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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

pfb -in fact only child - off to secondary on Thursday...

788 replies

MaryAnnSingleton · 02/09/2008 08:07

am being calm but every so often panic strikes me - ds is fine about it, it's just me fretting about roads to cross/ money for the canteen - will it get lost/stolen, what about the lockers, arghhh ! Plus,as with the beginning of every term,I'll miss him - I love having him here in the holidays !
It also means that I have no excuses not to sit at my desk and work on the job I'm meant to finish by the end of Seot...

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Ashantai · 27/09/2008 23:12

Good to here our kids are doing well at school. I've finally stopped freaking out at my daughter walking anywhere without me but i do admit that i breathe a sigh of relief when i hear her key in the lock

SqueakyPop · 28/09/2008 08:06

We have done 3 weeks, 2 days, and have 3 weeks until half-term.

roisin · 28/09/2008 10:05

It's a different world SqueakyPop!

roisin · 29/09/2008 20:05

How fantastic is this: ds1 has joined the boys' choir at his (state) school. He is a keen and enthusiastic singer, but is not particularly musically talented.

He has come home today with a list of 7 performances/concerts before Christmas this term and is really enthusiastic to sign up to be available for all of them. He understands this will mean giving up some of his free time in the evenings and at weekends for the performances and for extra rehearsals, but he's keen to do so.

He's not sporty at all so I'm thrilled to bits that he has an opportunity to do something different through school.

magentadreamer · 29/09/2008 20:42

Thats wonderful news Roisin

bellavita · 29/09/2008 22:12

How lovely roisin for you and your ds.

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 30/09/2008 10:37

brilliant news roisin ! well done your ds !

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roisin · 30/09/2008 18:26

Crikey I love this school: ds1 is quite a complex, quirky character and he is just so happy and so settled there already.

He got a merit certificate today for German, for having had 10 merits in a subject. He is thrilled to bits.

They had an after-school 'social' today, which he enjoyed. They had hot-dogs and played Bingo. He had no idea what Bingo was! PMSL

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 30/09/2008 19:32

I'm so pleased it's going so well roisin - yay !

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roisin · 30/09/2008 20:07

How's it going for everyone else? Any hesitations or hiccups or major nightmares?

bellavita · 01/10/2008 00:19

Ds seems to be doing ok, should hopefully get his locker tomorrow (or rather today now!) which will make life easier for him with the pe kit.

He has done a few lunchtime class inter sports things which he has really enjoyed.

magentadreamer · 01/10/2008 06:56

DD is enjoying it so far and appears to be settling in well. She seems so grown up these days as well. Last night she was telling me about the class clown in Maths and basically said he was a pain and should do as he's told so Miss can get on with teaching us. I was like as she just sounded so grown up about it. She's doing Aerobics and trampolining at lunchtime so she has a pack lunch those days. Plus she signed up for the book club competition but said no way was she going on a pamper evening.

So far she's had 3 win/draw slips in Maths 1 in German and Science so she's happy about that. The only thing she thinks is tight about High School is the homework but she gets on with that. So overall a month in she's enjoying it and appears to be working hard.

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 01/10/2008 09:17

ds seems to have adjusted well,in fact better,than I'd imagined,which is fab and he seems to really enjoy the lessons and being at secondary school generally...one teeny hiccup yesterday when he assumed that 'wet play' at lunch (they probably call it something else in secondary school !) meant he couldn't go out to the canteen to get lunch,so no lunch except for his emergency apple and nutrigrain bar- dafty !

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Ashantai · 01/10/2008 17:05

Yep my daughter is settling in well too and now she has a locker, her back isnt being crushed by the load of crap in her bag

The only downside is that she has swimming on a monday and used to bring her swim stuff home, but now she has a locker, she keeps forgetting it is in there.

I'm guessing a mouldy smell will soon emit from it and finally prompt her into bringing it home!

roisin · 01/10/2008 17:22

at wet play MAS!
It's great that they've all settled in so well and so quickly, isn't it?

magentadreamer · 02/10/2008 16:47

DD has come home with another win/draw slip for history, plus the group she was in will be filmed for the school TV channel on Monday - she's thrilled to bits!

bellavita · 02/10/2008 17:27

poor MasterSingleton

hey that's great magenta

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 02/10/2008 18:28

well done magenta's dd

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magentadreamer · 02/10/2008 18:42

She's thrilled to bits basically they've been doing a project on the history of their school - parts of it were an old mansion house. DD's group presented their work as a news bulletin under the Caption "* School to be demolished" They were marked out of 20 and got the full 20. The best of it is she always used to say History is boring....

Roisin thanks for the tip about the German dictionary -came in very handy when DD was doing her homework tonight.

bellavita · 06/10/2008 09:10

It is the new Yr6's turn to do the open evening of Ds's new school and the new Yr7's help with all the activities going on in the evening.

Ds will be in one of the tech rooms - on a production line making school key rings, he cannot wait until Thursday for this to happen.

He has told asked me that he will come home on the school bus and have a quick tea then him and a friend will catch the normal service bus back to school (told me when he gets off they will get some chips to eat on the way) and then DH will go pick them up at 8.45pm.

Do any of you ladies know if I can buy a book on how to write curses/poems? He has to write one with 8 lines and he just does not know what to do or what to write about. Unfortunately, we cannot write it for him and he is really struggling.

Or maybe do you think it is best for him to go to the teacher on his next lesson and say he did not know how to do it?

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 12:17

I think it'd be best for your ds to speak to the teacher - then he gets to take responsibility and the teacher can assist him directly - that's what I'd tell my ds to do - he finds asking for help quite hard but it coming round to it more ! Hope he enjoys the yr 6 evening - he'll really feel like a secondary school boy then !

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bellavita · 06/10/2008 12:25

Thanks MAS - I thought that might be the best thing for him to do, although I am sure he will not like asking.

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 12:59

hope it's ok !

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Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 16:31

do you think that if ds -who is making a fruit crumble at school on Monday - took in extra stuff,like cinnamon and cloves( I'm imagining he'll do apple crumble) as well as the ingredients asked for that wouldn't seem show offy or as though he's being clever ? We made crumble last weekend and put them in.

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Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 16:31

do you think that if ds -who is making a fruit crumble at school on Monday - took in extra stuff,like cinnamon and cloves( I'm imagining he'll do apple crumble) as well as the ingredients asked for that wouldn't seem show offy or as though he's being clever ? We made crumble last weekend and put them in.

OP posts: