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Starting secondary school
With your child entering secondary school as a pre-teen rising to a fully fledged teenager - hormones kicking in, challenging authority, testing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, and so on - you may well have quite a lot on your plate in helping your child at school, as well as at home
Extract taken from How to Help Your Child Succeed at School by Dr Dominic Wyse
Challenging behaviour that your child exhibits at home is a natural part of growing up in 'safe' environment. But if too much of this kind of behaviour is happening at school, this can create problems for you and your child. The last thing you need is suddenly to be contacted by letter about, say, your child's unruly behaviour, unreported absences or unsubmitted homework.
Moving on up
The primary-secondary transition is quite different from that of pre-school to primary changeover, because children of 11 years of age are much more independently minded. This can be a mixed blessing: on the one hand they are potentially ready to be stimulated by a much bigger and more diverse establishment (with not just one but many teachers to interact with), but on the flip side they are also less willing to be told what to do by figures of authority.
At home you will discover that 'Keep Out' signs on the bedroom door are starting to mean what they say, and mobile phone texting and internet chat rooms open up worlds that are difficult for a concerned parent to monitor.
But growing up and being independent are not things that happen overnight, and children entering secondary school will still experience some of the reactions to their new environment that four and five-year-olds do when they go into reception class. In fact, just finding their way around an enormous set of school buildings - which is what most secondary establishments are - and moving along the endless corridors to different classrooms and orientating themselves takes some doing.
Without any doubt, the transition from primary to secondary is a big leap and quite a daunting, possibly unsettling, challenge. And that's precisely where the new school should be helping your child.
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