Current Year 10 2020/2021 support thread

Did anybody else spot this at the bottom of a BBC news article about Englands pupil catch-up, interview with Sir Kevan Collins the education catch-up tsar.

"It is likely for example that the content of GCSEs in 2022 will have to be slimmed down to match what teenagers have actually been able to learn, Sir Kevan says."

Is it likely to look a bit like the adaptations they were planning for this summer's GCSEs (before they were cancelled) do you think?

Yep same here with screens. DS is actually sat in front of the Xbox far far more than I am comfortable with but it’s how he wants to spend his downtime and as you say StColumbofNavron it’s how he communicates with his mates.

DD has always been a night owl but it’s getting later and later. On Saturday night/Sunday morning I got up to go to the toilet around 3am and DD was still up, brushing her teeth with the lights on in her room and just getting ready to go to bed. That is a ridiculous time to be going to bed!

Screens are the same issue here @HelloDulling. Gaming is all three of ours chosen leisure activity and it’s tricky to say no when it’s also the way they are keeping in touch with friends.

So pleased the sale finally went through, Silkie. I’m sorry to hear about your DH, fingered crossed for good news. My DH had a bowel biopsy just before Christmas (all clear), the wait is horrible.

We are plodding on her. Am a bit worried about DD’s focus, she staying up later and later, and is never off her screen (alas, not school work).

Year 7 DS is struggling too. I think three days ended in tears last week. Just need to get to half term now, for a week away from Teams.

Thanks Rollergirl We already moved 2 years ago but was renovating old one before selling it, it all got held up in lockdown as well.

Hey all, it’s been a while since I’ve checked in so thought was about time. We are just about coping. The kids are doing okay.
Actually DD is struggling more than DS at the moment which is unusual. She is finding it difficult to keep up her motivation for the subjects that she is less interested in. So that’s all the 3 Sciences. She finds that she ends up going on her phone or zoning out. That being said we had online Parents evening a few weeks ago and her teachers were all very happy with DD and she is on track to get 9’s in all her subjects which is absolutely amazing! She also did the IMC a few days ago in place of their usual Maths lesson.
DS is thriving with the home-schooling. It’s actually really helpful as we get to see how much better he is able to concentrate on his work when he’s on his ADHD medication.
They are both totally desperate to get back to school though. Fingers crossed it is 8th March and doesn’t end up being pushed back. I had mentally prepared for them not going back till after Easter so I wouldn’t be disappointed but now what with the vaccination roll-out going so well I’m daring to hope that it might actually be March!
Well done Silkie on your house going through! When will you be moving? Fingers crossed that you have better news ref DH’s skin cancer.

So one more week till half term. I am counting down the days. I just wish it was better weather. I feel like it’s been raining for weeks. I don’t even care if it it’s cold and not sunny, just wish it was dry. So depressed looking out the window at the rain ☔️ 😰

Thanks Its DS had to sit UKMT in his own time too but having said that he misses so many lessons its not unfair in his case. DD's was instead of a lesson.

Re English its DD's weakest and mine though I've tried to help and asked school to help and she's at a 7+ current now for both English so much better. Part of it seems exam technique at least for language. I looked on exam board website and if gives teachers marking schemes and example papers, the marking is a bit bizarre compared to factual subjects but its a case of trying to replicate what they want. Seemed to have lots of describing words in. So rather than Mike walked to the shop, its things like adding in long words describing noise of his footsteps or about him, its quite ott but gets the marks. Reading set texts may help. Or can you get access to online lessons. It's something like hurrying down the dark, desolate, dimly-lit street where the streetlights flickered Mike, ... Mr Bruff is often recommended but DD didn't take to.

Hi Silkie,

So pleased to hear your house sale finally went through but hugs about the DH skin cancer. Hope he can be seen quickly, I think if they catch it early enough there is a really good survival rate. Well done to your DD for the HMMT thing, sounds like an amazing opportunity for her.

DS did the IMC yesterday but they made him do it after school time which I thought was a bit mean. He has had loads of assessments and has had some of his English results back which are quite concerning - we have a lot of work to do there. I am hoping that I can work through some study guides with him rather than trying to find a tutor he likes but it's a looooong time since I did GCSEs and they have changed a lot since then! Any suggestions for books/resources greatly appreciated!

We should get the rest of the results next week I think and then parents evening just after half term. We're certainly counting down to half term, feels like lesson by lesson some days! Feeling a bit stumped for ideas for nice things to do in half term but hopefully just not having to do school will be a good break.

It has been hard to keep going and the horrible weather doesn't help but surely Spring must be on its way even if it feels quite far off at the moment.

Thanks Columbo I'm really hoping its early or doctor was wrong and its clear - if its early he's already had it and the skin around it cut out so may only be monitoring, if its stage 4 its pretty bleak and hard to know which as he's not been checked for years. They did have a check of lymph nodes and said appeared OK so hopefully its all clear to stage 2 though stage 2 is 80% survival rate over 5 years so not ideal but better than the 30% of stage 4. Have to wait 4 weeks to know which seems very long when they suspect cancer. I may get him to try and phone next week to see if its in as I've found when I've had checks they often have result but don't tell you if its clear for ages. Just so glad house sale is through as that sorts finances.

Oh @Silkiechickscat I’m sorry to hear about DH. Hoping it’s caught early. So pleased about the house though, that has been hanging around.

Hi all, how is everyone getting on? Very glad its half term soon - DD in year 10 is doing well, DS in y9 needs me to do everything for him / with him. House sale finally exchanged and completed today which is a huge relief but now looks like DH has skin cancer.

DD is doing lots of maths competitions and just done IMC with DS and also doing the Harvard MIT (HMMT) Feb comp as part of a UK team. She's really keen to be back at school and finding it hard at home when DS is screaming as he hates home learning.

Checking in to the thread. My dd will start year 10 in September. She'll be doing English x2, maths, triple science, Spanish, German, art and history. It's been a bit traumatic getting her to the point of making the decisions- she was very stressed about it, worrying that she'd choose the wrong ones! We're all relieved the form is in and hoping the she gets the choices she wants.

We also have the working at and some grades, presumably if they continue at current working level/ethic etc. Parents’ Evening is in March when I am hoping to gauge more detail.

DS prefers being at home, no disruption, can knuckle down. But as he’d only this year really found his people and they aren’t very sociable either I have no idea if they are even messaging each other so maintaining some contact. His younger brother games so speaks to people everyday but DS1 games long strategy games and he likes to do them by himself and he said no one plays them anyway.

We have masses of grades though looks like under teacher assessments grades up until now would not be useable but at least gives a guide to how they are doing. DD has current grade and minimum expected grade for every subject though physics as teacher has been long-term sick is just a year 9 grade and they've missed quite a lot of lessons.

DD is getting down with lockdown and wants to be back in school. She misses seeing friends and cannot see anyone under current rules. She is studying OK and at least this time school are running a full curriculum for year 10. She is finding this lockdown harder than last years - so are we all there is no end in sight. The house sale has been hitting problems and really need that to go through, it looks now like its just a delay but who knows until exchange.

DS (ASD) has been really struggling - I have to do everything for him and he is screaming, stomping, refusing to learn, screamed until he fell asleep the other day. School did finally offer him a place one day a week but it would be teach yourself and night before it got cancelled by Deputy Head. They then gave a list of things he couldn't do and said he could go in on Fridays but it was clear he wasn't wanted and wouldn't cope and he refused anyway. Senco is trying to get them to give the place to DD 1 day a week but so far its a no. They are really strict and almost no-one is in, about 5% max. I hope this eases soon and they can go back.

I would love to book a summer holiday but that looks too risky and we need house sale money to pay for it. I think if there was something to look forward too it would help. I just booked 2 nights in May half term which I'm sure will get cancelled and after I booked I realised it wasn't May half term At least it wasn't too much money and if it gets cancelled we get refunded.

We’re also had no data on how DC is doing. In fact school saying they can’t give target grades this year? Is this common? Seems strange.

Anyone else having difficulty getting a gauge on their child’s learning?

Hi all,

Thought people might want to sign this petition to get GCSE content amended for our children.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/568162?fbclid=IwAR3rzOYHTQCyKSHwS0lQII3H6d9XZKY90fDv-zqOlJdUQS1z20lW97veQAE
Ideally they need to make this decision now so that schools can plan what they are teaching and focus on the correct areas.

Just had a chat with DS during "break" and he has admitted he finds concentrating in online lessons much harder than being in school even in subjects he enjoys like science, so even though being at home quite suits him it's just not as good as actual in person school. He has had assessments for most subjects last week and this, yesterday he spent most of the maths lesson trying to work out how to do the test in google docs even though all the maths was changed into unreadable symbols rather than following the instructions and doing it on paper! He had to finish it after his other lessons and I photographed it and uploaded it. They said they were not imposing a time limit as they had no way to enforce it, wonder what other subjects did. It will be interesting to see his results when they come as we have had no data on how he is doing since middle of year 9 and his target grades are all very high.

Hope everybody is coping, challenging times! Two more weeks until half term and then at least two weeks after, sigh.

I was previously MercedesdeMonteChristo.

I have to say our schools online offering has improved hugely and DS is motivated and he has always struggled a bit with the social side so he is loving working from home. From a parent’s perspective it is a shame as he had just started to have a few ‘real’ friends rather than kids who he plays football with or whatever.

Totally fell off the thread. Placemarking whilst I catch up.

DD is managing fine, doing all by herself and doing well.

DS is a complete nightmare and needs me to do everything - school now require 5.5 hours a day of live lessons and its marked unauthorised absence if you aren't there. He is screaming, whining, moaning, pretending he is deaf, sleeping in the day, kicking one day and won't read, write or use computer and I have other things like house sale / move to sort though that looks about to collapse. I did resign then senco said he could have place but deputy head withdrew it and DS doesn't want to go in until school is normal. I so hope this ends soon.

We are muddling along through and settling into a routine. DS actually had two emails from school to check how he is doing which I though was nice, I was copied in so I also replied to say how I think he is doing. He has an English "assessment" in his lesson today (language reading paper I think), then another tomorrow and next week. Not sure about other subjects, they were supposed to have a full week of assessments this week.

I did get a reply from his maths teacher and his Cayley result has not come back so she said she would chase but wasn't hopeful. Good news is she did confirm he will be doing the IMC on 4th Feb, it's all online this year so should go smoothly.

Really not sure how sustainable this is though, feels like quite a lot more effort for teachers and students than regular school. I'm counting the school days to half term (after today 17 to go!) Somehow I can't see secondary schools being fully back after half term so who knows when they will be back? We have parents eve scheduled for just after half term but they have already said it will be online (which I though worked brilliantly last term, no sprinting around the school, no running late, all from the comfort of my sofa!)

OH MY GOD IT’S AWFUL.

DD is fine; 5 live lessons each day, she’s cracking on. Missing her friends, missing her teachers, but she’s still smiling.

Year 7 DS is a very different creature. Live lessons, with the chat box pinging away, just stress him out. And then stress me out. I really, really can’t handle it until Easter.

2 weeks down, hope we're all doing ok!!!

Yesterday was a tough one for DD, they have 5 lessons a day and all of them were live - Maths, English, Geography, Chemistry and French . She's coping well on the whole, awful weather here is making it difficult to get much fresh air but she does admit to feeling better when she gets out a bit.

I know that all settings are different but school have been really great, at least 2 or 3 live lessons a day (only yesterday so far with all 5), feedback on what they're uploading, even posting out new workbooks if printing is a problem. Teachers and school staff everywhere need some sort of medal - if there's any on here I'm in absolute awe of you all.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Thanks to everyone who wished DS well for his exam this morning - he's home now and apparently it 'went really well' He said it was easier than the Mocks and easier than the old exam papers he's been working through - I've no idea whether that means the exam board felt sorry for the kids and deliberately made it easy, or whether it's coincidence - or indeed, whether it's only DS who found it easy! Whichever way, it's nice that it's out of the way

So now we all have to wait and see what happens for our DCs exams next year... what a time to be a teenager!

All the best to @Gumbo's DS today! Hope it goes well.

DS seems to be doing ok, they are following their usual timetables but yr10 get a study period instead of "humanities" and they are saying they can be flexible about when they do PE and they are giving them a mix and match grid to choose from (in DS's case I suspect this means he won't do PE!)

Sadly my yr7 is finding it a bit overwhelming and hard work and "all of the good parts of school are gone" :( DS isn't missing the social side at all but he has ASD so I think the other students are an annoyance for him usually rather than a plus! He is completely happy to hide alone in his room on his chromebook. Not sure how they are going to do the assessments they were due to do this term but school have said they want to do them if it is possible.

It's about to be breaktime so I should probably go and throw some snacks at them!

Good luck to Gumbo's Ds today - I think its the right decision to go in, surprised its been left to children to decide as surely that will default to ones likely to do well taking it but presumably they can benchmark against other years. I think its better to have the evidence to support the grades as if it goes to teacher assessment there'll be some over-grading and then it will be needing to prove a grade.

Saw the y11s they are proposing adding teacher assessed exams in summer either sat in school or at home now after saying no exams and only teacher assessment. I guess its teacher assessed exams (and think just proposed at this stage) but feel for y11s dealing with this chaos and hope our y10s don't get the same though not overly hopeful on that one. DD is remarkably relaxed on it all. No idea how you could do exams from home with no cheating.

MrsW Glad your DD is doing well, avoiding school drama and finding future plans. DD got me to contact a proposed 6th form over the weekend and they've replied they are opening but date tbc.

Good luck with the remote learning today - DS first lesson is PE but DS hates PE and will growl if I suggest it - I suggested to DH he could risk death and wake DS up and tell him its PE It seems to be star jumps etc. Then we have English, Engineering, Maths and RE I think. Plus trying to get some progress on house sale. All good fun!