Workload of GCSEs - how much time roughly

I agree with what others have said about seeing how she does in mocks, and also thinking about how much study leave she gets.

My dd did about 12 hours a week (sometimes more) of music and sport right through Y11. But she balanced it up by hard and focused work at school, and every holiday, and on study leave. She spent a lot more time on her weaker subjects, and did relatively little on her strongest ones, and I think that strategy helped a lot.

DS2 did a similar amount of extra curricular activities, he also did Welsh lit and lang and additional maths on top of the GCSEs that your dd is studying.

There are exams in PE and music so your dd is wrong that she doesn’t need to study for those, but they don’t count for 100% of the course.

If she is extremely well organised it is doable, especially if she sees her sports as her fun time and doesn’t need much more. DS chose to miss some sports competitions in the run up to his exams. He also worked very hard for his mocks, and attended all of the extra revision sessions that school offered.

In year 11 he came away with 9 A stars and a distinction in additional maths (they did some in year 10 too and he got A stars for those as well). I was amazed at his focus and organisation. If your dd is able and willing to do the same I wouldn’t force her to stop anything, that’s likely to breed resentment and backfire imo.

edited to change * to star as it made some text bold!!

Honestly, I'd let her make her own decisions. No one dies if she gets a 5 in History and 9s elsewhere.
If she doesn't want to drop sports that's OK too.

Yes I'd definitely defer optional things like music exams to the looooong summer between GCSEs and A-levels.

However, generally speaking, quite often the highest achievers at GCSE doing 10 subjects plus also manage to fit in a ton of extra curricular to balance it all out, so I would not be going no sport at all. I would just cut it down a bit to fit in a few more hours of revision. But see how she does in her mocks.

My DC did a lot of extracurricular too but I insisted they toned it down by spring term of Year 11 so they could focus on their GCSEs. I would want her to get higher than a 6 in history if she is going do want to do English Lit and Economics A level as it is a useful subject for essays and rigorous analysis (History that is). It is one of the harder GCSEs. If she puts in the hours now she can up her grade especially is she is as able as she sounds. I would also aim for Grade 7 piano in Year 12 or I would do 4 pieces and the performance exam in the summer holidays after GCSEs if you can still get a teacher. So she can then do Grade 8 in the summer of Year 12. After that it is simply too busy in Year 13, in my opinion.

When is she sitting her piano grade? I’d be trying to get that out of the way and then pausing lessons until after exams. I did this for my instrument during exam years and just set aside 45 minutes a week to play for enjoyment and to keep up.

I think it’s manageable if she’s enjoying it and is the sort of person who thrives on being back to back but she needs to be willing to be flexible and open - would she tell you if she was struggling? Would she accept dropping a tennis session from March to June for extra revision time?

How often are parents evenings and mocks so you can keep an eye on things?

In all honestly experience of completing priorities, balancing things and working hard aren’t a negative. I work at a university and there is a visible difference in how students with experiences like your daughters manage, bs students who were told by parents, or decided, that they could do nothing but study. The second ones don’t do as well and I do worry for them in adult life!

One in private and one in state. Very similar schools though.

Is that a state school? Impressive offer if so. Library was used as a classroom at the school I worked at. Then pretty much closed as the librarian was made redundant so no one would have been able to supervise.

DS1 took fewer GCSEs bc of LD, but that was from year 9, a specific option offered by the school to weaker students and timetables as supervised time in learning support.

She went to the library and did her homework/revision. DD2 is at a different school and she goes to what they call a “study support class” where she also does her homework.

Thats interesting. It would be almost impossible to police at any school I have worked at. We very occasionally did it if a student was really struggling with a subject like MFL.

But the issue is where do they go and what do they do? What happened at your DD’s school?

Ten hours a week is good. Ramp it up closer to the exams.
My DD worked hard. But even with A levels she tried to do as much as she could in school (they had an 8.50-4.40 day). From Easter (March) on everything else went out the window and it was full on.

Interesting you say dropping a subject is leftfield. Just shows how different every school is. It’s very common at DD1’s school for high performing athletes. She dropped from 10 to 9 subjects and it massively helped her. She wasn’t a struggling student at all and came away with mainly grade 9s, but one less subject reduced the stress levels considerably.

I think it is a lot but it’s not unmanageable.
You say no time for fun – but then her sports are her fun.

My DD and DS2 both got great grades in their GCSEs and both continued many activities. DD had a paper round every morning so that took her an hour; she also did dance, Guides, music lesson and Saturday morning music club as well as various drama activities. DS2 v sporty did multiple sports with training and matches like your DD, tho tbh not as much as her tennis. Also his paper round was only on a Sunday haha. But what I am trying to say is, it’s possible and in fact desirable to keep up activities even in exam year. DD tho was more dedicated to revision and did drop athletics in year 11. DS2 was more last-minute so not such an issue (he’s very smart and quick where DD has to work hard).

I would suggest scaling back the tennis in the evening for the next six months if that’s possible – can she then pick it up again? But otherwise I think it’s OK.

How long for revision – who can say? See my DC above, very different approaches. An hour spent on actual revision of key topics is better than three spent staring aimlessly at books. I agree with redsky - if she has been revising, making notes, learning French vocab as she goes along the workload now will be much less. Suggestion to drop a subject is a bit left-field – most schools won’t allow that unless a DC is really struggling (your DD clearly is not) and they would have to find someone to supervise her as well.

Wrt specific subjects – DD did music tho a different spec and admits she did very little revision as she was doing so many theory exams anyway she had covered it. Does your DD do theory? I assume so if she is G7. DD aced the exam but fell down on composition. The exam spec is different now tho and DD says you have to study specific works to talk about them so she probs needs to revise those?

DS2 did PE and I am sure he did do some work haha but maybe there is a heavy biology overlap so it’s not so pressurised.

Her A levels are interesting – good choices but what does she want to do at Lboro? DS2 is there doing STEM and I am a big fan of the uni (posts passim) but it no longer offers MFL and maths without FM wouldn’t be great for maths there. English is a good degree there tho so that might be the way. Or sports science of course but she would need to be sure about A level PE (sounds like she isn’t) and would need to be looking at AstarAA.

Sorry for essay! HTH

They also have loads of revision sessions in school time. Most subjects are finished well ahead of the exams.

Don't forget she'll get study leave from school in the run up to the exams. I was really surprised by how many weeks off my DD had for both mocks and the real exams. I think it differs by school. Worth asking.

I’d be asking for her to drop History. It will free up 2/3 hours in school for her to study and remove some of the homework/revision. Both my DDs dropped a subject and it made a huge difference.

Is she currently on track for those predicted grades? Has she been revising for each topic as it completes, and creating revision notes and on top of all material to date?
If she is, and she accepts that the sport essentially is her "leisure" time, then I think this is possible.

Ideally you should work at GCSEs as you go along, which means that there isn't a huge burden of work in Year 11. The only exception to this is coursework heavy subjects e.g. Art and DT which take way more time. It looks like PE is her only coursework subject but not one where I know what is involved, but worth checking this.

My DD adopted this approach and seemed to manage (Art excepted :) ) on about an hour a night of homework and a chunk of time on a Sunday - which looks like it would fit into your daughter's schedule. I'd caveat that you'd want to be reducing it by around Easter, but I suspect that would be "normal" for others doing her sports as well.

If she's not been keeping up as she goes along or her grades have slipped to a point where she won't be meeting entry criteria for A Levels, then none of that applies.

See what she gets in her mocks. If the grades are high, she might be able to carry on at this level of extra curricular activities.
If not, she will need to find time from somewhere to study more.
It's only a few months. My DD paused a couple of her commitments for a while.
I suspect it's not true that PE and music requires little study. She might find them relatively easier though.

Is she doing PE as a GCSE or just PE.

My Yr11 is only doing PE so has no exam at the end of year or study, but his friend is doing PE as a GCSE subject and has lot of theory in this subject.

As a parent who has had 2 children go through GCSE's I would say just because she predicted 8/9's if she wants them then she is going to have to work for them.

2 hours a night roughly, more the term before the exams.

I've had 3 go through GCSE/A level and currently have a yr12.

It's too much. No child should be having to fit work in before school. Delay the grade 7 piano until after GCSE's or yr12.