Week two is the easy part: Back to school anxiety in Year 7

Nobody told me the first fortnight is the easy part. Week one runs on adrenaline and new pencil cases. Week two is when the mask starts slipping and you find out what secondary school is actually going to cost your child. For parents supporting a child with ADHD or SEND through the Year 7 transition, this is the point where the polite version of "settling in" gives way to something closer to the truth. Back to school anxiety doesn't peak on the first day, it builds through the second and third weeks, once the novelty wears off and the sheer scale of secondary school life, new building, new timetable, new expectations, starts to add up.

If week two has been rough, week three is usually where it either steadies or tips. This is the point to try something small and specific rather than something big and hopeful: pick one part of the day that's clearly costing your child the most, the school gates, the corridor changeovers, the walk into a full canteen, and give it one script or one plan, rather than trying to fix the whole week at once. A child who is masking well at school is not coping well, they're spending everything they have to look fine, and that bill usually gets paid at home. Watching for the after-school collapse rather than what teachers report is often the more honest read on how the transition is actually going.

The reality most parents aren't prepared for is that this isn't a six-week settling-in period, it's five days a week for the rest of the school year, and the strategies that get a family through October are not the same as the ones needed for a full term. If you want a fuller framework for getting through the whole run to Christmas, not just the first fortnight, my guide "The First Six Weeks of Year 7" walks through exactly this: why a successful September can unravel in October, and what to do before things fall apart.