Is there a Y7 2024-25 support thread?

[Eastie77Returns]

I’ve been following the 2023-24 one as DD starts secondary school this year so was interested to read about the experiences of pupils who started last September. I’m ancient and things have changed so much since I was at Secondary school. I’m already struggling to keep up with the e-mails and flood of information from her new school and the new term hasn’t even started yet!

Next week she is attending a week long summer school / transition week which I thought was a really good idea to help her get settled ahead of September but she is complaining she doesn’t want to go and it’s unfair she has to spend part of her summer holiday in school (which is fair enough). She has already spent a day at the school and came home overwhelmed saying the buildings are too big, she felt lost and lunch was rushed. On the other hand she really enjoyed the taster lessons and as she likes structure she was excited about having a timetable of different classes.

I’m sensing the months ahead might be a bit tricky and DD is my oldest so the first to attend Secondary and I’m really not sure what to expect!

I’m really hoping this calms down for him. That’s brutal to be together for every lesson too…

Our school weirdly sets for EVERYTHING. Even art, drama, PE etc. They are only in their forms for tutor time.

@Rhayader Yes, ours do that - it's the "arty" lessons that are in sets at the moment, but he's in the same set! 🤦
Does feel very harsh for them to share EVERY lesson, but DS is keeping his distance and does seem to have made a few lovely friends.

Sorry to hear some of your DC are going through friendship issues. It’s so difficult. @Peachesandfizz I hope pastoral care helps DS and things settle down for him soon.

DD has multiple apps to complete homework. The school also issue a homework diary that the children have to wave in the air at line up every morning or face a sanction..! Google classroom apparently summarizes all HW (so not sure why there is a need for the homework diary as well..). But there has been confusion with a couple of teachers expecting work to be printed when DD and other classmates thought it was only due to be done online. I raised this at the parent info evening and was met with a bit a shrug and told “some teachers just prefer paper copies”. Which is fine but if they don’t make their preference to pupils clear…

Have had the canteen chat as well. DD is spending money at morning break on pancakes, sausage rolls and other things she probably wouldn’t need if she ate breakfast!!

Edit as tagged the wrong person.

I find it slightly fascinating how different schools do the timetable...

DDs school puts the subjects in blocks (science/maths, humanities, technology/arts) and each half of the year has that block at the same time, but not necessarily the same subject. Only the science/maths group is set by ability, the others are mixed ability (but the arts classes are smaller than the humanities ones, so that's not the same people).
And the form group is completely separate... that depends what house you are in. Theres 2 or 3 forms per house per year.

@Eastie77Returns Thank you. The pastoral team are brilliant and are checking in with him regularly.

Yep, pancakes, sausage rolls, pain au chocolates at break. Plus he eats a decent breakfast too! 🤦

I have two in two different schools and it is interesting how different they are with apps etc
Sparx maths seems v popular for both as does class charts

DS has a quite different timetable one 45 minute lesson and 3 90 minute with 2 half an hour breaks

So having said that DS was SUPER stressed yesterday going in and complaining about not feeling well, it turns out he wasn't actually well.

The teacher actually accepted the Kate homework and said she wouldn't give detention like that but DS was clearly both stressed and feeling awful so she ended up giving him a lollipop. The office refused to call me as said he wasn't ill enough so he slept at lunch and also fell asleep in English class.

I picked him up from bus stop and he was so white and felt awful and shivery so came home and got straight into bed at 4.30pm. He woke up every hour or two and had a drink of water or told us how he was feeling but just wanted to sleep nso he basically slept from 4.30pm yesterday until 7am this morning!

He clearly picked up a minor virus but he's SO shattered with everything that his body just shut down. Anyway stayed at home today and will bounce back into school feeling much better! Missed a rugby a d football match but so be it.

However, homework is beginning to pile up. Definitely a good bit of time this weekend will be devoted to it.

DD’s homework is also piling up a bit but all due on different days so she just has to prioritise.

The school runs a test week after half term for most subjects. I had a look at sample questions for Geography and I found some of them a bit challenging despite having studied A Level Geography😳

DD gave her ingredients list for Cooking. On the plus side... its not until Wednesday, so its a night before request.

But she gave it to me when I arrived home from the supermarket!

Homework is at a manageable level at the moment. Her school doesn't go in for overloading fortunately.

Can I hop on please?

Ds started 2 weeks ago. Super proud of him as he's a quiet anxious boy but he's already talking about some new friends and got star of the week last week.

My main issue has been appalling communication from the school. Nothing about how to access MyEd, nothing about log ons for online homework platforms. Some kids can access, some can't. Some parents have had responses to emails, others haven't.
All it would take is one email to all new parents saying 'bear with us, we are sorting this' and to tell the year 7s not to worry about homework if they can't log on yet. I know schools are busy, but that type of communication seems a fairly simple and obvious fix. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I am helping DS sort his bag each night, doing it with him as we look at his timetable. I've resolved to do this until half term as he is disorganised and terrible in the mornings. I've told him it's temporary support only!

No homework here yet, and so far it’s quite slick.

However DD a bit nonplussed - it seems like every kid is a Grade 8 musician/County level sportsperson/speaks 3 languages fluently. It’s a bit of a shock from her bog standard state primary, where quite a lot of the kids were at the same school their parents went to!

It’s good for her to swim in a bigger pond, but I don’t want her to feel inadequate.

My DD injured her knee at school on Thursday. Entirely her own fault, she was playing a 'trust' game with her friend which resulted in her walking into a pillar with some force 🙄🙄 We took her to A&E because she was hurting so much but they wouldn't x-ray. It's no better now so I'm trying to decide if we need to go back 😏 that said, she came home with the headteacher's award on Friday (only two children per year get it each week) so she's really pleased but is definitely going to struggle with the knee next week!

How's the knee today @MyBestFriendKenny ?

@ConflictedCheetah still very sore, but she does seem to be moving a little better. I think it is just going to take a while. Her Pastoral lead called me on Friday to have a chat about it and she's going to check in with her tomorrow morning to see if she needs anything putting in place. I'm hoping not to have to go back to A&E so she'll hopefully continue to improve.

Had an awful journey into school today due to road closures and flooding and he was 5 minutes late to tutor - thankfully they didn’t give him a detention or negative points but does have a late mark on his attendance

given his anxiety he took it much better than I thought he would

hello all, can I join in? I'm a LP with a DC who has just started in year 7 the last couple of weeks. It's been a bit of a ride already with older kids bullying and so on. Pastoral team are involved but after a hellish year 6 I could honestly do with a break! I was hoping DC would thrive in secondary and first week or two it seemed to be going pretty well but there's a massive learning curve as a parent as well as for my DC. We're trying to get our head around the bullying and homework, as well as coach DC into growing up a bit, independence, grown up behaviour at school, going on the buses and everything. As it's just me guiding DC and dealing with every little thing it's been pretty hard work and when I started getting all the phonecalls from school about DC and anxiety, bullying issues, feeling sick, needing to collect from school etc I honestly could have cried as it's felt like an extension of last year when we thought it would be a fresh start. I guess I just have to hang in there and do my best to support my DC. :(

not to mention there's already been a slew of homework which has taken rather a lot of adapting to!

@rustyearlier I feel your pain. My DS has already had issues with older children as well as an issue with a child who moved from primary who has now turned against him.

His last year of primary was also hard work, he is quite emotional and anxious and needs a lot of reassurance. But, he is loving secondary school and has adapted to his new routine exceptionally well. I hope things settle for your DC soon.

Oh @rustyearlier I really hope things improve for you and your DC, on the plus side it sounds like school are communicating well but it doesn't help if your DC is on the receiving end of bad behaviour. I hope things pick up quickly.

thank you both @MyBestFriendKenny @Peachesandfizz . We are going through the motions of offering support and liaising with the school and have to hope things improve and go through standard procedures. It is a big school with lots of kids so a massive change. I had forgotten how awful some kids can be. It is sad because my DC would like to get on with their studies (they are a bright and able child) and make friends but this is disrupting everything. @Peachesandfizz I'm so sorry to hear that your child had issues in year 6 but encouraged to hear he has adapted well so far. May that continue!

Welcome to the thread @rustyearlier and sorry to hear about your DC’s tricky start. Hopefully they will establish a strong friendship circle and the current disruption settles. The leap to secondary with over 1000 pupils is def a steep learning curve and I’ve also found the homework requirements and all the different apps a bit of tricky to follow.

DD’s Y6 was full of drama and upset over friendships, bullying and so on. I was very relieved when she left primary! The majority of her year went to one secondary and I chose a different one as I thought she would benefit from a fresh start. She is still in contact with a close friend from Y6 as they do the same activity on the weekend and fortunately she has made new friends at school.

@Eastie77Returns thank you so much for the support. Sorry to hear that your child had a rough y6 as well! But glad to hear y7 is going ok so far.

Hoping next week things seem a bit more settled - will have to see how it goes. My child has one other child to walk with on the bus / route to school so maybe that will quell some of the bullying that has so far happened on the way to school. But it feels horrible that we have to plan it this way - DC should feel safe without the need to walk with others. But last couple of days have been ok.

Sorry to hear of the various friendship issues that have been happening. I hope things settle for the kids, it's horrible when they encounter this in the early days.

We've had a few issues with a so called friend of DD's from primary who's at the same secondary as her and isn't being pleasant to DD and there's a lot of gaslighting going on.

I've tried giving her advice on the situation and she's been trying to give her a wide berth at school but DD is a people pleaser and she finds being assertive difficult. I don't want to raise it with the form teacher just yet but if it continues I will.

We aren’t having any friendship issues but my goodness a lot of kids have had detentions. DD is still in the clear for now but two negatives equals an after school detention.

Being late to lesson is 1 negative, late to school is 2, doodling in workbook is 1, missing parts of PE kit or uniform is 2 (including a button on a shirt), “not listening” is also 1, missing homework is 2.

So if you miss two bits of homework in a week (which isn’t as crazy as it sounds because every lesson has homework/prep - so it’s 5 bits a day) that’s two detentions! 🤪

DD’s school detention process doesn’t offer much flex. Sh was penalised for being late along with a load of other pupils because their bus didn’t turn up due to a flooded road. So far that has been her only negative point but it seems as well as lateness and missing homework pupils are penalised for things like not tucking in the school tie correctly…

@Fedupoftheshits I would definitely raise it with the Form Tutor. Before DD started her school asked parents to notify them if they had any concerns about their child being placed in the same class as any other pupil(a). This wasn’t relevant to us so I’m not sure what measures they had in place but
but I think school staff are generally aware that some children bring across issues from Primary school.