My not so little boy is starting secondary school in September. Almost 13 years old now it still feels too soon to let him off to make his own way in secondary school. I worry because I’m a parent, I worry because he’s a sensitive boy and I know what boys are like. They can be tough, cruel and immature.

My boy is an only child and so maybe we could be forgiven for wrapping him up in cotton wool. He attended a small primary school only a couple of miles from home, to which we dropped him off every morning and picked him up every afternoon. His primary school was mixed and so too will be his secondary school, thankfully. I think a mixed school is more accepting of a child that is more sensitive, like my boy, and perhaps a little less worldly than the other students his age.

My wife and I have spent the last year trying to prepare him for secondary school. We’ve enrolled him in a local youth club to meet more of the locals likely to be in his new school, in addition to the few pupils transitioning with him from his own primary school.

We also signed him up for a couple of summer camps being run by his new school in the hope that he will make some new friends before that first day in September. I think knowing the lay of the land will stand to him, such as the school building itself, the sports pitches and facilities and some of the younger teachers who have been running the camps.

He also had to make his own way to these camps (although I secretly followed him the first couple of days). He had to get the Dart there and the bus home. He was well able of course, but as a parent I think you always worry.

"I drive an articulated lorry up and down to Cork five nights a week... I’m conscious that I’m going to have to carve out some quality father-son time at the weekends to help keep the lines of communication open."

Aside from the social and emotional transition to secondary school, I worry about the academics. There’s so much more pressure now on kids to do well in school in order to set themselves up for the best college courses and career choices. They say boys do better academically in mixed schools and that girls do better in single sex schools, I hope this rings true for my boy. 

I left school at 16 years old to start earning. I wasn’t very academic but I enjoyed the craic with my mates and was shall we say ‘well-known’ in school. I now work for a transport company and drive an articulated lorry up and down to Cork five nights a week. The shift work is hard on my family and my hope is that my little man will eventually find a career path that offers a better work-life balance, and one that leaves him fulfilled and happy.

We’ll be like passing ships in the night with the new longer school day as I’ll be heading off to work when he is just getting home from school. I’m conscious that I’m going to have to carve out some quality father-son time at the weekends to help keep the lines of communication open. Boys are notoriously bad at keeping their feelings to themselves so I reckon this time will be important in uncovering any issues that might be worrying him during those first few weeks at his new school and beyond.  

Bob Furney is a Daddy Blogger with Mummypages.ie.