Year 10 2024/2025 - come and join!

Thank you for the thread. DD has her mocks in November, immediately after half term. Options are PE, Geography and Drama. Alongside 2 x English, 3 x science and Maths.

She has just dropped French. While near fluent, she is also severely dyslexic and her wonderful French teacher agreed with me that the grammar and writing side of it is just too much. She's a bit sad to drop it, but it also means she frees up 5 periods over the 2 week timetable where she can now get the extra support she needs with English Lang and Maths. She LOVES Lit and wants to do it for A Level.

A lot of planning and revision seems to have been done over the summer holidays, and she's actually quite looking forward to this next year. Time management has been an issue in the past, but she also plays a sport at an international level for England, which is adding in additional planning. As she's matured I think she has realised her limits well and, well we shall see. Dropping her sport is non negotiable for her, at least while she remains at the level she is.

She is my 4th though, so I'm quite relaxed I guess, as I know with my others that no path is the same. I might need reminding of this as the year progresses...!

Things I’ve learned from this years gcse experience:

• start tutoring now, especially for English
• Year 10 is probably more important than year 11 as so much knowledge is gained which needs revising in Y11.
• mock grades can be very difficult to gauge so don’t assume anything

Morning
Just marking my space too.
Just finished with DS1, so it’s now DS2s turn. I’ll have A level and GCSE grades to await 🤪

DS2 is very different to DS1…….forget the grades! I’m aiming for completing Year 11 😅

DD is going into year 10, but her school are very odd and split triple science across year 9,10 and 11. So she sat Biology this year and got her result on Thursday - a 5. She'll sit Chemistry and one of the English ones (Lit?) in year 10, and then Physics, French, the other English, Maths, RE and Engineering/DT in year 11.

She really wants to be a vet. She's a smart girl in top set at non-grammar, but she's not 10 GCSEs at level 9 and AAA at A-level smart, which is apparently needed for über competitive vet med.
She needed a 6 at GCSE to study biology at A level around here, which she probably would have got if she'd taken biology in year 10 or 11, with more maturity and experience as she got a 6 in one of her mocks. She definitely didn't take revision as seriously as she should have - it's frustrating to have that learning experience with the main subject she needed!

I'm hoping I can gently steer her towards other routes into animal care if that's what she still wants to do. Any mention of it currently is met with 'oh, so you think I'm stupid?' 🙄 But I think she'd be great in a more engineering based role, so I'm hoping she'll love the course and go that way.

The next two years will be challenging I think, from a parenting point of view!

Marking my spot here too. My Son is going in Y10 and I have no clue how to guide him.
I did hideous in my GCSE'S due to lack of support, but still went to Uni after repeating a year at Collegae.

We've brought his Uniform and I've organised his room. x

Hi! DS is my first child going through GCSEs. He's taking Business Studies, French, Geography and PE on top of the core subjects. I'm tearing my hair out a bit over his apathy towards life in general at the moment but he's been prewarned that there will be a rocket up his behind come September. He's a very bright boy and I want him to do himself justice.

Signing in, DD2, our youngest starting Y10. DD1 was Covid year so we haven't been through a proper exam series yet.

Triple Science, French, Computer Science, Art & History plus RE is compulsory at her school so 11 total for her.

Lucky in that I have a lot of revision books and guides from DD1 which weren't used much in the end.

We're away at the moment and DD was saying how much she is looking forward to getting started! Long may that last

My DD starts year 10 this year. Can't believe how fast the time is going. She's struggling with anxiety a lot at the moment so hoping it's not made worse

Ok so now I’ve had a chance to read the whole thread! Some super organised DC going on here! This is great to learn about though. DS is doing history, geography, Spanish and RE as his option subjects as well as triple science (so 10 GCSEs in total) I think he’s looking forward to dropping some of the subjects he doesn’t enjoy! I haven’t been on the ball at all this summer re prep for courses, homework or work experience. School have asked us to help our DC find some work experience but when I quizzed DS about anything he’d like to do he doesn’t have a clue!! I asked him what his interests are (school gave us a list of ‘talking points’ for career inspiration) and all he good say was he liked (the extremely niche) sport he plays and dogs…. I had thought he could go and worked for his uncle’s engineering firm for the week but apparently that’s out because it’s too far away for a h&s check so back to the drawing board (or not!) He is so unmotivated about this work experience thing! Please tell me I’m not alone in this? I’m sure my DC2 who knows exactly what career path they want (and has done since she was about 3!) would have written about 20 letters to different companies by now!

Hello. Place-marking as DD1 is starting Y10. They have to do triple science at her school much to her disgust - her other options are history, German, art and drama. She's currently on tenterhooks waiting for their timetables to be released so she can see which teachers she has. Most of her friends are either doing double humanities or double languages so she's worrying about it.

I wish we still had letter grades in England!

Morning! Just marking my space! DS is entering yr 10 in a couple of weeks- this seems like a great idea to share thoughts. He is my eldest and I have no idea what to expect. Things seem to have changed in the 25 years since I did my GCSEs (or maybe not because we also did An Inspector Calls! 😂) DS is currently snuggled up asleep in bed next to me. He’s only just turned 14 and seems such a baby still!!

@Pastlast it's just a working idea with dc1, she's also considering night nanny (loves babies & is nocturnal ) & has looked at studying with Norland. As I say though they're just things she's considering, she wants to leave her options open.

Dc2 is just one of those who's very organised & likes a plan in place.

Work experience placements are for school, they've told them to apply over the summer but, annoyingly, haven't even given us approximate dates of which week it will be.

They're both checking their phones daily now to see if timetables have been loaded on yet

I'm here! Oldest DD goes into Y10 this year. Compulsory RE, choices are Sociology, History and triple Science. She's very ambitious, and also very busy with lots of outside school stuff so the juggling will be a learning curve!

My DS also has compulsory CCF this year. He's a competitive sailor so he chose the Navy section, but I'm still 95% sure he's going to hate it and it will be the moaning-point of the year.

In NI here so DS is Y11 starting GCSE (we count your reception year as P1). The local exam board still has letter grades but they are aligned with the UK numbers.

The compulsory subjects are English language, English literature, Maths and a short course in Religious studies

He's arts/humanities through and through, so doing music, drama, history, classical civilisation, French and physics.

Total of 9.5, didn't want to do further maths.

I’ll join. My son has no idea what he wants to do other than make a load of money! Some of your children seem amazingly organised and motivated. In contrast I’ve struggled to get him to review the science he’s started in year ten as ‘no one is doing anything over the holidays.’

he’s doing the usual plus, history, drama, Latin and computer science.

Oh, amazing that she has such a clear idea of what she wants to do, good for her. DS is loving languages (he’s taking three for GCSE, two via school and doing another one with a tutor) but no ideas for potential careers etc

Hi, my eldest (DS) is going into Yr10 in Sep so GCSEs are new territory for us. He hasn’t mentioned anything about work experience, when would this be for?

My DD is starting year 10 too. She is doing triple science, History, PE and Food Tech as options. RE is a compulsory GCSE too. She's got into the higher set for Maths for year 10, which means she has the option to do further maths too if she wishes. She's ecstatic to be dropping French (hated the teacher), Drama and Comp Science.
I've got a DS in the year above (in the same school), so I'm also in the previous year 10 thread too. So, I kind of know what to expect for DD this year. She's not that studious or organised, and doesn't like doing much homework, and it's a huge leap in homework from year 9 to year 10 in their school, so I'm feeling quite nervous for her and how she will handle the change.

Thanks @TurtleGemSaturn0 looks very useful!

Dd hasn't a clue what she wants to do yet, potentially an EFL teacher as she has an affinity with language. Work experience wise she's applied to the two local EFL schools along with the nursery she attended (school recommended one fairly safe bet).

Dc2 is easier, he's always been set on being a teacher. He's already researched Which 6th form he'd ideally like to go to, Uni course requirements, student loans etc

This is my 'turning point' year though as our middle child is starting y7 so I'll only have 2 at primary.