting day to day stuff
.. Houses. This is a multi year group (while school split in four, for competitions etc. Like Hogwarts.

...inclusing sorting hat? 😃🤨😱 Youuuaare Griffindor!!

Welll...her house colours are red and gold and its symbol is a lion! 😂

that’s make me more clear now
thx a lot