Tweens and schoolwork -- How tough do you have to be?

A little background -- I have a bright 12 yo boy who has always gotten decent grades without having to try too hard. This year, he's started high school (7th grade where we are). It's been a rough 4 weeks. Losing binders, totally forgetting to note down and complete his homework etc...He admitted to feeling very overwhelmed the first couple of weeks and started to show signs of improvement last week.Yesterday he had a Ped day. I left him home for 5 hours, during which he was expected to complete 2 tasks for homework, which would have given him plenty of time to 'chill', which for him translates to Fortnite and being on his phone. I get home at 2, he's still in his pyjamas and no homework done. I've never had to take such drastic measures but the game console and phone quickly disappeared. He will now only gets the phone during school hours (he takes city transit, he needs it for bus schedules and emergencies). I don't want to be totalitarian about screen use but I was at the end of my rope.Question for you parents of tweens/teens out there: How harsh does one need to be before seeing results ? Do things like 'homework contracts' actually work? I am trying to figure out where to go from here with regard to expectations and strategies.​ via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2zt0jfA