Current Year 10 2020/2021 support thread

First day of our two week home-schooling done today. DD is great and just gets on with it up in her room. She had 3 lots of double periods today which she said was tough sat on a call for 1 hour 40. DS was amazing and was pretty much self sufficient for all his lessons despite having assessments in three of his six subjects today. One positive to him being at home is I get a chance to see just how effective his medication is in a school (live lessons) environment. So much better to how he was in the first lockdown where I basically had to sit by his side for 5 hours!

Lots of people out in DD's year (her best friend is on her 3rd lot of SI so far!) but she's managed to stay in so far, only 5 in one class last week and 12 in another!
Triple science is compulsory for us, DD is definitely NOT blessed with mathematician genes so SMC was a new one on me as well . This is likely to be an issue later on as as DD is really keen on taking Physics through to A Level but I'm sure most places want you to do Maths alongside.............

@SilkieRabbits that totally explains why I don’t know what they are then.

Our school just lets you pick Triple Science if you want to. I imagine there is some guidance if they don’t think you are up to it. DS is just a humanities/languages bod so it didn’t come up for us.

DS confirmed over a game of cards that he is definitely not planning on staying in London for uni, which is a bit scary because he basically never goes anywhere!

My DD also worried about triple/double science. She has been having tests in all three Sciences this week which will be used as evidence in deciding which they should do. She's currently in a Triple Science class and has been working v hard so am hoping she'll be able to stay there.

Ah yes it makes sense that they have put them on the Thursday/Friday - I read four day weekend and assumed they were doing Friday and Monday but it will just fit into half term. Scary thought that our yr10s will be in the middle of their exams then!!

My son has been panicking about assessments which will determine double or triple science. He is in top set and usually top set and sometimes set 2 do triple. It seems due to Covid they may be reducing the number taking triple so that they need to cover less content.

I think the Bank holidays are on the Thursday/Friday of the half term week and the Monday one will be scrapped so our Kids will be mid-GCSE for the long weekend!

SMC = Senior Maths Challenge
JMC = Junior Maths Challenge

Both run by UKMT

I must say that if I had a little tin of key words and flashcards on the table and pulled them out at intervals as suggested it would provoke fury. Some teens must be more amenable but mine is impossibly independent!

What are SMC and JMC?

I actually love exams and the process of revision, much more than I like essays (though I like those too). DS will pull it out of the bag because he will not want to fail but frustrating in the process.

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We are on day 1 of home ed but its going really well. DS won't do anything in computing at school but I got him to do the end of term assessment with me and he got 94% and excelling. The computing teacher was but very happy. He was also asking DD about computing GCSE and asked her if her test was on paper or on computer and she said on paper and he said that was good. It seems he is refusing to do computing on a computer but will do it on paper or with me typing on computer. Though how computing with a computer works I don't know.

Also did Of Mice and Men and English teacher has confirmed right book and he loves it. She says he's started writing an amazing essay but has hidden it from her and she wants to get hold of it so that is my next task. Then its French and Business to do. He's so much happier though now he's home.

He loved the SMC as well, awaiting results - think the scores for the different grades will be sky high this year as done over 4 days and some online so very easy for some people to cheat assuming you had access to someone bright enough to help. He was day 1 in school but still was good experience and he said it went well. The JMC results went sky high when went online though he did very well in that and got best in school and top category with close to 100%. DD was really angry with DS as she was doing it in school on day 4 that DS wouldn't tell her any questions and she said a normal brother would have helped her cheat. A fine career in banking awaits her.

Just had an email from school to say that school will be closing for 2 weeks from Monday for all students other than Years 11 and 13. As of yesterday afternoon there were 21 new cases recorded this week and there are 350 students currently out having to self-isolate. They are planning to offer the pupils their full timetable via live lessons on Microsoft teams. They are confident that they will be able to re-open at the beginning of December for the remainder of the term. But I can imagine the government will then announce a national early closing of schools ahead of Christmas because infection rates aren’t coming down quick enough.

So back to a variation on home-schooling for me! 🤦‍♀️😬

I think they’ll move the half term - pretty sure that’s what happened for the one in 2012. Does assume she’ll still be going then of course...

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for a while so I hope you don't mind me joining in. Loving all the revision tips.

My DS is in yr10 and has ASD, he is spending today in isolation (at school) after getting very angry and throwing things at another child who was winding him up. It's tricky for him, especially after months of being at home learning online (which I think he quite liked!) School have been pretty understanding about it but I am feeling like a rubbish parent at the moment.

I was just wondering about how the news of the extra bank holiday in 2022 (for the queens platinum jubilee) will impact the exams that summer? Will they just move the half term? What do people think?

Also waves to SilkieRabbits - my DS did the SMC last week as well, the school at first said it wouldn't be possible but then on Wednesday he came home very excited with a log in code to do it online! If we had had some notice we would have done some practice with him but he enjoyed doing it anyway so that is the main thing.

DS now has to self-isolate until next Friday as a close contact has covid. Fearing he may see this as a holiday I said so this will be like lockdown we will do the lessons from home. Then he got super excited realising he will miss PHSE sex education day, we will be giving that one a miss from home The rest of the lessons I had a commentary on computing no-one likes, science is so easy you learn nothing, French well that'll be an improvement not to have the teacher might be able to understand it without her, maths that's just going through a test, I'll have them all right, waste of time ... So 6 days of home education for me. Though apparently I don't need to worry about him having covid at all "as he has been doing a lot of deep breathing in his mask".

He is very frustrated not to know who it is. He said he'ld message a couple of people to find out. I pointed out he won't use a phone or e-mail so that was the end of that plan. He said I should message school and say I needed to know their name. I explained I couldn't but he wasn't impressed. Think DD is jealous.

@Aramox always happy to help!

You find that a lot. "My memory's no good" but the key is to strengthen the storage and retrieval bonds. You can only hold 5-7 things in working memory, so good encoding to get things into the long term memory and out is the real trick. And research shows that testing (flashcards, questioning, past papers etc) are the most effective way.

These don't have to be formal sessions either. Why not just have a biscuit tin of keywords or similar on small index cards and randomly shout some out over dinner (you get the idea). Or he can ask you - without looking at the back himself!

Also mixing things up from revision/studying being sat at a desk highlighting might help to disassociate study from dull and isolated.

@thestudybuddy those are helpful tips. He doesn't seem to have big exams often, only end of topic assessments, and they get maybe a few days' notice - so no time to plan revision. Apparently. I might reach out to the school who will doubtless tell me they have extensive resources that he should have been using.... Ds is prepared to work at least, but doesn't really know how to memorise stuff which seems pretty key for sciences. Any help I can offer is not acceptable, naturally.

Dd working from home at the moment so I largely left her to it mon & tue with occasional reminders of what she needed to get done.... of course next to nothing got done so today I've removed her phone until I see the completed work. She's doing it without a fuss now but it's just the drama to get her to knuckle down and actually get on with it

Sounds fascinating Rollergirl I've become an expert on 6 foot prehistoric penguins, comes in useful so often. I do sometimes wonder why I am doing 3/4s of DS's work but without that he would do zero.

Same here Silkie I’m your woman if you ever need to know the 4 types of erosion and river characteristics/landforms!

We also have from DS the I know everything already about that topic so there's no point in me doing that homework / lesson / test. When asked to learn a new word a day for English he told me there was no point as he has a hobby of reading dictionaries and knows the entire contents. I can only assume this is a secret hobby he does in the middle of the night as never seen him with a dictionary

And we had the only 4 people have Mums that make them work, its not fair everyone else does nothing line. In lockdown he said he didn't want to read or write anything so I had to do both but think a lot is just laziness - I am learning a lot of GCSEs again myself and some for the first time!

@crazycrofter it’s still very early days at the moment and we are still working out most effective dose. He is taking Medikinet and so far so good.🤞Distinct loss of appetite, which I was expecting, but we are managing it so far with a big breakfast and allowing him to snack freely before and after his evening meal. Do you mind me asking what your DS is/was taking? I have done lots of reading up and there are definitely alternatives to try if one doesn’t suit.

That’s good @Rollergirl11. Ds is also ADHD - diagnosed at the end of year 8. Year 9 was rocky (until lockdown!). Medication seemed to help at first but it made ds feel very low. I want him to try a different type but he’s not keen. Hope you have more success!

Yep same here with DD being high-achieving and DS under-achieving. The waters are particularly muddied for us though because of DS’s (only very recently diagnosed) ADHD. DS self-esteem and confidence is very low and we have had years of him telling himself that he can’t do it. Hopefully now with diagnosis, and he has just started on medication, we can begin to unpick the years of negative conditioning. He is Year 8 so at least we have a bit of time in our side! 🤞

@MrsElijahMikaelson1 ds has a high achieving older sister too. I’ve never had to mention homework or revision to her...

Ds says he doesn’t want to go to university at the moment, but I want him to have that option open to him in case he changes his mind. He was very keen on the army/marines but he has eyesight problems.

@thestudybuddy I can already see from DD’s experience that ds’ current approach will not work for A Levels! But maybe he will do a BTEC that he’s really interested in and all will change. My ds does have incredible self discipline when he sees the point of something or enjoys it.