Year 10 - 2023/2024 Support Thread

No laptops in school here in Surrey either. Plus no one I know in other areas, Bath, Sussex, with older kids does this either. Interesting. It seems we are behind the times.

First time I've heard of having laptops in school! Are these private schools? Can't imagine state schools having the budget for them. My DH has been a teacher for 20 odd years now in secondary school and hasn't been in any school that provided laptops.
Do they actually use them in class? What do they do with them, take notes?

Ouch! I would be in tears - not just DD under those circumstances. There's a lot of talk about macs being better for the music tech side of things, but given that DD is a bassoonist, she's more likely to need a knife and some pliers than a swanky computer. Sadly for her.

Some people have their own, and several have macs, but IT can’t help them as easily as they can with school-owned, and they DO drop and break them. DD’s friend was in tears on Monday because she dropped and cracked her Mac Air. 😬

If we had to pay for them ourselves it would be a £200 Lenovo Ideapad. Not a Mac in a billion years.

@DarkAcademia - great they provide the laptops. New school's whatsapp seems to be mostly people agonising over 'chromebook or mac' - it would definitely take the worry out of it.

I'd be terrified to hand DD a mac - last night she 'lost' her laptop in her room while talking to me on the phone - she had just finished doing her prep on it. Turned out she had put it on to charge and forgotten within five minutes that she'd done this. Doesn't fill me with confidence.

Both my dc have laptops but they are chromebooks provided by the school. They’re the foldy ones too, with touch screen, but otherwise pretty basic. The beauty of school providing them (big school, presumably enormous bulk discount) is that if something goes wrong the IT department fixes or replaced on the spot, just like work, and it’s drilled into them not to be casual/rough with school property.

@DataColour yes they are required to have their laptops in school every day, they use them in every lesson. We’ve decided to buy a reconditioned one this time, half the price but still good spec. He’s promised to use the really good padded case we’ve bought and to lock it in his locker at lunchtime.

@NotDonna thanks! Yes, he is quite mature when it comes to things like that, he is not one to succumb to peer pressure. Very immature in other ways though!,

@QueenMabby Amazing science test results, that's great!

We are definitely in the "it's too much" stage now, and there's still over 3 weeks left! DS still doing a couple of tests a week. I'm a bit frustrated at his PE teacher, who never puts the test dates on the calendar, and relies on the students just remembering. DS is not good at remembering things like that and never knows when there's a test and this morning said there "might" be a test today and he's done no revision...again! He has suspected ADHD and he's on the school register for it and awaiting a diagnosis, and he does so much better if the tasks are displayed online with deadlines and he loses focus in class sometimes, which means he can't remember things like an off hand remark about a test date. PE is the only subject that doesn't put the test dates on the system! I've emailed his teacher, but heard nothing back 🙄

@minisnowballs your DD sounds so busy, wow! Well done to her on physics!
I don't think neither of mine go to the toilet at school either! Apparently there are a mess most of them time.

@MissyB1 oh no that's awful regarding the laptop. Does he have to have it in school?

And thanks @IThinkIMadeItWorse and @QueenMabby - it is odd her being so far away.

Boarding wasn't something we would ever have chosen for her. In general she is loving it but it is very full on and she just wants to impress every single teacher.

I think it was the Biology teacher remarking that she could have done better in the science test (she got an 8 for biology so hardly disastrous) that tipped her over the edge - but she's also having to learn the contrabassoon from scratch for a performance, try to work out the order of priorities when all her music clashes with the drama rehearsals and ensure that the flute and singing teachers are still happy with her as well.

And she's still really so new - to boarding, to music school and independent education. I think they keep forgetting that. She confessed over the weekend that she has no idea where any of the school loos are - she just goes back to her house at the end of the day and goes there.

Too much new stuff to take in!

DD is also counting down the days until the end of term but she doesn't finish until the 20th so it still feels like she has a while to go. She has "mid year assessments" in January so at least we don't have the added pressure of exams now. Then I think her parents evening is in Feb. We should get some teacher predictions before the parents evening which will be really interesting as I feel like I have no idea how she is doing really!

Sending another virtual hug to @minisnowballs it must be tough for you and her.

That sounds exhausting@MissyB1 - no wonder he's so tired. Gutting re laptop too - DD2 didn't have one for her old school- I shall be beyond furious if the current one gets damaged. Perhaps I should get it a better case.

There is too much on at this time of year - and much, much more in new school than old one. Roll on the holidays!

We feel like the end of term can’t come fast enough! Ds had a LAMDA exam last weekend, and is in the midst of end of term exams in every subject now.
He’s in a debating competition this evening so wont finish school until 8pm, oh and after school rehearsals for the musical are in full swing!

And the bad news is his laptop got broken last week at school 😫 He thinks someone threw his bag - apparently it’s something some of the kids do on purpose 😡 So we’ve had to order a replacement, just what you need at this time of year eh?

Hope everyone else's kids are coping with year 10. I think we're getting to the 'everything is too much' part of the winter term, which is probably worse when you're as far from home as my DD is.

She rang me in a sobbing snotty mess yesterday after a disaster of a chemistry exam., which actually seems to have gone slightly less disastrously for her than for others in her class, but still a fairly rubbish mark.

She hadn't covered the same topics in Year 9 as the kids who had been in the school up to now, and had to take it late as had a music test that had really stressed her out as well.

Then today i get joyous texts about her physics test, in which she got a 9. So it's very up and down - and of course so cold to be boarding in a school which is essentially medieval in many places. I'd quite like her home right now - though her matron definitely sorted her out with lots of toast and tea yesterday.

This term is so long, and she's so very busy - school play and a symphony orchestra concert on top of everything else. Thank heavens she gets three weeks for christmas!

@SuperSue77 my DD sees friends outside of school a bit but not regularly and she doesn’t really any activities any more where she would see friends. She does connect with them most evenings/weekends though on FaceTime or Snapchat etc so I think she socialising in her own way. I do find that she is still making new friends (she joined her senior school in Year 9) as classes have changed and via other friends, so I hope that potential is still there for your daughter too. One of my DD’s friend had a small group over for Halloween which included girls who she wanted to become friends with (they were friend of my DD and another, so it made some sense), would she like something like that?
My DD also has friends at school that she sees separately as well as together depending on the event. So all her friends aren’t in one group. That works well for individual interests (eg she went to see the Taylor Swift film with one who is a fan). So maybe start with someone she has a class with and gets on with in class?
Mostly, it’s whether she’s happy obviously. I myself joined an evening art class at 15/16 and had a great time with a couple of girls I would never see in school (they were there but it was a big school) so hobbies might work too. Hope this gives a couple of ideas.

@Oblomov23 good to hear that you’re feeling more informed about yous DS’s progress and that he has responded to your talk!

DD is doing tests all the time and she gets the results in percentages and grades but our report at half term gave predicted GCSE grades as they said different courses had different pathways so for some a grade 6 now might be on target for 7 but for others the grade now was also the predicted. It was very helpful (though the caveat was that the prediction could change 😬). So we’ll see what the Christmas one says.

We had an online parents evening, where they said they felt confident in their predictions and that she had a very good attitude and was a pleasure to have in class. It sounded nothing like the child that I drive home, moaning about everything, but I’m so pleased that she doesn’t give them that attitude too 😂.

DD is doing well, which is a relief as I am not well myself currently so have been hoping she is coping. Mind you, being prone to at the sight or sound of blood/needles, she passed out twice in chemistry last week, had to miss a dissection in biology, had to miss part of a video about animal slaughter in geography, and had to exit briefly from her Rainbows volunteering activity when the paramedic brought out needles. Luckily the little Rainbows all got their first aid badges last week and the topic has moved on to Christmas. What a week!

Crikey they’re amazing results @QueenMabby

@DataColour I think it’s very mature of him to opt out of spending time with ppl he no longer has interests with (esp vaping etc). Many at this age easily succumb to peer pressure; this says a lot about him. If he’s happy then I definitely wouldn’t worry.

It's good to know that it's not just my DS who's not socialising much outside of school, apart from the occasional mcdonalds/cinema trip. I do worry sometimes because he did hang out more with his friends in year 7 and 8. But in year 9 quite a few of them started vaping and drinking and DS didn't want to so he stopped going out with them. He does running and cricket club and that's his way of socialising as he does have many friends at these clubs and enjoys hanging out with them. He seems to be a popular kid at school, I've no worries there. He's seems happy with the status quo so that's most important, not like he's lonely and unhappy about it.

Not sure whether our school are doing face to face parents evening this year, it's been virtual till now. I don't mind so much really. There's pros and cons to both I guess.
DS has got his second maths exam next week which he seems very chilled about. He seems to be enjoying maths/further maths and said that the lessons are not boring (unlike all the other ones!).

Pleased to hear he’s pulled his socks up @Oblomov23 must be hard not to compare him to your DS1. My 3 DDs are incredibly different so there’s probs less comparing. DD1 is a workaholic, perfectionist which makes the other two look and feel a bit lazy but they’ve seen her succeed so know it does actually pay dividends. DD3 is finally realising this - yippee!
Regarding socialising she has very little free time as does sports Tues-Fri inclusive til 730; sports all day Sat but does sometimes see friends Sat eve and/or Sunday & loves a shopping spree with her mates in our local town or up to London. None of mine saw much of friends in yr10/11 outside school, even DD2 (now at uni) who is incredibly social.

Ds2 doesn't go out that much. I'm sure ds1 went to more massive parties. He plays football for a team, and also meets up with boys in his year to play football casually. He goes out with closest 4 school friends regularly to get takeaway, go to Thorpe park fright nights etc.

Mine rarely sees anyone out of school. Occasionally he has 3 or 4 lads round for a games afternoon, probably about 6 times a year and he occasionally goes to one of their houses. He has a group of 6 good friends he doesn't really mention anyone else.

We have parents eve early Dec. Ours is online. 5 min slots. I've got to book it 1st dec. it's usually easy to book, I just try to log on early and tick all the teachers I want to see. I won't bother with religious studies or citizenship, both of those subjects are extras, but I'll see all the others.

Sorry I've not been around other than my first thread ages ago!

Parents evening here tonight too but online - you literally get cut off at 5 minutes so it's pretty efficient but exhausting!

DS is struggling with tests, tests, tests. So many!! He feels he doesn't know how to best revise, so gets stressed and anxious about this, which then means less actual revision as he is just too stressed about it! I asked each of his teachers tonight the best way to revise for their subject and that was really useful so we at least have strategies now for all the millions of tests between now and the actual exams.

I'll try to check in here more often so I can feel a bit more up to date with how everyone else is doing too.

@SuperSue77 my DS doesn't see friends out of school. He plays football for a team so has training once a week and a match on the weekends but otherwise it's up to me to entertain him on weekends or take him to the gym with me etc. His brother is a bit younger (12) so we are still doing activities together like cinema etc but I'd love him to be seeing people outside of school. He does have ASD and struggles socially though so it's not easy for him.