How much work should year 11 be doing?

Can I also ask why getting all 8s and 9s (which is only achieved by a minority of students) is so important? What's he planning to do next? Unless it's something like medicine or vetinary science he really doesn't "need" them - especially if he's only getting them as a result of spending large quantities of time revising.

He might work as hard as is humanly possible and not get 8s and 9s in all his assessments. Particularly in English and humanities, you'd expect students to get better as the year progresses.

DD got a 6 in English Lit in her Year 11 mocks and then a 9 in GCSEs. She steadily improved throughout the year and the 6 was a good grade at the time she got it! Under your scheme she'd probably have been put under house arrest.

The other thing is that GCSEs are a good warm up for A levels, in terms of resilience, finding out what works and what doesn't, what's important and what's not, how to prioritise your time, manage your phone habits and motivate yourself. You are giving him no chance at all to develop these independent study skills, which he will need in spades in Y12, Y13 and especially at university. You are also teaching him that you think he's incapable of making good decisions, that you don't trust him and don't value his or his teachers' opinions about the courses he is taking and how much work they require (which they know more about than you do). It's really a recipe for disaster in so many ways, please don't do it.

Ime some do get straight As. All the way through. Then go on to be absolutely useless employees because their grades don't match their personality. Or they're rocking in the corner.

Someone upthread queried if the ops ds was a competitive swimmer. To be honest, if he was, he'd have to also cut sleeping, eating and shitting out of his schedule - there wouldn't be time.

Utterly bonkers. I say this as a parent of first year university students and secondary teacher. The most likely outcome of this ridiculous regime will be rebellion and under achievement.

Aside from the whole hours thing already mentioned my daughter used her phone for revising.

You tube science videos
Quizlet

There are plenty of useful resources other than pen and paper

Wow @SummerDuck agree with others, that is a harsh and frankly unsustainable schedule.

Agree with @pintery - if this were in the run-up to A levels and top grades were needed to get into Oxford, well maybe - with the student's agreement. But for GCSEs?

DS2 got a 6 in his Spanish. He could have got a higher grade but he chose to focus on other subjects and also other activities (very sporty). That's fine. He will never ever need to have attained an 8 in his Spanish GCSE. But he will have managed to keep his MH on an even keel through a stressful time by continuing to play football and train athletics.

Please please rethink this. There is a reason everyone posting here has said the proposed schedule is not a good idea.

As a teacher of nearly two decades, this is insane.

I've seen kids break and end up having to take time off school because of such punitive schedules.

And how is this a compromise? You've gone from 2.5 hours every evening to 3 hours every evening and added an extra hour on Sunday. That's not a compromise, that's just shuffling your batshit schedule around.

@SummerDuck you and your partner actually sicken me. Your poor child. What you are doing is awful. I hope you are looking forward to being estranged from your child in the future and I hope he actually does. When is he supposed to be a child, socialise with friends, do extra curricular activities? Have a lie in? All normal teenage things. Why are 8s and 9s so important?
Most nice, normal, caring parents and would be happy if their child does their best and is also happy with their life.
I cannot begin to understand how any parent would treat their child this way. Most would support and help but what your doing is verging on dictatorship

Your poor poor child.

The disturbing thing is that this is for GCSEs, which matter so little, as long as you do well enough to do A levels. If it were the last few months of A levels with a place on a prestigious course at stake it might be more understandable. Plus he would be a bit older and the content more challenging. God knows what these parents have in store for the poor kid in Y12 and Y13.

I think that's pretty horrendous if I'm honest.

I've got a 16 year old who has just gone through GCSES. I'm a little apprehensive about results day, but whatever happens I won't ever wish that I'd given him that kind of childhood. There's more to life.

I worry about the ethos that says: work exceptionally hard at school so then when you are an adult you can work exceptionally hard and earn lots of money, that then you have no time to relax and enjoy.

If he has to work that hard to get 8s and 9s, why not work a bit less and get 7s and 8s, or even 6s and 7s.

I mean if he wants to do all that work then fine, but maybe he would trade super high grades for a bit less work?

Oh, that's OK then. You can go ahead and abuse your son by working him into the ground as though he's doing it by choice as an adult instead of with a shitload of money as an incentive and it'll be perfectly fine because you'll feel like he at least earned the breakdown.

And does his law firm comply with employment law about rest days?

Please keep a very close eye on his mental health. This schedule is cruel, completely unnecessary, and will probably harm his chances of achieving good grades.

Not sure why you asked, really, as not wanting to hear what everyone else has said. That 'everyone' including parents and teachers.

2.5 hours seems a lot after a full school day.. When my son went in to year 11 he attended 2 after school revision clubs per week both lasting 3 hours. One after school and the other Saturday mornings. He found this a really useful way to revise because there were teachers on hand who could help.

So he's only doing 52 hour weeks at a minimum without a single day free of working and in addition to any non academic activities. How magnanimous of you.

Does your husband work 52 hours a week without a single day off? Do you?

Poor little sod. He'll be in bits by Christmas and if he stuffs up the first set of mocks because he's literally not had a single day off all term to let his brain rest and form long term memory, bet you'll absolutely chuck it in and try and force him to do more.

Is that a compromise between you and your DH, or has your DS bought into it too?
You aren't giving him a single day of rest, which to my mind is unreasonable to do 10 months away from exams.

My daughter is at an independent. She is set 15 hours of homework a week. Sometimes it takes longer sometimes they rush through it. She quite often gets some of it done in library time. I think that is plenty.