Starting Secondary School - tips and advice

[Sportsmum]

Many years ago we started an arts and crafts box -this has over time been modified into a spare stationery box - so when they lose bits of stationery various - as they tend to (so and so borrowed and didn't give it back) it's easy to grab a replacement offending item.

Spare geometry sets have proved quite handy, especially when certain stores do their "2 for the price of x" offers, along with rubbers, pencils various - especially 2B for year 7 when they did art, coloured crayons, high lighter pens, fibre tip or handwriting pens and ink cartridges. It has got them out of difficult so many times - in fact even the DH raids the box for the odd biro!

[Oshosh]

What a lovely thread. Such good information and ideas.

Well my DS will be starting Y7 in Sept. And i am all excited with this talk- a4/ foolscape folders, and stationey box, and a school pod to keep everything in place.....

Could i ask wheather there will be alot textbooks to bring, back and forth, from school and to school. We used to have quite a bit in my days....what about now.

Pls carry on sharing your ideas.....it is a brilliant thread

[Brum Mum]

^^^ this - I've been trying to get my head around ensuring that we will be organised, so its great to hear other people's suggestions!

[pheasantchick]

Osh- yes, they can have a lot of books. Sometimes my dcs bags are really heavy, other days almost empty.

[Tinkers]

Emergency bus fare for when they have left their bus pass at home.
List of useful phone numbers, for when their phone is dead, they can borrow someone else's if they need to, but not if they don't know the number because it's stored on their phone.

Plastic wallets are great for subjects where they have more than just an exercise book. DD was sceptical at first, but uses them for German, maths and English. Maths one has calculator and geometry set in. English has reading book and reading log as well as exercise book. German has all sorts of sheets and language dictionary. She thinks it is so much easier to pack/unpack her bag with these, while all her friends are trying to find several different things in their bag, she just pulls put one plastic wallet.

I printed and laminated a map of the area around school, but she hasn't used it. She felt happier having it though.

You can't have enough coloured pens and pencils, but keep them at home and just have a small set of coloured pencils they can take to school.

Well known stationary store was selling geometry sets at 50p each when I went in, so bought about 4 sets.

Some schools do more crafty stuff homework than others, but a small stock of crafty stuff is useful, if like a friend of DDs, you get a lot of model type HW, as it saves regular trips to that other well known craft shop. (Thankfully in Reading these two well known stores are very near to each other)

For revision they might like index cards to make notes on. DD doesn't

Work out if they have lockers at school or not and whether you need to get a padlock for it. Lockers make it easier for them and their backs, as long as they learn they can unpack their bags into it and leave stuff at home if it isn't needed.

I bought DD a small waterproof coat Pac a mac type thing, so that when it's warm, she has a coat if it rains.

Check if the school recommends a particular calculator before buying one.


Name EVERYTHING!

[KB]

padlock keys -
one spare under your control at home
one spare in eg pencil case
one on a chain or expanding plastic cord attached to bag/blazer inside pocket etc - so they don't walk off and leave it in the padlock

you can also get reasonably priced emergency phone batteries if DC might be scared to ask to borrow a phone at first/hav has to travel 'not in a group'

absolutely must pack school stuff the night before - have a copy of timetable and homework timetable on the fridge (or similar)
and be careful if homework has to be handed in on days other than when the next lesson is!

[ToadMum]

Re lockers, check whether you have to provide a padlock (in which case, check if there are any particular requirements such as the length and width of the staple etc) or whether the lockers are operated with a key provided by the school. Rule regarding what lockers can be used for differ as well - the school DD attended for most of year 7 put in brand new lockers, in which it was forbidden to leave used games kit overnight, whereas at DS1's part of the idea of having a locker was to have somewhere to store a sports bag with trainers etc (i.e. the kit which generally doesn't need to come home every time it is worn).

[MedievalBabe]

DS has extra money stored in a hidden pocket of his bag in case he loses his bus pass/lunch money etc so he knows he can always get home or have lunch. But so far when the bus is late (a public bus which runs every 10mins) I get a phone call to pick him up, but he has been told I will only do this on a Monday and Tuesday to get him to dancing, but of this week only a Monday!

He has a plastic box with a lid where he keeps all of his books etc for school kept under his desk. He also has an extra pencil case at home so he doesn't need to worry about forgetting to re-pack his pencil case in the morning. I do like the idea of plastic wallets but I suspect it wouldn't go down to well with him.

We have given him a PAC a mac for when it rains, which he keeps in his bag, but he would prefer to get soaking wet than put it on. It is not cool to wear a coat, you should see the arguments in the morning when it is raining!

[countrymum]

Plastic wallets are great for subjects where they have more than just an exercise book. DD was sceptical at first, but uses them for German, maths and English. Maths one has calculator and geometry set in. English has reading book and reading log as well as exercise book. German has all sorts of sheets and language dictionary. She thinks it is so much easier to pack/unpack her bag with these, while all her friends are trying to find several different things in their bag, she just pulls put one plastic wallet.

Agree with Tinkers - I can definitely vouch for these plastic wallets - DD has one for every subject, keeps everything in one place and also protects the books from any drinks spillages. Seemingly many of her friends are cottoning on and asking where she got them from as they now fancy the wallet idea too - think I paid 99p each for them, and patterned so quite 'cool'! They do create a little more weight to the school bag overall but as is a rucksack she says is fine and she wouldn't go back to loose books any time soon.

[fairyelephant]

I picked up the plastic wallet tip from here for DD back in September too, it's worked brilliantly - got mine from a well known store where a pack of four coloured ones costs 99p!