Returning to School in 2024

The summer holidays are coming to a close. The shops are displaying school uniforms and stationery. Are you wondering what you will pack in your child’s lunch box every day? Are you worried about how they will manage in their new school year? Will they be starting a new school? Sometimes I wonder who is more anxious when children start school, the parents or their children? Our comprehensive guide to returning to school in 2024 covers ages from 4-16 years old. We give advice for every Year group. We offer tips on how to prepare your child for a new school routine. Also, we have advice on supporting SEND and high-achieving students. Plus, our foolproof plan for choosing GCSE options. Wherever your child is on their educational journey we will be there to help you all.

If you are stuck for ideas to pack into your child’s lunch box every day, check out our Quick and Easy Lunchbox Ideas for Kids

(N.B Some of the links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. This means Sops and I may make a small commission if you click on the link. For more information read our Affiliate Disclaimer.)

Reception

If your child went to nursery they will have already experienced the Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. It is taught in nurseries and other childcare venues. It is based on learning through structured play. Reception is the last year of the EYFS curriculum to ease your child into education. Sops’ was sometimes jealous of the Reception children when she was in Year 6. She would say, “but they just get to play all day.”
“Of course they do, they are only 4 years old!”

NB: When ordering your child’s school uniform try the website myclothes.com. This site provides embroidered uniforms for 7,305 schools nationwide. They are fast and effective and their clothes are very good quality. In addition, they will donate 5% of your order to your child’s school.

Settling your child into Reception

Starting school for the very first time is an emotional event for both the parents and their children. You have bought their cute little uniform, which is way too big for them, but ‘they’ll grow into it’. You have packed their lunch box and taken a gazillion pictures of them on their first day. Everyone is very excited and anxious and hoping the first day will be awesome.

I cannot stress the importance of a child’s first day at school. It is a ‘core memory‘ as Joy explains in Pixar’s movie, ‘Inside Out‘. I remember my first day at school and it was over 40 years ago. I did not understand that different year groups had a staggered lunch break. I could not find my brother at lunchtime and I panicked and thought he had gone home without me. I remember crying on my first day. You don’t want this for your child’s first day. But fear not! We have some great tips to help you settle your child into school for the first time.

• Keep super positive about school. Even if you had a stinky first day at school yourself, don’t let your child know this. Ask them what they want from school and answer them honestly, but positively. If they want to make more friends, tell them that there will be more children for them to make friends with. If they want to play, there will be new toys for them to play with. But there will be extra things like story time or learning the alphabet, but that is cool and exciting too.
• Create a clear bedtime and morning routine for them to follow. Use a timer to show them how much time they have got to do each task. Sand timers are great for this, so your child can visualise time moving forward.
• Keep communicating with the school to see how your child is settling in and resolve any issues as soon as possible.
• Read to your child at bedtime and encourage them to read a little to you as well.
• Create a Scrapbook for the first year at school. At the end of each day ask your child what they did and add some pictures and words into the scrapbook to treasure forever. There are some lovely scrapbooks for sale on Etsy you can buy as a gift like this one.

If your child is struggling to make friends by the time they are in Year 1, read our post on ‘How to make friends when you are an only child’, by Sops and me.

Year 1

Year 1 is the start of the Key Stage 1 curriculum. This is when playtime is over and it’s all work work work. At least that is how it seemed to me. My Reception teacher used to have a huge jar of sweets and gave them out generously every time we read the correct letter from the alphabet chart. By the time I reached Year 1, I had to practically copy Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting to get a singular Smarties chocolate. Sops’ felt the same in Infant school. The novelty of school can easily rub off by the time your child reaches Year 1. Yet they still have another 11 years of school to go. So how do you maintain their enthusiasm for learning?

• Add encouraging quotes, pictures and thoughts into their lunch box. I copy pictures, bible quotes, funny images, poems and inspirational quotes from Pinterest and add them to a Word Document. I then print and cut them out each day. Sops enjoys sharing these quotes with her friends at lunchtime.
• If you don’t feel your child’s teacher is rewarding your child enough, do it yourself. You know your child and their capabilities. Perhaps your child isn’t on the orange Janet and John book* yet, but they have coloured a picture very well and kept in the lines, and that is a success for them. Praise them for this success.
• Take your child on fun educational trips. I have taken Sops to the Science Museum in London and Hampton Court Palace during Halloween. These places offer fun educational events that children can take part in.
• Sign your child up for Children’s University. This is a great way for children to gain credit for extracurricular activities they take part in. Once they have enough stamps in their ‘passport‘ they get to ‘graduate‘ and wear those adorable caps and gowns.

*I know children don’t read Janet and John books these days, but you get my point, right?

Year 2

Year 2 is the last year in Key Stage 1. At the end of the year, your child will be expected to take some progression tests. As your child will only be 6-7 years old the tests are pretty simple and children may not realise they are actually sitting tests when they are. It depends on how the school conducts these tests. There is a lot of controversy over the SATS tests, but they can help schools understand the progression of each child on their educational journey.

Now is your chance to gain valuable insight into your child’s progression at school and to act upon it. If your child is excelling in their studies, be sure to request more work for them from the school, so they can be suitably stimulated. If a teacher has to teach a class of 30+ children they will aim their teaching at the average learner, and a high-achieving learner may feel bored and start to disengage in their education.

Keep reading to find out more about how to support your high-achieving child at school.

However, if your child is scoring below average on the tests you need to investigate why. It could be as simple as they need their eyes tested. In addition, if your child needs a coloured overlay they need to be tested by a qualified colourist at an optician. Some SENCO’s (Special Education Needs Co-ordinators) carry out overlay tests at schools, but they should be conducted by a qualified optician.

If you suspect your child may have other additional learning needs such as dyslexia talk to the SENCO at your child’s school. They can arrange a screening if they think it will be beneficial to do so.

Be warned: You may need to be a Tiger Parent to get the best support for your child. Some schools have excellent hard hard-working SENCO’s, and some schools have very poor SEND departments that won’t do anything to support your child until it is too late.

Keep Reading to find out more about how to support your child with Educational Needs.

Year 3

By now your child should be well settled into their Primary School. Hopefully, they have made more friends and you have become chummy with their friend’s parents. Sops’ enjoyed Year 3, as she loved her teacher. The experiences of children in Primary Schools are either enriched or diminished based on the quality of their class teacher. Sops’ had some great Primary School teachers, who have encouraged and supported her, but also some who have made her time at Primary School very difficult.

If your child has a personality clash with their Primary School teacher it can be difficult for them to engage at school because they are being taught by the same teacher for the whole year. Try to help your child resolve any issues they may have with their teacher. If they still struggle to relate to their teacher, you can raise the problems with the Head Teacher. Also, explain to your child they will always encounter difficult teachers or bosses in life, and they can use this experience to learn how to work with people they do not like. Plus, it’s only for a year and then hopefully, they will get a new teacher they like.

Year 4

By Year 4 your child may start having homework to do. This could be as simple as a reading journal to fill out. Homework is another contentious issue. Some parents and schools see the value of giving children homework at a young age, so they become used to studying independently. Others think it puts unnecessary stress on a child, and they should spend their free time playing and just being a child. Whatever your stance on the issue is, if your child is given homework, it is in their best interest to complete it on time. This will teach them the importance of working towards a deadline. It also means they will not receive a demerit or detention at school.

If their school runs an after-school club or homework club I strongly recommend they do their homework during that time at school, so they can relax and play at home.

Sops’ gives some good top tips on homework in her post A Kid’s Guide to Homeschooling.

Year 5

In your child’s penultimate year at Primary School, you need to start thinking about which Secondary School is best for them. Open evenings at Secondary Schools tend to be held in October. Many Year 6 students go to these open evenings, but I recommend taking your child in Year 5 as well. Check out as many available schools as you can. Take into consideration what GCSE subjects they offer and what sort of subjects your child is likely to choose in year 8 or 9. There is no point in signing your child up for a science and maths specialist school if they are interested in the arts. Read parents’ comments on social media about the schools your child is interested in attending. Are they mostly positive? Sure, there will be some grumpy reviews, but if the majority are positive then take that into consideration.

One of the reasons I suggest you look in Year 5 is because if your ideal school is outside your catchment area or has unique admissions criteria, you may need to make adjustments in Year 5 to meet them. This could include moving house or attending a particular place of worship to increase your child’s chances of entering a school of your choice.

N.B. I do not advocate people attend places of worship just to get their child into a particular faith-based school, just because it performs well in inspections. However, if you are exploring a faith and want to find out more about it, now is a good time to attend that place of worship and find out more about the faith. If you are comfortable with it then you can apply to their school for your child.

Year 6

Your child is now in Year 6. The most senior year group in the school. They can lord over their minions in the lower years. They can bully and protect the minor children as they so please. They are the big cheeses. They can talk about their time in Reception like a veteran talking about the Great War. Your child and their year group have experienced it all, and they part their worldly experiences on the impressionable youth below them. Oh, the sense of power and dominance one feels when they are in Year 6!

They are too mature to play Tag or British Bull Dog anymore. The pressure of sitting their SATS is rapidly approaching, as their teachers constantly remind them. But they don’t care, for nothing can phase them now. They have already survived 7 years at school and nothing can break them.

Except Year 7.

Need I say more? One of the greatest tests of resilience for every child is adapting from being on the top in Year 6 to being at the bottom again in Year 7. What an adjustment to make! What an apparent demotion. Your child has several options on how to adjust from being in Year 6 in a small Primary School to Year 7 in a large Secondary School where all the Year 11 students are giants!

Here are their options (I am not saying they are all good).

1. Stay Humble. Recognise they are not the big cheese in a small Primary School, but one equally small fish in a small pond. This will help them adjust to being a small fish in a big pond.
2. Pretend they are ‘well hard’. Strut around the playground like they own the place and bully little children who are vulnerable to make themselves feel big and strong. This approach never works, as no one will like or respect them. Yet some children have tried this approach anyway and it has backfired on them.
3. Stay Focussed. Learn to understand their transition to high school means focussing on their long-term goals and learning to be more organised. Whilst friendships are important, they are not more important than gaining a great education.

Transition

Before we share our insights on life in Secondary School we want to share a few practical tips for transitioning to Secondary School.

1. Start saving for your child’s school uniform when you find out what school they will be going to. Don’t buy their new uniform until the summertime, as you don’t know how much they will grow in a few months.
2. Take them out shopping for their stationery. Let them have a say in what they would like to buy and choose their own bag and lunch box etc. Secondary Schools can really strip a child of their identity, but their choice of bag and lunchbox design is one way they can show their identity in their new school without receiving detention.
3. Secure a locker for your child. Children are expected to carry so much around with them in Secondary school, especially on a PE day. Sometimes I am tempted to take a donkey to my daughter’s school to make a public statement about it. If you can secure a locker for your child, you will protect them from years of spinal damage.
4. Get to know their form teacher straight away and their email address. Your child’s form teacher will be your first port of call if any problems arise.
5. Find out who other key members of staff are, e.g. the Wellbeing Officer and SENCO, if you think they may be of help to your child during the transition period.
6. Find out what extracurricular activities are available. Sign your child up for at least 1 extracurricular activity at their school if not more. This will help your child learn extra skills and perhaps build new friendships with students with similar tastes to their own.

Year 7

The great part of being in Year 7 is your child will be taught more subjects by different teachers. This means if they don’t like a particular teacher they will only see them once or twice a week, depending on the subject they teach. For your child to get the most out of Year’s 7 & 8 they should have a Growth Mindset and a love of learning.

I have supported students with SEND in schools and also high-achieving students. Some of them have a great growth mindset and love of learning and flourish at school. Some of them think every subject is rubbish and boring and totally pointless, and so they are not getting the most out of their education. The only way to address this issue is for your child to choose to develop a Growth mindset. This will help them excel in life and in their education.

To find out more about Growth Mindset look for our useful websites at the bottom of this page.

On another note, your child may be expected to learn about the life and works of William Shakespeare in Year 7. Be sure to check out our post on Learning about Shakespeare when this topic comes up.

Year 8

Year 8 is the GCSE Options Year. Some schools start the GCSE curriculum in Year 10 and some start it in Year 9. Whichever year it is in your child’s school, it is worth them considering which options they are going to take at GCSE level in Year 8. I have advised hundreds of students and their parents who are making their GCSE options as an Academic Mentor and Career Guidance Officer. My advice is simple: Get as many GCSE’s as high a grade as possible.

GCSE’s stand for General Certificate in Secondary Education. I always make a point of explaining this to students so they know what they are studying for.

I use the adventure game TV show, The Crystal Maze as an example. I explain that the more crystals the team has the longer time they have in the Crystal Dome, and the better chances they have of getting loads of gold tickets. The same goes for GCSEs. The more GCSE’s a student has the better chances they have of doing a course they really want to do in Further Education, especially if they have high grades. Also, employers are more interested that they have Maths and English at GCSE and so many other GCSE’s, but they don’t necessarily care what the grade is in a particular subject.

It is better to have 10 low grades in GCSEs than just 4 low grades in GCSEs.

If your child knows what they want to do as a career or what they want to study at A Level or degree level they should choose subjects that will lead them there. For example, if your child wants to study Music at a degree level they will need to take Music at GCSE and A Level or take a music vocational course. However, if your child hasn’t the foggiest clue what they want to do in the future they need to choose subjects they are good at.

It is as simple as that.

For more information on choosing GCSE’s check out our post, ‘Making GCSE Choices – A kid’s guide’.

Year 9

Huzzah, your child is in Year 9. Hopefully, they have dropped some of the stupid subjects they really hated and can now focus on subjects they are interested in. This is assuming your child will be starting their GCSE options in Year 9. Our advice for Year 9 students is to make sure they are in the correct maths and science sets for their abilities. The Higher Maths Paper covers additional topics that are not covered in the Foundation Paper. Also, if your child sits the Foundation Paper the highest grade they can achieve is only a 5, which is a top C. It is worth being mindful of this when your child is being placed in their maths set.

Do not let your child’s school change what paper they will sit in their GCSE exam.

Schools are notorious for doing this and it can really impact your child’s confidence. In addition, if they have spent 2 years preparing for the Higher Paper and have dropped to Foundation or vice versa they may not have covered all the topics sufficiently enough to do well in the exam. This is where a tutor could come into use. We will talk about the benefits of getting a tutor when your child reaches Year 10. In the meantime keep checking your child’s progress and fight their corner for them. Make sure their school has submitted any requests for additional support in their exams by the end of Year 9 to the examining boards.

Year 10

By Year 10 your child will have already covered at least a quarter of their GCSE curriculum. If they are struggling in any subject, I strongly advise you to invest in a paid tutor if you can. Just an additional hour or two a week could boost your child’s grade 1-2 fold, if not higher. This could be the difference between them getting onto a Further Education course they want to do or taking a year out to resit their exams, which can have a massive impact on their confidence and self-esteem.

My brother is a private tutor and has seen amazing results in his students under his tutelage. This is because he can offer 1:1 teaching and cover topics over and over again until the student has mastered them. A teacher who is covering a whole class of students cannot give this amount of attention to just one student. For a link to a private tutor in your area please see our useful websites list below.

Year 11

The big exam year! If your child has already completed two years of their GCSE curriculum then their last year will mostly include revision. They will have mostly forgotten everything they learned in Year 9. Hopefully, they will have been wise enough to have all the notes neatly written in highly decorated files so they can easily revise previous topics. Our post on Revision Techniques That Actually Work may help.

In the meantime, you need to find a balance to help your child recognise the importance of their GCSE’s, but not stress out about them so much they become sick. Use well-being resources to help them through any stressful situations they are encountering.

If your child suffers from panic attacks encourage them to read our post on how to prevent panic attacks.

A word of warning: Some schools can be a bit naughty and choose to withdraw students from certain exams if they think a student will perform poorly in their exams, and this could lower the overall GCSE results for the whole school. They may advise a student not to sit an exam they have been studying for the last 2 years in order to focus on subjects they may do better in. Do not allow this! Fight your child’s corner here. If they need extra time in their exams or breaks to help them focus then insist they have this. Help your child prepare for their exams through resilience exercises and offer them a healthy quiet place to study at home.

If your child’s school has recommended they do not sit some exams due to their mental health or other concerns, by all means accept their advice and talk to your child about how to plan for the following year, and how you will support them.

Otherwise, let your child sit every single exam and let them feel that marvellous sense of achievement once they have finished.

Our Guide to Supporting SEND Students

SEND Stands for Special Education Needs and Disabilities.

SEND may affect a student’s ability to learn and socialise, depending on their condition for example:

• Students who have dyslexia struggle to read, write and spell words correctly.
• Those with ADHD can find it hard to concentrate
• Autism can affect how a child learns and interacts with others.

If your child has been diagnosed as having ADHD it can be really challenging for them to fit into the school regime. When they are really young they may fidget all the time and find it hard to sit still for too long. On talking to the SENCO at my daughter’s school about this problem she recommends ADHD students use a wobble cushion to sit on whilst at school. It may be worth purchasing it and trying it out at home. If it works well for your child ask the school if they can keep the cushion in class.

When your child is older they may benefit from having a fidget toy. Some schools are a bit fussy about fidget toys as they can be distracting. However, Sops has a little one in her blazer pocket and just fiddles with it when she gets a bit restless and no one else in the classroom is aware. This pack comes with 30 fidget toys. Your child can use them anywhere and swap them when they get bored.

If you suspect your child has a SEND need you should contact the SENCO at your child’s school. The SENCO can arrange screening and tests from an educational psychiatrist to diagnose your child if they think this is the best course of action. They can also gather evidence of your child’s progress and request additional help for exams such as extra time or using a computer.

In addition, the SEND team may set up interventions at school for your child to attend to improve their skills such as handwriting or spelling and grammar.

Some students may need a ‘Statement’ from the Education Authority (EA). This is when they are assessed by a SEND specialist from the EA, and a ‘Statement’ is drawn up identifying their needs and what support will be put in place for them. The ‘Statement’ is reviewed every year to check the child’s progress and offer additional support if necessary. A ‘Statement’ is put in place when the child’s needs cannot be met by their school’s normal SEND support structures. For more information about supporting your child with SEND needs please look at our useful Websites section below.

Our Guide to Supporting High Achieving Students

Once upon a time students who achieved above-average scores in schools were known as ‘Gifted & Talented’ or G&T for short. I am sure you can see the problem with this term in more ways than one? Thankfully, nowadays, schools recognise that all students are gifted and talented in their own ways, but they still recognise that students who achieve above-average results need additional support. They need to be challenged in the classroom, so they can reach their full potential.

Some schools are excellent in providing additional work for high-achieving students to do in the classroom, once they have finished the same task as their fellow classmates. In addition, your child’s school may hold extracurricular activities for high-achieving students to really challenge them. One of my fellow Academic Mentors held an Advance Reading Group for select students to encourage them to read and debate issues.

If your child is a high-achieving student, check out your child’s school’s policy for high-achieving students to know what provision is available to them. If they are especially talented in a particular subject, contact the subject lead teacher to see how they can work with your child to challenge them further, such as setting extended projects.

You could also consider enrolling your child into a specialist private school through a scholarship programme. Or maybe your child could go up a Year? This can have a drawback as you would be separating your child from their peers and they may struggle with loneliness. Speak to your child about what they would like to do and what support they think they need.

In addition, if your child qualifies for free school meals, or is from a low-income family, there are charitable organisations that help high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds to achieve their full potential. Some organisations work in schools such as Villiers Park Education Trust and The Brilliant Club Scholars Programme. Other groups support parents directly such as Potential Plus.

Useful Websites

Children’s University
The School Run
First Tutors
Big Life Journal
BBC Bitesize
Mencap
British Dyslexia Association
Good Schools Guide
Mensa
Potential Plus
Young Minds
My Clothes
Family Pathway

Comments

We hope you have gained a plethora of useful information from our Guide to Returning to School in 2023. We hope your child has a spiffing new year at school this year. If you want to hear more from us, please do sign up for our newsletter below.

Let us know how you feel about your child returning to school this year in the comments below.