It’s time to talk tips for starting Year 8. The end of the school term is fast approaching. In another couple of weeks, your child will be leaving their bright, colourful classroom and getting ready to embark on a new journey! There will be tears, butterflies in tummies but also lots of smiles and memories being made. And that’s just from you parents! By this stage, your child will have already gotten their Year 8 places allocated. Those long lists of school supplies have been sent out and induction events have been scheduled. So what can you do to help prepare your little ones for this big leap into Year 8? That’s what we are going to talk all about today! Hopefully, these tips will help your child jump into their new school with confidence, smiles and a bright new school bag!
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When will my child start Year 8?
The date when your child will first start Year 8 is something that you need to get on your calendar ASAP. Especially if you are booking holidays! The first day of Year 8, is not to be missed unless it is an emergency. The first day of Year 8 is when your child will meet their peer group, and their form teacher and get their timetable. Some post-primary schools will hold induction days in June where students can come and meet their peer group and have another tour around the school. Most post-primary schools go back at the end of August. So you can expect your child to have a start date anytime between the 23rd and 30th of August. The first day of year 8 can be a full day or sometimes the school decides to ease them in gently with a half-day. However, every school is different so triple-check your child’s school for the exact dates and times.
What do they need to bring on their first day?
Wake up early, have a hearty breakfast and put on that crisp new uniform. Following a first-day photoshoot in the front garden, it’s time for your child to head off for their FIRST DAY OF BIG SCHOOL! Your child’s new school should send them a checklist of things to bring on their first day. But if they don’t, I recommend bringing a notebook, pens, pencils, highlighters, a folder, a school bag and some snacks and lunch. During the first day or two, your child should be given their timetable for the year, school holiday list and a homework diary.
7 tips for starting Year 8
Starting Year 8 is a big deal. So many things are changing in your child’s life right now. They have left their primary school and classmates that they have been with for 7 or so years. They are now wearing a big heavy blazer that they aren’t used to and have hockey sticks, and big textbooks and might be getting a bus or train by themselves for the first time! I don’t know about you, but it’s making me anxious just thinking about it! So let’s talk about some ways you can help ease the stress of starting Year 8 for your child.
Revise any tricky topics from Primary School
The first of my tips for starting Year 8 is to do a bit of revision. There are probably a couple of topics that your child just could not get to grips with in Primary 7. Having a solid foundation of the Key Stage 2 English and Maths topics can really help your child enter Year 8 with confidence and with the skills needed to make this transition a bit easier. Year 8 will be fast-paced with new topics and friends. You can’t control how your child will take to these new things but what you can control is their understanding of the primary school curriculum.
What are the tricky topics?
Over the years, I’ve noticed that it usually is the same topics that come up on repeat. Some examples are decimal place values, percentages, fractions, ratios and probability. We won’t discuss algebra just yet…Oh what the heck, we may as well talk about it now. You’re probably already an emotional wreck that your child is all grown up so algebra can be the cherry on top of your emotional cake! Some Primary 7 teachers introduce algebra before the students leave primary school. Some don’t and that’s ok. But I’ve found that it is useful to do a wee bit of work on algebra over the summer to take away those scary feelings of this topic. The ‘beginner’ version of algebra is those sums which have blank boxes or spaces where you have to find the missing numbers. It’s best to start with this before asking your child to find the value of a…
Keep Reading
During your child’s transfer test preparation and even if they didn’t sit the tests, reading was probably a big part of their Primary 6 and 7 homework. Your child might love reading, which will make this preparation tip easy for you parents! Or the thought of sitting down with a book makes them roll their eyes! So you might need to use some bribery if you get the dreaded eye roll or huffing and puffing! I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep your child reading over the summer months. Year 8 English involves a lot of reading, analysing, interpreting and discussing books and poems. You can help prepare your child for this by discussing what they have read with them. It doesn’t matter if they are reading Charles Dickens or David Walliams, as long as they are reading!
Talk about the new subjects they will be studying
Another of my tips for Year 8 is talking about the new subjects that they will be studying. You can’t control whether they will like the subjects or not but you can remove the sense of the unknown by talking about what each subject involves. For example, talk about Technology and Design and that this involves designing and making things from wood, metal etc. Talk about your school days and what subjects you loved most. Giving your child awareness of these new subjects, no matter how small that awareness is can give them a wee confidence boost.
Meet new friends
If I could go back in time and tell 11-year-old Kerry not to put pressure on herself to make friends on the very first day of Year 8, I would. I remember crying on the way down to school on the first day of Year 8. I was the only Primary 7 that went to Hunterhouse from my primary school that year, so I knew no-one! Reassure your child that if they don’t make friends on the first day or the first week then that’s ok! They have time, there is no rush! Remind your child just to be themselves. Don’t change just to fit in with a group of peers on the first day of school.
Bus/train routes
If your child is getting the bus or train to their new school, I highly recommend taking the bus or train route a few times during the summer to help them become familiar with the bus/train route, the stops and where the closest place for them to get off the bus or train is for them. After a couple of weeks of getting public transport, your child will be a pro! But those first few days can be scary. I remember jumping on the pink, Metro bus and not knowing it didn’t go where I needed to go. I ended up panicking, getting off at a random stop and calling my mum in a panic! Of course, the phones back them didn’t have tracking apps or the function to drop a pin. So I had to describe my surroundings while my mum drove around trying to find me!
Go stationary shopping
This is one of my favourite tips for starting Year 8! Stationary shopping! The stationary list for Year 8 will probably be the length of your arm! There are so many bits and pieces to purchase for secondary school. Say goodbye to the days of just buying pencils, erasers and colouring pencils. In Year 8, your child will need pens in different colours, usually blue, black, red and green. They will also need pencils, colouring pencils, highlighters, a ruler, a protractor, a compass, glue, Sellotape, Post-it notes, a scientific calculator, poly-pockets, folders for each subject and notebooks. And that’s before your child chooses a fancy new school bag and pencil case to match! Your child’s school should send out a supply list for the beginning of Year 8. But if not, grab the things I have listed above to start.
Try on that new fancy uniform
Usually, when the post-primary school places are allocated in May, you will see a queue forming outside the school uniform shops. I know both you and your child are super excited about their new school. But your child is probably going to have a major growth spurt over those summer months. Go and give them a try on and check with the uniform supplier to see when the latest date you can place your order is. When it comes to purchasing school shoes, check with your child’s school which shoes they have in their uniform criteria. Some schools don’t mind as long as the shoes are black but some are very strict about this. So it’s best to double-check before making your purchase.
More information on tips for starting Year 8
5 Strategies for Successful School Transitions
The transition from primary to secondary school
10 Tips for How to Prepare for High School or Secondary School
5 fun, memorable activities for your Primary 7 leavers
I hope your child enjoys their first few weeks of Year 8 and these tips help prepare them a bit better. Just like with transfer test preparation, following these 7 tips will help your child be as prepared as they can be for this next part of their educational journey. They may still feel nervous on their first day but that’s completely normal. Enjoy these last few weeks of primary school, make lovely summer memories and take photos of your child in their extremely oversized blazer! Don’t forget to share this post and tips for starting Year 8 with your child’s school friends to help them prepare too!
