Year 10 - 2023/2024 Support Thread

@DataColour He is doing football which is his big passion and then we are struggling a bit for the others so he is doing table tennis and running.
I only have the detail for football in terms of the filming as I’d asked for that earlier on this year so can’t help with any other sports-apologies I thought I had a big list .

@QueenMabby unfortunately DS's PE teacher IS the head of PE! And DH says the head of year has no authority over heads of departments so no point emailing the HOY. But I think we will have to now, they might be able to do something. Or point us in the right direction.

@SB1971 thanks so much. I've just had a look at Everlearner and it looks fab! Will definitely have a more thorough look into it this evening. What sports is your DS doing?

@DataColour Everlearner is the on line system he uses for PE GCSE

DS has started his end of years today,we had an exam timetable well before half term and they are held in the hall like the actual GCSE’s will be next year.
@DataColour my son also does PE ,they have an app they use but I can’t remember the name helpfully,I will check with him this evening but am not sure on whether it’s just useful for a specific board. We also had quite detailed guidelines on what is needed for the practical elements ie the filing clip set -shout if this would be useful also and I’ll dig it out.
So the school is pretty organised, it remains to be seen if this has transferred to DS….

@user8800 we are finding the same thing at our school. There are no timetabled end of year exams but some teachers are doing them, with little notice and no time to revise due to homework, other end of topic tests etc. Some subjects, no idea at all.

Thanks for all your suggestions, really useful. I've gone on the website for physicsandmathstutor.com and went through some flashcards with DS who found it "boring" but I will print out some practise questions for him to do at the weekend. He has done Seneca for Geography as instructed by the teacher, so we did do that for Biology too and he seemed to get on well with it, although it did take a long time to complete one topic! But I think rather than cram everything in it's better to carry on with the Seneca if he prefers that even if we only cover a couple of topics.

Also, Dr. Frost has been great for us. Both DCs like the question format and it's good that you can choose questions according to what they need to work on and the right level of hardness. Both of them have done really well in maths so far using only that for revision.

Another whinge at the school....DS is doing PE GCSE and the sports dept is RUBBISH. I usually have a lot of sympathy for teachers as DH is a teacher and I know how much they are under pressure. But, no guidance on anything, won't answer to emails most of the time, no notice for exams, no revision material or helpful aids suggested, no clue as to how to film their sports or how good they have to be to get a certain grade. It's ridiculous. We've been googling for information about how to produce a cycling video for assessment, no help from the teacher at all, despite several emails! Cycling and also cricket are summer sports so have to get footage now, not in the autumn! DD who is going into year 10 in the same school has also chosen PE as she is also very sporty, but I'm regretting it now!

Mocks for y10 dd utterly useless

Timetable not accurate at all - making planned revision pretty much impossible

Revision suggestions for some subjects, not all

No idea when or how 2 of her subjects will be assessed....not even on the timetable!

Just awful

Is anyone else's child doing art? DS is finding the workload hard, the sheer quantity and it's not something he can rush, ive suggested to him he focus on quantity rather than quality occasionally just to keep up with the pace as apparently he'll get marked down for not producing enough.

oh, and when i said 'chorus' for symphony for DD2 i should have said 'course' - she's playing the contrabassoon. I got an email from her head of dept yesterday concerned about her schedule, so at least someone has noticed I guess.

@DataColour that all sounds a bit much... hope it goes ok.

DD1 used tassomai for science, but we paid for it - there were just so many covid holes for her to fill and she was doing triple in the same time as other classes did double. It did help and she did ok (7,7,8) and though it was boring she found it helpful. She now uses an AI-based one for Biology A-Level called AI Q chat, which is noticeably better, and cheaper, but it is I think only for that one course at present.

Do any of your dc's schools use tassomai? In years 7, 8 and 9 ds had bedrock and online platform for homework for English. He was always moaning about it. He was pleased to know he wouldn't be doing it in year 10 but now has tassomai instead. I think it's maths and sciences. He's meant to do each one three times a week. But I think he often does all 3 sessions in one evening. He is always complaining at how boring and repetitive they are.

Ds is awaiting his mock timetable. I think he said they will have mocks over a week starting in 2 weeks. Then he has a week of work experience, then one more week of school before summer hols.

@DataColour thats sounds a bit much and not really going to give a true reflection. DD’s end of years are timetabled and they had all half term to revise. So very different to what your DS is facing. I think I’ve mentioned before that one technique is a traffic light system where he would colour code topics into green - know it; yellow - some gaps; red - really struggling/don’t understand. The idea is to initially get yellows up to greens. Then work on reds. Psychologically it feels less overwhelming. Apparently parents tend to want them to focus on reds; whilst kids if left to themselves focus on green. Maybe an approach he could try? My older two use flash cards and something called quizlet - but I think the latter is time consuming.
DD3 is a bit stressed about the exams. There’s been quite a bit of cheating going on too. I wish they were strict about it.

@NotDonna good luck to your DD for her exams.

@minisnowballs opera and chorus sounds fun and will be a nice break from exams etc!

DS is refusing to do revision for biology and chemistry coming up next week. There's been end of topic tests for something every week and end of year test for maths last week and then they announce end of year tests for biology and chemistry compromising of everything they learnt in year 10 with less than a couple of weeks notice. Then there's a topic test on geography this week, plus the usual homework for everything. He can easily get good marks for maths and geography doing a couple of hours revision, but the sciences are so content heavy that there just so much to learn it's overwhelming! Realistically, he's only got the weekend to study for both tests with sports taking up most of the school day evenings......any tips on how to cram a full years worth of stuff??? He's tired and fed up with the constant tests and I don't want him burning out before year 11. His official mocks are end of Nov.

@minisnowballs ahh so good that exams are over & you’ve seen her! 😊

DD3 in the throes of end of year exams. They started Thursday and finish Wednesday. 2 exams a day for her, but some have 3 if they’re taking more subjects (not many take 11). They’re having 2 papers for maths and English, which I was a little surprised at. Their proper mocks are in November but this will help her see the exam format and how good her revision has been. It’s been a bit of a wake up for me that this will be for real next year. Not my baby anymore!

Saw DD2 yesterday. All exams finished - she says Maths was VERY tough - she won't hear how they've all gone until the week after this I think. It also emerges that she has only two weeks more of actual lessons this year as she has 'Opera Week' (off timetable for opera ALL WEEK!) followed by Symphony orchestra chorus (similar for another whole week). I'm not sure many of them are in both, but it's a bit of a big ask for those who are.

Must drive the teachers mad!

@icanbewhatiwant well done to your DS with the senior prefect role, that's great. Sorry about the head prefect role, hope the disappointment wears off soon and his friend is decent about it.

DS has some end of year exams for some subjects next week which weren't expected and only told about last week and is on top of regular topic tests too. it all seems too much right now especially for DS who is doing a lot of sport at the moment. The results of these tests doesn't really matter, as their official mocks for predicted grades are in Nov. I guess it's just to get them to revise earlier topics again to refresh. Just feel a bit stressed on his behalf as just don't know when he's going to have the time to revise. I don't remember constant tests like this when I was at school!! The weather being so rubbish at the weekends is in a way helpful as it would be even worse if we were missing out on great weather due to revising for tests plus homework!

@NotDonna how silly about the lawn...nice friends!

We knew it was unlikely he'd get head boy role. So that's fine. Especially as he has never volunteered within the school or done anything extra outside school. But having said that, neither has his mate. Though his mate did help with the scenes for the school play each year. So that may have helped, plus he's very friendly and approachable, Ds isn't really. But he'd have had to be if he'd got the role.

Now the competition will be on to get better gcse grades than him. I guess that's not a bad thing to be competing. As long as it's ends well.

@icanbewhatiwant so sorry to read that, seems unfair and harsh. He is better than this (twats) . Thank goodness he's a Senior Prefect.

Not Donna those lawn rules are questionable, although I know a few schools that still do such.

@NotDonna that is AWFUL! Lawn privileges seem ridiculous. I suppose i see being head boy or girl as an act of service to a school really, not a showing off thing. Poor boy.

@icanbewhatiwant Ahhh what a shame and a toughie when his best friend gets it, as he’ll want to be pleased for him when it actually grates. Hope his friend is gracious with his new role.
A friend’s son isn’t a prefect but his two friends are and are therefore allowed to walk across the school lawn. Only prefects allowed, no one else. So this boy’s friends never accompany him around the lawn. It’s petty but it hurts several times a day. Doesn’t say much for the friends does it? So sincerely hoping the new head boy is decent about it all.

@icanbewhatiwant I'm so sorry he didn't get the job. It is so hard when they compete with one particular child isn't it. Senior prefect is good though - and on the plus side he'll be able to concentrate on his work and get excellent grades.

In Dd1's school the Year 11s are prefects and head girls - the Sixth Form is split so they don't get involved. It is a lot of work for year 11s who are busy anyway. DD decided not to apply and I'm glad she didn't. DD2's school it is Year 13s, she definitely doesn't feel she's head girl material but there are years to go.