Changing secondary schools mid-term

orlam77

My son has started hanging around with much older lads in school and I've noticed a change in his attitude. He's a good kid generally but I'm thinking of moving him to a different school by the October break. He's just gone into second year and is currently in a mixed community school. The new school would be all boys. Has anyone had experience in this area?

thefasteriwalk

orlam77 wrote: »

My son has started hanging around with much older lads in school and I've noticed a change in his attitude. He's a good kid generally but I'm thinking of moving him to a different school by the October break. He's just gone into second year and is currently in a mixed community school. The new school would be all boys. Has anyone had experience in this area?

I think you'd be better posting this in 'Teaching and Learning', where experienced teachers may have insight. I believe this thread is for 2nd and 3rd years.

orlam77

New to this. Thanks

thefasteriwalk

It's actually 'Teaching and Lecturing'. My bad.

spurious

I'll move it.

spurious

OP - I'm not sure moving school will make any difference. If he's attracted to an older crowd in one school, he will find them in the other school.

Has he many interests outside school? Clubs, sports etc.?

seriouslysweet

Does he have a place in the other school? You can't just move...we had huge problems getting places.

rainbowtrout

orlam77 wrote: »

My son has started hanging around with much older lads in school and I've noticed a change in his attitude. He's a good kid generally but I'm thinking of moving him to a different school by the October break. He's just gone into second year and is currently in a mixed community school. The new school would be all boys. Has anyone had experience in this area?

Have you had any contact from the school about his behaviour, i.e. how he's behaving in class, is he doing homework? Is he meeting these boys outside school? That might be the place to start. If he is meeting them outside school hours, it doesn't matter what school he is in really.

Is he in communication with them in the evening after school through Facebook or mobile phone? It might eb easier to restrict contact this way than moving schools. How is he getting on in school aside from this new group of friends?

Fuinseog

orlam77 wrote: »

My son has started hanging around with much older lads in school and I've noticed a change in his attitude. He's a good kid generally but I'm thinking of moving him to a different school by the October break. He's just gone into second year and is currently in a mixed community school. The new school would be all boys. Has anyone had experience in this area?

its a common enough problem, but I believe changing schools just like that would create more problems that it would solve. I would seek out the guidance councellor for their advice and defintely as a parent be very much aware of what he is doing after school.

Seanchai

I don't really want to say too much on this but from my own perspective we have had a significant number of students join us from other secondary schools after or before the JC, many of whom said they were being bullied and were accepted in on those grounds. After a while it transpired in about 65% of cases that it was they who were consistently disrupting classes in our school. As unfair as it may sound: there is a cynicism about students from other schools pulling the 'béal bocht' as a reason for their leaving their existing school. Or, in other words, the principal has told them to leave and has promised them not to write a bad reference, just so he could move a problem student on to another principal.

Having said those rather cynical comments, some of the nicest kids I've known have come from other secondary schools, albeit a minority of them.

bdoo

thefasteriwalk wrote: »

I think you'd be better posting this in 'Teaching and Learning' .

Someone's doing too many croke park hours, buzzwords stuck in your head.

solerina

I think you may be causing many problems for you child...each teacher/subject dept chooses the order of topics they teach and this will differ from school to school so there may be many topics which your son has not covered in his school which will have been covered in his new school and he wont have them done (and wont get a chance to do them...due to busy course loads etc)....I dont think its a good idea OP...

evolving_doors

solerina wrote: »

I think you may be causing many problems for you child...each teacher/subject dept chooses the order of topics they teach and this will differ from school to school so there may be many topics which your son has not covered in his school which will have been covered in his new school and he wont have them done (and wont get a chance to do them...due to busy course loads etc)....I dont think its a good idea OP...

Meh!!, from my own (limited) experience the JC course doesn't really start till 2nd year. Although there are probably some schools who start in 1st year... also given the fact that the son may not be doing much in the current school negates any difference in scheme of works..

personally though i'd need to find out more as regards grades and progress from the teachers/year head..(difficult given that it;s the start of the year) some proactive 'sounding out' with the principal might get the skates under him as regards his work. These days with changes in pupil teacher ratios, the loss of just one student may mean a principal having to cut staff!

solerina

Armelodie wrote: »

Meh!!, from my own (limited) experience the JC course doesn't really start till 2nd year. Although there are probably some schools who start in 1st year... also given the fact that the son may not be doing much in the current school negates any difference in scheme of works..

personally though i'd need to find out more as regards grades and progress from the teachers/year head..(difficult given that it;s the start of the year) some proactive 'sounding out' with the principal might get the skates under him as regards his work. These days with changes in pupil teacher ratios, the loss of just one student may mean a principal having to cut staff!

I think you will find that in many subject areas you are completely wrong....I am a science teacher and I have 14 topics from the junior cert course covered from first year..so if the child moves to a school where the teacher has also 14 topics done but maybe an entirely different range of topics you could be making more problems for him (as I said before)....

thefasteriwalk

solerina wrote: »

I think you will find that in many subject areas you are completely wrong....I am a science teacher and I have 14 topics from the junior cert course covered from first year..so if the child moves to a school where the teacher has also 14 topics done but maybe an entirely different range of topics you could be making more problems for him (as I said before)....

Yep - it's the same with History. Some JC courses are incredibly long.

evolving_doors

solerina wrote: »

I think you will find that in many subject areas you are completely wrong....I am a science teacher and I have 14 topics from the junior cert course covered from first year..so if the child moves to a school where the teacher has also 14 topics done but maybe an entirely different range of topics you could be making more problems for him (as I said before)....

As I said, it depends on the school, my point was that the OP has to weigh these issues against the possibility of his son staying in the school and not doing a jot for the next two (or 5) years. If the son;s grades aren't up to scratch throughout second year in the current school, and his attitude starts to become negative, how easy will he find it to improve in third year, fourth year, fifth year etc.., now consider if he did make a new start in a new school sooner rather than later!

Really I was suggesting to the OP to get in contact (and stay in contact) with with the current school to find out how exactly he is doing (behaviour, grades, organisation etc) with the clear understanding that he is considering taking the son out if he's not pulling his weight. That's what I'd do anyway rather than let it slip through the cracks and potter along.

Miss Lockhart

solerina wrote: »

I think you will find that in many subject areas you are completely wrong....I am a science teacher and I have 14 topics from the junior cert course covered from first year..so if the child moves to a school where the teacher has also 14 topics done but maybe an entirely different range of topics you could be making more problems for him (as I said before)....

Definitely the same in all the schools I've worked in for most subjects. We have 18 science topics done in 1st Year. With Coursework B in 3rd Year it's crucial to get a good start in year one.

evolving_doors

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

Definitely the same in all the schools I've worked in for most subjects. We have 18 science topics done in 1st Year. With Coursework B in 3rd Year it's crucial to get a good start in year one.

Fair enough, but it's also crucial to get a good 'finish' in years 2 and 3. What I am saying is that i've had the experience of students doing a 'great' first year but downright refused to work in 2nd and 3rd year when the 2nd year teenage blues kick in. Now, I''m not saying that that is what is happening the OP's son but nevertheless it is a possibility that he needs to consider. 'Hanging around with a bad bunch of lads' can range from innocuous to serious. So then again he could be fine where he is and everything could turn out ok..

I think the only person who will know for sure is the OP after he talks to teachers/year heads/principal etc (sooner rather than later). Really we're only guessing the extent of the issue here as we don;t have enough info. But I feel the OP will get a speedier response if he lets all concerned know that he is considering moving school.