Year 10 - 2023/2024 Support Thread

Dropped DD in her boarding house yesterday - so a very different first day involving a lot of lunch, tea and external speakers. Now I guess we just have to trust them. Her house parent seems nice and she doesn't actually have any lessons until this afternoon. I got a phone call last night after we got home 'because everyone else was phoning their parents so I thought I ought to'! Not sure we'll be getting them that regularly..

DS had a good first day too-said all his teachers were “decent”-high praise indeed!

Ds2 had a good first day. He's got the same HoY as last year which is a shame because even I didn't like him.

DD has had a good start to year 10, she is very enthusiastic about Art GCSE! A good thing she is as I have just ordered the suggested supplies and spent quite a bit! Also she seems pleased with most of her teachers, not completely sure about new form teacher yet but hopefully he will be good. Actually he's the fourth form teacher her class has had as last year they had a couple of different ones sharing I think. She also has a new head of year but hopefully we won't need to be in contact with them!

DD also back from first day. Similar stories of good teachers, bad teachers, good seat, bad seat, friends, no friends in class etc etc. Scathing of her school’s new timetabling, they now have a two week timetable. Doesn’t think she’s in the right set for English (she’s been put in top and the teacher told them they’re aiming for 8s & 9s). On and on and on 😂. A good first day, I think!!

Ds is home. The day went ok, thankfully. He has quite a few teachers I've not heard of, he is ds3 so we've had quite a few of the teachers over the years. He is in set 1 for science, so it's triple science at GCSE. Also set 1 for maths and English. He thinks he's in set 2 for French, he's annoyed as he was one of the highest scorers in end of year French tests. He wants to be in top set. I've told him there's obviously a reason. So he's going to ask. I have no idea why he does so well at school, certainly doesn't get it from me, nor dh.

First day back today. Ds stayed awake until midnight last night as he hadn't got his timetable. Apparently it came through at midnight last year. But it didn't arrive and wasn't online this morn before school. So hopefully he will get it today. There is bound to be some sort of disappointment when he gets home, wrong set, wrong teacher etc.

Ds has decided to go for a run in the mornings, he has spent most of the summer in his bedroom. Then 2 days ago he went for a run. Same this morn at 6.30am before getting ready for school. As he was awake until midnight he will be tired today. I don't think this morning run phase will last very long.

haha thanks anyway!

My DD has just turned 13 and in year 9 now, youngest in her class. She is stubborn, won't do anything she doesn't like doing (like RE revision or homework!) - but she is much more motivated than DS. I don't want to say it's a boy/girl thing, but it's such a cliche in our house!

I’d be a millionaire if I knew how to motivate a teen. The days of sticker charts have well passed sadly!

@DataColour -am not sure on the motivation question! Will let you know when I work that out myself!

DS is starting year 10 today. He is mostly happy to be dropping French, Art and Drama! We went through his new timetable yesterday and it's a lot of science (triple science) and PE! He's doing GCSE PE and also have to do the normal PE lessons. Double music lessons too, and he is a bit apprehensive about it as none of his friends are doing music and apparently there are 12 of them and almost all girls!
I don't know whether his school sets for anything apart from maths, there is only one accelerated set which DS is in, he says he will be doing further maths, but I'm not sure as I'd have thought only a few students will do further maths and if everyone in top set is doing further maths, then that's about 60 of them! I guess we will hear about it more in the coming weeks.
DS needs to be more self motivated, as he will just do nothing if he can get away with it. Any ideas how to motivate a reluctant teen??

Thanks @QueenMabby Yes my DTD (that abbreviation works for me!) is going to the same all girls school as her old sister and DTS didn’t get into the all boys school so is going to a co-ed a bit further away. We looked into private options for him as we wanted a smaller, more nurturing setting but unfortunately all the local ones we applied to turned him down. One said they felt he needed full time 1-2-1 (which they couldn’t provide) despite his year 6 teacher ringing them and explaining that he has never had 1-2-1 and is currently in a class of 30 with just her in the classroom! But the school he’s going to has a focus on ”pupil’s well-being” so hoping it will be great for him. The SENCO is great and I have already met with him and Head of Year to discuss what he’ll need. They were really welcoming and said “how excited they are” to have him join them, which was so lovely after all the knock backs from the private schools and the failed appeal at the more local school. People have told me “things happen for a reason” so I’m embracing that and going to be “that parent” who contacts the school when required. I know secondary is different to primary, but I’m determined that this will work out for him!
My elder DD is doing French and DTD will do this also. DTS gets to try French, Spanish and German in year 7 but will then have to choose just one for year 8. Amazing that your DD gets to do so many languages! I was useless at them and much more aligned with maths and science, which I sense is the way my kids are heading too. English was not my strong point either!

Hi everyone, I have been reading this thread with interest, schools are so different across the country (or how ever far spread we are). I have a DD going into year 10 and b/g twins going into year 7 but in separate schools, so just spent the evening ironing names into 2 complete sets of secondary uniform! My yr10 is still in the uniform I bought her when she started! But then she was homeschooling quite a bit in yr7 due to Covid and they didn’t have to wear their uniform for that.
My DDs school set for all core subjects and sets 1 & 2 are all expected to get top grades. It’s an 8 form entry with a good academic record so it’s only the very lowest sets that do the foundation only. Quite a lot do triple science too, and all do one MFL - they set for that too! My DD has her timetable already and thrilled to discover she’s been moved up a set for MFL - she’s in set 2 with her closer friends now - there has been a lot of msging going on today and yesterday to determine who is in which class/set who the teachers are etc
Although DD is NT, her younger brother is AuDHD so am interested to hear how the yr 10s who are ND get on - my DS spent all of yr 6 saying he hated school and didn’t want to go and I spent a lot of my time e-mailing his teacher and advocating for him and for reasonable adjustments. The school supported him really well, he aced his SATS with greater depth in all and 100% in all the maths papers - but I’m worried that a new large secondary with no familiar faces (all his friends are going to the local school that he didn’t get into on distance ☹️ ) he’s going to struggle.

Hullo everyone, I think I was on the old Year 9 thread for a bit and then dropped off. DS and his mates are going for hair-cuts and pencil case shopping tomorrow in preparation for school next week 😊. He goes back on Weds. His sister, who has just sat GCSEs, starts at her new 6th form on Tuesday so won’t have them both at the same school anymore. Hope everyone’s DCs have good start to their Year 10. We may go to a couple of 6th form open evenings this term - spread them out a bit.

@QueenMabby - I am a little worried that DD will have NO PE skills. She wouldn't even know the rules of things like hockey and it's been years since she's even done football. She has the Snapchat group for her new year group now who are very friendly but also seemingly VERY sporty. I guess they're used to the musicians being 'different' though.

@notdonna I think tutor time is important for checking in on kids. Mine have both developed decent relationships with tutors in the past, so hope the change works out.

My niece's school is changing all the tutor groups so that they are put in a group with others who have the same 'weakest' subject as them so they can have extra tuition in it. Which would be fine if it weren't that they aren't ability streamed in that. Niece's weakest subject is English, but she's actually a brilliant allrounder so not convinced that being in a tutor group with those who struggle with literacy will help her much. Interesting idea though.

We are in labelling and packing hell. I thought I was doing really well getting ready for the school year but it appears I was ignoring the rest of a very considerable iceberg of things to do below the surface.

No timetable here yet. As DS has ASD we often get it in advance of the term starting but unfortunately the (excellent) SENCO has left and I don't know who the new one is so haven't been able to get a copy before term starts.

Ooh perfect @icanbewhatiwant does that mean you can stalk him, check homework etc?

Ours don't see timetables until a few days before either. Parents can't view them. Though Ds has signed in on my laptop and has forgotten I can see 🤣

Oh the PE walking around a field has made me giggle @minisnowballs
I think PE lessons are skills/fitness based whereas Games are actual sports, so will ‘train’ in PE but actually play hockey, netball, cricket etc in Games lessons. Good to see they’re encouraging sports.
They’re radically changing our timetable to incorporate a registration/pastoral 1st lesson each day. They used to do a register in the 1st morning lesson. So kids would go immediately to physics or whatever the moment they arrive in school where a daily register would be taken. Now they’ll have form time first thing each day. Also moving to hour long lessons rather than 45 minutes (that could be interesting for DD with ADHD, but we’ll see), and I think fewer lessons a week and over a fortnight, so it’ll be interesting to see the new format and how it works in practice. A letter was sent out in July and the rationale sounded perfectly reasonable.

Welcome Woods and SleepyJim.

We can see DD2's timetable on her new 'portal'. So weird to see music practice periods mixed in with her lessons... and lessons on a Saturday! She'll only take eight GCSEs, because of all the music, so it seems incredibly sparse compared with her sister's. There's also a lot more PE than we're used to (though some of it is called 'games'.

Heaven knows what the difference is...DD2's PE has mainly been walking slowly round a field for the last two years so it might be a bit of a shock.