Year 10 2024/2025 - come and join!

Grim @OpalSquid thank God some things have improved. We had a Maths teacher like that. He got done about 15 years after we left 🤢. I have lots of friends who got Es and Ds in their Maths A levels as he was just so awful.

I did history at university without a GCSE or an A level. My A levels included English Lit and RE which are similar skills I suppose and demonstrated historical knowledge in interview.
I always loved history but couldn’t stand to be in the same room as the history teacher- he was one of those creepy teachers you got a bad vibe from and always tried to be a bit too friendly with the girls but everyone ignored it because it was the 90s.

History and Geography aren’t needed at gcse, they are such broad subjects that the a level and GCSE don’t really overlap and you can develop the skills (essay writing, analysis) during the a-level and if course some of it will be in English. I have a degree in Geography and never did it at gcse. It’s not like languages or maths where you’re building on past knowledge.

I saw DS planner today for the first time, 2 requests in it for him to bring a pencil case. He tells me his calculator (the 2nd one we’ve bought) is definitely in maths class. His organisation skills are just nonexistent.

@DataColour I hope things improve for your DD. What is it that she is struggling with?

Thank you. She's really unhappy at school at the moment due to friendship issues. Bad timing as I feel like we're stuck given it's Year 10 and a change of school now would be risky. 😥

We’ve had tears tonight. In English the teachers asked her how labour costs are related to the themes in An Inspector Calls. DD didn’t know what labour costs means so said “I’m sorry miss I don’t know what that phrase means” and the teacher told her to dig deeper, she got upset because it wasn’t that she couldn’t link it to the themes it was that she didn’t know the phrase. As soon as I told her she said “oh it links to capitalism, I hate English now”

@XelaM I don't think that will affect her A levels as she has a good spread anyway. A friend's daughter dropped history but was told she could still do it for A level even if she didn't do it for GCSE, which seems odd but I guess there are lots of new subjects at A level that people haven't done GCSEs in.

No revision here and don't anticipate any this side of half term.

Mine's a bit bored by history at the moment as they've started with the end of WW1 and the Weimar Republic which they already did last year in both History and German. It doesn't help that she has double history 3 days in a row this week.

Just joining this thread.

Ds has just started year 10 and I'm feeling very under prepared compared to some of you.

Ds is doing science X3, maths , further maths, geography, computer science, business studies and English X2.

Ds seems to be getting circa 2hrs homework a night. A couple of mini tests this week (just learning science definitions).
His maths is now beyond our capabilities but so far he's top of the top set (they are sat in rank order) and we've not had to help.

No actual revision yet. I don't think he's learnt enough yet to actually need to revise anything?

No revision done yet here as no exams are upcoming. It's still very early on in the year. At DD's school they do end of topic tests, but that'll take a month or so to manifest and she'll probably do some revision then. She's not that studious apart from wanting to do well in maths as she got moved up to the top set in that and wants to stay there.
I might get her to do some Seneca learning on the sciences as they've been good for my DS recently in year 11 but they take a long time to go through each topic, but seems quite thorough and I regret not starting DS on it earlier.
No tutors here but between DH and I we can help with science and maths, but perhaps some help in the future with English might be needed as DD is not so hot on that.
@XelaM hope things improve for your DD. What is it that she is struggling with?

Joining as my daughter just started Year 10.

She's had a rubbish time so far this year, but hopefully it will improve at some point. She is really enjoying Maths and the triple Sciences at the moment. Her teachers for the core subjects seem fine.

Her options are Russian language, PE, Art, Food Tech along with triple Science and the required Maths and English. A bit worried she dropped both History and Geography as everyone seems to take it. Would that limit her 6th Form options?

How much revision are your kids doing as I'm really worried she's not doing much apart from the set school work. She only has tutors for Russian as that is done outside of school. Hoping that we don't need tutors for other subjects and that the study guides plus us at home will do, but maybe I'm being naive?

Interesting the different order they do things. DS1 will be doing history of medicine too but according to the file from school not until y11 - the last bit of the course. Wish mine wanted to do notes!
Much sympathy @wewon - I cannot imagine getting a teenager to a pool for 5am. Hope they are flexible- some friends have had trouble with this :(.

Homework coming in more rapidly now. DD also loving the medicine part of History.. she's asked for some stationery to start preparing notes. Hoping it lasts

Swimming? I'm glad tbh my DD stepped down from elite sports

When I asked local college when dd was in y10 they said October open evening for year 11 and summer ones for year 10. This worked well, by summer we had a better idea of target grades. I guess if you have a very wide choice it maybe worth starting a look now. The 6th form attached to ds indie school is inviting year 10 this term, but we have 2 large and very good state 6th form colleges locally and will be deciding between those (hopefully still a chance ds will miss grades and be looking at technical or agricultural college instead).

Thanks @Walkingbkwrm, that sounds like my DS too. His brand new y7 sister has had more homework than him so far!

Hi @MyBestFriendKenny .

Another here who has had very little homework. Younger brother (yr8) very disgusted to discover he had twice as much at the weekend! Sure he should be doing some sort of independent study but no chance he will volunteer details of that. Plus they tend to keep their books in school so he rarely even has an exercise book that I can check.

Mine is getting loads of homework - it's really stepped up from Yr9 where she could basically leave it till the weekend. Now she's getting lots that need to be handed in the day after or in a couple of days. And the art sounds familiar @UncomfortableSilence, she must have spent at least 4 hours doing it this weekend.

@MakeTeaNotWar I'd think it's a bit early unless your dc know what they want to do for A levels? DD1 has a sixth form at her school so will probably stay unless she wants to do something they don't offer, like drama or psychology.
I think you need to have an idea of their predicted grades too to know which to aim for. There are some academic ones near us that would need 7s to apply.

Does anyone have any y10 open evenings / taster days scheduled for college or is it still a bit early?

Hello, I'm late arriving but my DS has just started y10.

His options are Spanish, Music BTEC and Geography. He has compulsory RE and is taking 10 in total. We had a bit of a crisis prior to the start of term around options as he couldn't take his preferred options of triple science and music due to a timetable clash. In the end he swapped the third science for Spanish and that seems to be working well so far. He really likes his teacher and he's in a class of 8 so all positives.

DS is really smart but has a significant DCD (Dyspraxia) diagnosis which increasingly affects his executive function so we're really looking for ways to promote revision in a way he can get along with.

He does a lot of extracurriculars, he's basically a massive joiner, but we've had a difficult conversation about him giving up martial arts. He's at the stage of it where he needs to commit to training at least four times a week which is impossible with everything else he has going on. He's decided to join the local gym instead as he won't be tied to class times with that. He's also an Explorer Scout, Cubs young leader, as well as just about every extracurricular offered in school, the non-sporty ones anyway!

He is planning to pursue a career in either conservation or music production so he's always on the look out for opportunities to develop those interests.

DD has had a lot of homework, particularly sciences.

She spent 5 hours on an Art piece yesterday that is just a practice. She knew how much work Art would be but she's such a perfectionist I can see this taking up so much of her time. But she seems very happy so far.

She's finding Computer Science a bit boring as they are really going over some real basics and it's one of her strongest subjects and she's loving the medicine in History!

We have had tons of homework - a good couple of hours each night and 3 hours yesterday, too much really.
Interestingly they say the homework policy hasn’t changed yet DS (now in first year university) didn’t receive anywhere near this much in fact most weeks nothing at all - now you might say he was just pretending he didn’t get any but they give detention for non completion of homework and he only ever got 3. Hmmm

I’ve resorted to printing off some practice questions on the Physics Maths tutor website for the one science topic he’s fully completed (in y9), so he can hopefully do some revision. Need to think about how we best plan for it going forward. Monday morning is such an awkward time for it, would be great if it as Friday afternoon so he could clear homework before the weekend!

DS hasn't had much homework so far. DD has had more in year 7!

Does yours have a revision guide, text book or set English text he could get on with working through or reading in his study periods?

How are people finding the quantity of homework so far? DS has typically had a fairly heavy homework load in KS3, but very little has been set so far. Thinking about it, he’s dropped some very homework-heavy subjects like Art and DT.

He gets a few study periods because he’s chosen to do the full RS GCSE and the others do a half GCSE on top of their options. But its hard for him to plan what to do during these - his school is mobile-free during the school day but most of the homework is set on the school app. The supervising teacher just says ‘get on with some work’. He has a study period tomorrow morning and no homework outstanding. So I’m not sure what to suggest to him!

DD seems to be happy about her teachers and subjects. The thing she seems most pleased about is that they get to choose what they do in PE because she isn't studying it for GCSE. She is actually enjoying it far more than she has ever done.