How has year 7 gone for all us anxious mums? Lostinwales here.

[LostInWales]

Hello, we had a wonderful supportive thread as our fabulous children embarked on the terrors of secondary school but I can't find it now. I was wondering how everyone felt the year had gone?

DS1 has had a mixed bag, it turns out he is brilliant at maths (what a cliche ) but he struggles with the social side of things. There has been a bit of bullying which I think we are on top of (fingers crossed). I find it sad because the differences between him and his peers are more and more obvious but happy because I'm realising that this doesn't matter as much as I thought it might. Anyway, I don't want to ramble but it would be great to hear how everyone got on.

Bumping, will keep trying until I find you all!

Hi Lost, Magso here! Ds is in SN school but we have noticed that in many ways the autism is so much more obvious as he is getting older and more different to his peers. Its been a difficult year but at last his new school are beginning to get to know him. School have made communication vertually impossible - difficult after the cloistered world of sn junior school with brilliant communications. Oh how I miss home school books and escorts! But things have improved this last term and some of his teachers are lovely. They have also at last noticed he can run, so has been representing his school, which has helped his confidence and he like medals. Year 6 to year 7 is such a big step especially for some.

Hi Magso, glad everything is coming together. Amazing achievement to represent the school. I know what you mean about the lack of communication, it's a world away from primary where I was in the playground at the end of every day for pick up. I've only been to the school once for parents meeting and if we hadn't taken him with us I doubt they would have known who he was (especially one teacher who told us he was very chatty in lessons when every other one had said the only bad point was how quiet he was and how hard to get him to engage )

Do you find other 12 year old boys seem really brash? They seem so confident and loud, I think I prefer my version. I do get sad though when I see children from his year walking from our village into town on their own, I can't imagine a day when he would be confident (or safe) enough to do that.

Yes I know what you mean by brash! Ds tries to do the same but it doesn't quite work IYKWIM. He tries for jokes (there a spider on your head) but that too sounds wrong. At least he tries! Ds wants the freedom that other village children enjoy but he needs support. We live next to the park so I have started letting him go there alone - he mostly searches for dropped coins or picks cherries. I usually stay near by on some pretext ( gardening, enjoying a walk) so I can keep a close eye. Last week he was in the playpark out of sight and I heard him shouting for help. I arrived to see my son on the ground, half his cloths missing (carried off by horrid boys looked about 10 - 11) the rest ripped and bloodied! It looked like he had been dragged along shoeless. The mother of said boys was sat in an expensive roofless car ignoring their awful behaviour. The boys ran off (I cannot run) as soon as they saw me. A neighbours older child (who knows ds has LD) had interveined just as I arrived! It was quite shocking! Trouble is ds is not aware of his own vunerability and can easily get hurt of into deep trouble. He could not tell me what happened. I'm even more needing to soak up the sun in the park now!
Well done for the brilliant maths! Ds best subject too - off the P scales for maths and science.

Oh Magso, what horrid horrid boys, that makes me want to find the mother and tell her exactly what sort of shits her children are. What is that poster, I would much rather have a child with SN than one that takes the advantage of children with SN. There's probably a better way of putting that but you see what I mean. I wouldn't swap my boy for a son like those in a million years, the shame I would feel if they were mine. Last time we went to softplay I had to call DH to take DS1 home as there were a pair of boys, 8-9 years old, who were tormenting him. They spat on him (), that wasn't the main problem though, when he told me and the boys mother what had happened the boys put on innocent faces and denied it even though there was visible spit on his clothes. This caused a 'does not compute' meltdown in DS1 because he just can't fathom lying bless him. Fortunately the owner of the place has a son who is ASD/Dyspraxic so she refunded his entry and told me the other boys were little buggers! Not a patch on being dragged around the playground though.

I love that he is brilliant at science/maths but a tiny part of me thinks 'but do you have to be such a cliche' (prods herself as he went up to school with me thinking he was fairly hopeless at everything)