Starting secondary -the bits you don’t think about

[anna1969]

Having read the thread on starting secondary school there are a few vitals as a teacher of 30+ years that I think are missing!

1. the school canteen! My kids are both still in the secondary system and the biggest lure when they started was all the amazing snacks and foods available at break and lunch.

Set a budget for your child! My son especially trollied through his lunchtime allowance on all the goodies available at break that weren’t on offer at primary school. Pizza breads, pain au chocolat and MacDonalds style breakfast baps. Pack a back up snack pack-even if they are insistent they want school dinners. After the first year 7 only days they are quite often faced with long queues at the start of September at break especially where it might not leave them enough time to get to the toilet and refill water bottles. Most secondary schools also have designated toilets just for year 7 students and buddy systems in place. 2. They will be very tired-sensory overload of a new classroom, new routines, new subject and new teachers, new friends. Don’t plan too much in the early weeks and expect that at half term they will be exhausted. Help them get ready the night before, books PE kit etc. sign up for a locker asap! 3.Digital homework-not all schools have physical homework diaries anymore but online homework portals like firefly and Microsoft teams. Tasks are usually avaialable for parents to see what has been set and an online diary. Get used to checking in on the platform your school uses each day. Worried?! Talk to your child’s form tutor whenever you need to. Most schools are now encouraging home school contact unlike in the past. 4.Bugs! New school, new group of germs! Brace yourself for coughs and colds in The first term-the germ pool has just got bigger and with new bugs! Shove a pack of tissues and hand sanitizer in their school bag when they aren’t looking! 5.Rain. Your child will not wear their coat or will lose it and their rucksacks are not waterproof. Especially the well known sports brands. Shove a plastic bag in them so whatever is in rucksack doesn’t get soaked!

As a teacher please can I add practice tying an apron!

As a teacher, teach your child to do their tie after pe!

Admittedly, my year 11s think it's adorable, but I don't😂

My favourite tip if they wear a blazer...

It becomes their life support system. Keys, bus passes, scraps of crumpled paper which are actually vital homework instructions, tie, phone, snacks, calculator, pens etc.

Interfere with it at your peril and heaven forbid they have a mufti day, when they will lose/forget bits and pieces.

Name everything, it makes it so much easier to unite the item with its owner plus it amazes me at the amount of lost property!

Have a copy of their timetable at home and a copy in their blazer pocket. You can use it as a prompt and discuion point.
They have timetable at hand going between classrooms etc.
When you buy stationery etc buy in bulk and have a store at home then they never come last minute say they need x for tomorrow.
Start how you mean to go on, set expectations to aid independence. Eg them waking themselves up, setting reminders to do things, requesting food items in advance.

We have timetable on the fridge and school laminated a mini pocket one. If your school don't definitely do picket size one for them.
Get them in the habit of checking the night before if they have pe!

Stick timetables everywhere for the first term: fridge, bedroom wall, have a copy in their bag + coat

For girls make up a small, cute toiletries bag with pads even if they haven't yet started their period plus spare pair knickers + 2 x spare pairs of tights. DD said this pack was a lifesaver. She keeps it at the bottom of her school bag but never has to worry about not having a pad if needed.

Check what equipment they need and duplicate it in a pencil case in the bottom of their rucksack.

I have done a lot of supply. Some schools will sanction a child for not having the right equipment, even if their pen has run out during the lesson or their pencil point breaks.

It's a ridiculous rule - I'm fine with an equipment check in the morning but life happens.

Ziplock bags in blazer pockets. Even if they start off with a packed lunch in a box sooner or later it will end up distributed into blazer pockets. Yoghurts split easily in a busy corridor.

Please, please teach them your phone number. Preferably three phone numbers. Tech can go down or not be available (we had a bomb threat - so the school closed with no notice).

If your child doesn't deal with change please talk through with them what they can do to cope with things, like the aforementioned bomb threat.

Remember that this is a very stressful period in the life of your child. Some children will take to secondary school like a duck to water (my DD for example) and some will take a few weeks or even months to get used to having to remember books, PE kit and find new classrooms (my DS).

I could have written this, it's absolutely spot on!

Regularly ask them how their stationery supply is. You don't want the "my glue stick has run out" panic on Sunday night.

We keep all their books in a box in the di ing room. At first DD had a habit of screwing them around the house but now its a lot calmer having them in one place.

Lol at the blazer life-support system @Scissorsisters very true

I would add that your DCs' teachers will love them if they have their own glue stick and green/red/purple pen (for marking up corrections or "green pen tasks"). Those Bic four-colour ones are good.

Invest in a good number of lidded plastic boxes of various sizes for food tech. They may well need to take 50g of flour and 75g of sugar. A good way to keep an egg safe in transit is to wedge it in a small box full of the flour. Also be prepared for a last-minute late-night dash to Tesco for a forgotten ingredient.

Year 7 girl: Smiggle pencil case with scented highlighters, her own glue stick, many many pens and a pencil sharpener.
Year 11 boy: "Yes miss I've got a pen" <produces chewed up, half empty inner of a Bic biro from blazer pocket>

...and a tie

@anna1969

Most secondary schools also have designated toilets just for year 7 students and buddy systems in place.

What is buddy system?

( Mum of y 6 here)

You are lucky here OP - I suggested labelling items of clothing when my DD started academy and was basically told it was social suicide because "NOBODY" does that apparently. Seemed like common sense to me!

Buddy system is when older pupil will be attached to the tutor group either year 9 upwards and will be there to support in tutor time a couple of times a week and to take them down to the canteen and to the year 7 toilets at the end of lesson the kids chat to each other more openly. We also give year 7 a 10 minute head start to the canteen for the first couple of weeks so they can get used to it-we are cashless so they have to use a finger print and load money onto their account etc. Your school will explain all their systems at a parents evening but it is a lot to take in

Despite what the OP has said... no buddy systems, or special toilets here or in any of my friends school. Every school is different.

However only two years use the school canteen at any time. Queues are long but there's room for everyone (they have to stay in the canteen area as lessons are going on for other years)

Buy a spare tie when you order the uniform.
Also most blazers wash really well, inside out on a cool wash so can be freshened up every half term.

If your child is your first to go to secondary school brace yourself for the difference from primary!
I'm a teacher in secondary but do visits for transition from primary and I find the gulf between the two systems enormous.
Our year 7s will have as many as 15 different teachers and 4 classrooms everyday.
Another massive problem is access to toilets, no matter what we do or how often we explain year 7 students and parents struggle with the length of lessons, and the school's expectation that children should use the toilets at break and lunchtime -to minimise lost learning and disruption.
We do allow toilet use during lessons but it has to be supervised so students have to wait until horrifyingly for them, a senior member of staff, turns up, and can use the walking to toilet time to deliver a lecture on personal responsibility!

I always have done in it in primary. Me and my mum have in preparation to Y7 " a sawing and labelling factory " for the last days.I label every crayon, every pencil , shoes and clothing. With my son's approach to items I would spend a lot of money as he loses things

love it.

Btw. Thank you for this thread. Very useful. I learn so much!

I booked the locker as soon it was released. They evaporated like madness in a few minutes after the booking was open. Apparently, the school has only lockers for 50% of kids in each year group

Bulk buy protractors. Name label their uniform but nothing else, it is deeply uncool.

I did it for all my kids when they were in primary - used to have a night to label everything from clothes, jackets, water bottles, stationary but its apparently not cool in secondary!

really?? I labelled everything! What do they do to protractors in particular in secondary school? I thought that it is only the rulers that are tortured ( got the elastic plastic to avoid the ruler spinal damage again)

One of my DCs school didn't have lockers at all and they managed fine without (they deposited their PE kit at the sports hall first thing on PE days). The other had lockers but they weren't really used as they were very small and the students never had time to get back to them between lessons, DD said everyone just carried all their stuff around all day.