Current Year 10 2020/2021 support thread

Wow, that's a lot of exams @PaddingtonPaddington!

Ds exams all over now thank goodness. Two results in - Chemistry 9 and English Lang - 7. He did absolutely no revision for English which I was p'd off with him for but he left it too late. 'You can't revise creative writing and analysis mum'. I said he needed to practice 'show, not tell' writing and that is exactly what the feedback said! Grrr. It's a good result but I know he could have done better. He's not hopeful for German as the acoustics were terrible in the hall and therefore he couldn't hear the phrases/conversation. They all did complain and the teacher has said the results are 'disastrous' . We don't know how disastrous yet!

I wouldn't be so bothered at this stage if it wasn't for the possibility of teacher assessed grades next year. I'm worried they'll use Yr 10 grades.

We had rebooked our holiday to France for mid August but it's looking likely we'll have to cancel. Leaving it until the beginning of August to see how things go.

Good luck to your dd @Silkiecats. She's done so well considering the circumstances.

DS still doing exams, 10 done last week and 4 more over Monday and Tuesday. He seems to be getting on with it ok and can see the end is in sight. Results not till the end of term. Can’t believe year 11 is looming already.

@HelloDulling poor thing. Roll on the holidays.

We’ve received a letter to say that we will receive reports towards the end of term plus a 15 min appointment with their firm tutor. They used to do those appointments at the beginning of term but I’m glad we are going to get this time. dS1’s form tutor is brilliant and DS loves him. I assume we will get results then.

Happy Saturday!

We finish school on Thurs and I cannot wait. DD okay, results all back and good, though her friendship groups seems to be a bit weird at the moment.

Year 7 DS has had some good and some terrible exam results back, came last in everything on sports day, and then yesterday was expected to do a 10k hike. He has hyper mobile joints so too much exercise is exhausting for him, and it was boiling here yesterday. He ended up being driven back to school by a teacher, which he was very embarrassed about. He just needs a break, poor lad.

I’m looking forward to the holidays. We have zero planned right now, but my plan is to insist on one family day per week and let them take turns choosing what we do. Other than that I’ll probably study and take them to the football pitch. It’s also going to be the end of a ridiculous contract job that I shouldn’t have agreed to so looking forward to being back to 100% research along with the kids.

DS1 doesn’t finish exams until Monday. He said Spanish reading was tricky today but was happy with listening and said eng lit was good. Only business, pretty straightforward, and maths paper 2 on Monday.

Well done to all those that have received results back! 👍

@TheOnlyMrsW oooh hope your DD enjoys herself on her DofE and expedition. Hope she has good weather for it. DD didn’t continue with hers with all things considered but the expedition was a few weekends ago and it rained the entire time. I think she was relieved she wasn’t on it!

Silkie wow props to you for getting new school sorted for your DD in such a short space of time. And one that has almost identical subjects to boot. Good luck for DD starting on Monday!

DD did all her exams last week. It was pretty stressful for her and she had loads of panic attacks at lunch in the car sat with me. She says she’s fucked them all up. But I’m so proud of her for actually sitting them. And in the hall alongside everyone else when they offered for her to take them in the learning centre. I’m not sure when we will get the results but I don’t care what they are. Although she will be really down on herself no doubt if they aren’t up to her usual standard.

She has also received an Academic achievement award which she will be presented with at an awards ceremony taking place one evening in the last week of term.

Can’t believe there’s only 3 weeks left till end of term. What a funny old year it’s been.

Just had confirmed 10 subjects for her lessons which is what she wanted, there's 2 subjects she takes now as well she could take privately but think would be too much. Starts Mon.

Change of plan, needed dh to drive me to vaccine as its an hour away but he's overwhelmed by work, probably best to push back to school holidays anyway due to high rate of problems with my 2 monkeys atm.

Forget to answer summer plans - atm 2 weeks holiday in Devon / Isles of Scilly but if by some miracle you can also get to France without 200 tests and spending a long time in quarantine we may go to see DH's Mum, doubtful atm. DD has UKMT summer camp and catching up history gcse 1st year and economics 1st year and seeing friends in London. May hire a boat for day in Norfolk broads, other than that need to sort the house a bit more.

We have to find out exactly what subjects they are offering but at least 9 of her current ones, 8 of which have been taught in very similar way. The other 2 they don't do but DD is already at a 9 in one and self taught in other, I presume they wouldn't offer those but DD said they said she could do all her options and they asked her if she wanted to do languages ones as well and she maybe doing economics as well. She said no to languages but she wants economics. So it maybe 9 or 10 there but at least 9 anyway which is fine. DD keeps wanting to add ones but not sure that is sensible. She really liked the year 11 head of year, DH said he was very good looking and she said he complimented her. We are awaiting final details but thats fine, results still coming in from old school. I am supposed to be having second vaccine today so I may be dead for 24 hours tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good weekend. And DS didn't get close contact. Dd is in old school today and we have lots of orders from her, new phone, new bag, new shoes, new uniform, travel pass.

Glad things are going smoothly for DD Silkie - what a relief she can do (mostly?) what she’s been doing so far too. 🤞🏻 for next week!

Went very well at new school though have all the admin to sort. DD only met two of the staff but they were really nice. They said they can do all her subjects though DD wasn't quite sure what that meant as DD does 11 and school only offer 9 of them and do 10. She should start early next week. They said going in top sets would be fine.

Well done to everybody with all the brilliant results @zighead and @QueenMabby and anybody else I have missed - what an amazing bunch of children we have! DS has his last exam tomorrow afternoon but really not sure how much preparation he has done - oh well, we shall see.

Hope all has gone well today @Silkiecats and the EHCP for your DS gets sorted quickly.

Excellent news @Silkiecats.

DS slightly peeved today that the science exam had a whole subject for physics that wasn’t on the very extensive revise list.

That's great news @Silkiecats Hope the meeting goes well.

My DS has been getting his exam results back today and has got mostly 7 but 8 in maths, physics and Latin which he's pleased with. Unfortunately he got a disastrous 5 in Computer Science, which he's not so happy with but hopefully he'll see where he went wrong.

Thank you to the posters who commented on Seneca Premium. I can't work out how to view the thread and reply at the same time so can't tag sorry. We did a trial with Tassomai and found it fairly basic so will think about subscribing to Seneca from September onwards. Probably just use the free version before then.

We got a place at new school today and DD and DH are meeting them tomorrow.

I'm not actually sure our results are in as they keep changing, its hard to tell on our system, results go on then off then on again but then they settle. DD is getting them through in class though and also in the GoForSchools some subjects are now putting y10 exams which makes it clearer. Ours just seem to go up to a 8 plus possible but they estimate 1 grade rise a year. I would imagine all these will get lost in transfer between schools, they are all between 7 and 8 plus so so, 2 7s and rest are 8s or 8 plus. Think we have Eng x2 and biology to go and she got far less than normal time in quite a few.

Those are fab results anyway, plus they still have a year to go. I’ve no idea when we expect results. Given he finishes exams on Monday I’m doubtful before the end of term tbh.

Well done Silkie with putting your foot down with the council. I hope they pull their finger out now and get cracking for your dd.
Well done MrsW’s dd - great results!
DS still waiting for ICT grade but he has his score - 83%. Otherwise he was:
9 - Geography
8 - biology, chemistry and physics
7 - maths and history (in both he was only 1% below the grade boundary for an 8)
6 - Eng Lang and Spanish (1% below a 7 for Spanish
5 - Eng Lit. He was disappointed here but it was only an unseen poetry analysis and for his GCSE unseen poetry is only 20% of the whole thing so it’s not really representative. I’ve a friend who is an English teacher who is going to tutor him casually - just to give him some pointers on how to answer the questions to best effect.
This was the first year that he applied himself to some actual revision and in the main it has really resulted in better exam grades so I am hopeful for the next 12 months.
We break up at the end of next week - despite everything this academic year has gone so quickly. Who knows what next year will bring!

Well done to your DD @TheOnlyMrsW those are excellent results, hope your parents evening goes really well. We have been told that they are "aiming to release results around the 16th July" which sounds irritatingly vague and noncommittal to me!

Congrats to @Silkiecats DD as well - brilliant grades, hope you're not waiting too long and all goes well with the school move.

Private schools are finishing at the end of this week which seems crazy early, we still have about 3 weeks to go, feels a bit like a slog but I guess we will keep plodding onward. Has anybody got anything nice planned for the summer? We have a break in Wales booked in mid August, it will probably rain but it will be nice to have a change of scene anyway!

Fell off the thread as well, trying to catch up. Wow Silkiecats you're really going through it at the moment, hope that DD is more comfortable in the new school and that the ECHP is something which can be sorted. We don't have any experience of them but everyone I know who has been involved with them says they're so difficult to navigate.
Rollergirl so pleased that DD has been made a prefect and that she managed her Spanish speaking and most of the others.
DD's exams were the first two weeks back after half-term so finished here for over a week and results starting to trickle through, French made her cry twice so I'm quite amazed that she's apparently managed a 6. Also 6's in Biology, Physics and Geography, 7's in German and Chemistry, and 8 in Food Tech. Only the biggies left to come - Maths and English, and we'll have to have those back for Thursday as we've got parents evening on Zoom!!!!
The next hurdle is DofE residential in two weeks - walking from school to the moors, camping and cooking in groups Tuesday and Wednesday night . I can't see DD making it through the first night tbh as she's never actually camped in a real tent - we've glamped a couple of times but this is an entirely different matter............
Good Luck to those with exams still going - I can't wait to see the back of this year x

Our sixth form open day has been cancelled and moved to September.

Welcome back StColumbo Glad your DS is doing well but yes its very stressful and I wish they were younger at the moment esp with the exam chaos.

The council e-mailed to say they weren't processing the transfer of schools as even though I applied 3 weeks ago as her current school took 2.5 weeks to do their 1 page (which has about 4 questions on) and we missed the deadline. And we could start whole process again and fill in new forms. Argh. I e-mailed back and it said your e-mail will be answered in 10 working days hopefully. Then I phoned and after 15 minutes of constant sorry to keep you waiting someone answered who was like we aren't working now for the summer. I got like a ranting mad woman with them and they backed down and are putting it through as an exception and hopefully will hear in the next couple of days. I sent a message to both schools and mentioned the lack of support at current school and they replied saying they had offered lots of support but DD hadn't engaged.

And EHCP for DS is a complete shambles after taking 3 years to get this far, all the things he has issues with they have just put as current school staff to deal with. Then they have added in lots of stupid things like he goes off to another town by himself and has group therapy, this is a child who runs off with adults he doesn't know and goes mute and he has never gone anywhere by himself. Then they had a consequences for autistic behaviour section and to have punishments at school and at home, yes that's exactly what a mute anxious child needs and led to school refusal when they tried that before as well as refusal to eat or drink and pulling hair out. So trying to argue that.

Grades are coming in though not sure what is going on with them at the moment, some subjects seem to have taken all year 10 data away but overall they look fine, have dropped a little from before but still very high, will go to mainly 9s with a few 8s and one 7. Given she was very stressed and also didn't have full time in most of them its great. I'm not sure is the 7 is the right grade or the year 9 one.

p.s Sixth Form open days/evenings don't appear on the horizon yet here.

I fell off the thread and have just caught up (sort of). @Silkiecats hopefully DD is turning a corner and this move will help her settle. Sympathy and empathy for everyone - it is so tough being a parent. I hand on heart believe that this stage is so much harder than the little stage. At least when they were little we could just pick them up, or a hug was enough and they went to bed at a decent time. The stresses are different but gosh, it is so hard.

DS exams started on Friday and he is on study leave going in every day until Monday for one exam a day. He didn't even tell us about drama which wasn't a mock but 40% of his actual mark. I saw him walking home in non uniform and was and he casually said 'oh yeah, drama GCSE today'. It was before the timetable came out.

He is revising but his own way, he doesn't want any input as he says he is happy with what he is doing. He has also had a few library sessions where teachers are on hand. He has had History and Eng Lang so far and said he was happy with them, but they are his strong subjects. The problem really is that he is generally someone who does well so I am not sure if he will learn any lessons here as even if he drops we are talking 9 to 8 which he obviously still thinks is fine.

DS2 OTOH is year 8 and he is set up to not do well this year but has refused to even look at a book. I have told him that he can manage it how he sees fit this year, but once the results are in then things will change the way that I say instead. Not sure I can follow through really but I can curb the amount of time he goes out and spends gaming. He says he will still not revise but then I guess that is his choice. Giving him free rein to grow up and manage himself which was what he wanted isn't really working so I think we have to step up and be a bit stricter.

I think will just see how it goes re sixth form and also DD says it depends who is going where but at least she will know the one option really well. And if she does move to the 6th form college will know children from two schools.

No more news today but both in school and exams over for both and at least its the weekend. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Our school uses Seneca for homework/revision sometimes and I think my DC find it helpful. There is quite a lot available for free so you could try those before signing up to premium?

Glad to hear you have some progress on the change of schools for your DD @Silkiecats Hope it goes smoothly and the longer journey is straightforward. Is she thinking she would stay there for sixth form or move to the sixth form college? I guess you can't know until she has been there a while.

DS just has one subject to go next Thursday so finally feeling like I can ease off the pressure trying to get him to revise. I actually had a stress dream that I was in an English exam running out of time this week! Hope everybody else is doing ok, the end of term is in sight which feels very welcome (but at the same time a little bit scary!)