Year 10 - 2023/2024 Support Thread

No sixth form at DS’s school so there are a few options all of which are a right pain logistically to get to!
He has open days at two colleges organised through school and another coming to present before the end of term.
He doesn’t know at all what he want to do and at the open days he set up taster sessions for subjects like law and economics which he has no experience of so that makes sense.
to get an idea of them It’s frustrating that maths is by far and away his best subject but he is adamant he doesn’t want to do it at a level-I know the leap is huge but hey ho….
In fairness DD did three subjects she hadn’t done at GCSE-which was a leap of faith and that turned out ok.

DD1 started with 4 at our local comp- but she had to have a grade point average over 7 to be allowed (usually only four allowed if it's the maths/further maths combo and hers were three arts, one science). She quickly dropped one but is doing an EPQ instead. Dd2's school expects most students to start with 4 and drop one BUT not the music specialists, who usually do three. Most of DD1's friends dropped their fourth.

It sounds complicated when there's a choice of 6th form. Most of those who want to take A levels at our school stay on to 6th form at the same school. Those not wanting A levels go to one of the colleges further afield. We have 2 agricultural colleges, both about 45 mins away in different directions as well. We have the problem of transport here as they can only get a school bus place to the nearest school. There aren't public buses. The train station is 10 mins drive, there are trains to the nearest city. I am glad we've not had to have to sort out train journeys. I'm not sure what others do if an A level isn't offered. Ds2 had decided on the 4 A levels he wanted to take, then the letter arrived, all the A level subjects were in columns, they have to pick a subject from each column. His 4 choices were in the first 2 columns only. So he had to pick 2 new subjects. I think it was similar for ds1 too but only for the 4th subject. So he had to pick a new one.

I know ds3 is starting to think what subjects he wants to take for A level. So I hope he doesn't have the same problem. I think he might want all 3 sciences. That shouldn't be a problem. No idea on his 4th choice though. He wouldn't even consider changing to a different 6th form though. He'd want to stay with his friends.

I am so glad you lot are here - I hadn't even thought about discussing sixth form with DD2, and of course I must. Feels like she's only just got settled where she is though.

As I have one halfway through I will say that sixth form goes really fast - blink and you miss it, this week she was writing a UCAS statement! She is glad she stayed put, in an area where about half of them do - but I know not everyone has that choice.

DD and I are going to two sixth form open evenings next week and they are working on their "personal statments" at school already. Most schools here don't have sixth forms so generally people go to a separate sixth form college. A very different system to where I grew up where basically everyone stayed at their school for sixth form.

Congrats on the distinction @QueenMabby and to those who have had year10 results already, not had those here yet.

I need to start looking now at what’s available & which school exist as relatively new to the area. The schools do open eves in October & need to apply by November so I can just imagine it creeping up on me if I’m not organised. It’ll be just our luck to hear of the ideal school after November.

That is a shame Donna, ds1 ended up doing sociology and psychology because of timetabling and enjoyed both very much. And I enjoyed testing him on quotes , Berger & so-and-so ....

@notdonna, impressive you are looking already though that sounds tricky, especially if you're otherwise happy with the school. No chance it might suddenly start offering sociology, or she might switch to geography/psychology/ something else? I wonder why indies don't offer it?

DD2 vacillates hugely over A-Levels - definitely music as it's compulsory for her but then she talks about everything from maths to classical civ. Currently she's flitting between sports day and opera rehearsals though. Not sure she's been to a lesson all week!

@QueenMabby Greek masterchef sounds amazing. Perhaps a whole deer?

Flipping heck @Oblomov24 does sound rather extreme - expulsion? No 6th form entry? Wow! BUT if DS has complied then it’s probs best to drop it. No doubt there’ll be other battles. And maybe he’s feeling a tadge guilty for dawdling.

I’m now on the 6th form hunt as our 6th form doesn’t offer sociology, which she’s adamant about studying & Tbf I think she’d enjoy. The local state school offers her subjects but gets incredibly poor results in one of them (not sociology) and I’ve heard a lot of reports that the teaching of that subject is appalling. No idea if the school are doing anything about it. The other schools that offer all her subjects are either two trains and a 20 min walk; one train and a 45 min walk; or need me to drive her back and forth. The local school is a 15/20 min bus ride away / she’d have to do 8.25 - 4pm as they’re the only bus times. But that’s ok. But there’s the poor results of one of her subjects. Sigh!! No indies seem to offer sociology at ALL!!

Quite Donna. It just feels a bit heavy handed, escalated far too quickly.

I've had a right fight on my hands. I'm tempted to make a complaint re the whole way it's been handled, but I can't be bothered.

Endless notifications, then loads of emails sent by me, then Hoy finally phone call. All over many being late, and a detention threatened for 10 pupils, after school the week after, the first day of exam week, when they all should've been at home revising.

although I do admit he then dawdled strung it out a bit! But HoY then insisted there was also a disturbance but ds wasn't there at that point. when I asked for proof hoy got all flustered and then started being threatening. Then Deputy Head took over, but in an underhand way instead of dealing with me threatened Ds that's if he didn't do the detention he'd be exclusion, miss the 6th form visit, parents have to come in for a re-entry meeting, so ds immediately unsurprisingly agreed to do the detention. I'm just a bit hacked off with it all.

Congrats to the distinction @QueenMabby
@Oblomov24 If ten kids are late bc they went to the wrong class, it’s an admin error & not really detention worthy. Does the HOY think they did it on purpose?

@Oblomov24 that sounds stressful. DD1 says kids kept walking into her classroom during the Alevel mocks because everything got changed round - it was hard to get it right so a detention seems unfair.

DD2 is all done with exams and results, including a g6 singing taken on Monday. Woodwind assessment all done too. Just an opera and symphony concert to go and it seems almost no lessons. She's delighted to be missing sports day for opera rehearsals, as sport is very much NOT her thing. There seems to have been very little consistency in how grades were given after exams - some apparently are 'working at' grades and others are more like predictions. I guess we will have to see what the report says, as hopefully is more consistent.

Ds2 went to his 6th form visit today.

I haven been fighting HoY then Deputy Head for over a week and it's become heated, re a detention he and 10 others got during exam week being late to a class when the classroom changed for yr 11 exams.

Mine has been doing mocks all week. 3 today. Hot weather for sitting in a hall doing exams.

Totally agree about it being hard to prioritise things - there's just so much going on this term. DS has his end of year exams next week and I wish they'd done them earlier in the term, or maybe even last term. By this stage of the year they're always knackered. I did manage to persuade him to make a revision plan, and to be fair he has stuck to it, but it's quite minimal!

@QueenMabby glad that your DD found the singing exam ok. When does she get her results?

DS still has end of topic tests and assessments on going and into next week and beyond. He's not really going to be doing much revision for them with all the sports he's doing and DH is taking him away this weekend for a cycling holiday. How to prioritise all the things he's got going on is a constant battle here.

DS's school's maths dept doesn't seem to give 9s. Although some subjects do as he got a 9 for RE at the beginning of the year. The grade boundaries are a funny one. It's good to know though that you don't have to get 80%+ or so to get a top grade as there is so much content to cover in the GCSEs you can't possibly get everything right unless you're a genius!

@NotDonna omg, embroidery sports, that's just so wrong. If they aren't "proper" sports they won't be accepted for GCSE assessment would they?! How on earth can they think dance is not a sport, you have to be so fit and precise!
I'm glad that our one set of mocks is before Christmas. Having a bit of a break before the final slog would be good.
Well done to your DD on her set of results.

@QueenMabby hope your DD did well in her singing exam despite her cold.

Well done to all the DCs for their results. DS has a Biology and Chemistry end of year exam this week. He has done some revision for both, but not much. He's tired and worn out now from too much school work and doing sports during the week. I don't think they matter too much his EOY tests, as only a couple of teachers are doing them. But it'll be good to know how much he's retained from the rest of the year for those subjects.
It's frustrating as science is the thing he struggles with the most (despite us both being Chemistry graduates!). He's been getting good results, 7/8s from the other subjects in end of topic tests with not doing that much revision at home.

Our teacher retainment seems to be pretty good. Just one teacher I know of, a French teacher left a couple of years ago. She was great and DD loved her lessons, since the new teacher she hates the subject. DS has been having the same Maths teacher since year 7. The headmaster has been round for yonks too and seem to know each pupil by name. It's a relatively small for a secondary though. 5 class entry, used to be 4 before DS joined. Some of the nearby schools are 10 classes in each year group!

@QueenMabby - yes the same with DD2's school and the different and harder maths paper. Which certainly didn't work in her favour by the sounds of things. Heaven knows what went on with her there. One result left to go here. Meanwhile she's home tomorrow straight after her woodwind assessment - because we have a 'family commitment' (ahem, Taylor Swift concert) tomorrow night. Suitable celebration for getting through the things!

@icanbewhatiwant the rationale for the 9s thing was that 9s were only decided in relation to other grades (or something like that) so it wasn't fair to predict. Which is fine unless you're applying for a superselective sixth form where other schools are more bullish in their predictions. No consistency at all.

@minisnowballs yes why don't they give 9's? Ds was rather embarrassed as his English teacher read out a piece of his work to the class, she said it was definitely worthy of a 9 but she isn't allowed to award a 9 to a year 10. Surely when they do mocks they must give 9's if they score a 9. None of the gcse predictions on his report say a 9.