Parents of GCSE 2025

One of my older children was later than this few years ago asking for help feeling overwhelmed with content and not knowing how to revise.

We went in with idea of firming up his predicted grades and maybe getting one or two a bit higher. He was willing to put the work in and just needed extra support and direction - some of that was undiagonsed SEN and a chaotic school which was in special measures.

His notes were awful - we had to rely on revison text books which often do a good job of summerising data and questions to check he'd actually learnt it. He was also smart to prioritize subjects he needed - which frankly at that age I wouldn't have been and would have tried to do everything.

So from our experience I wouldn't say it was too late he put the work in last few weeks and did much better than predicted.

It is partly why I'm struggling with youngest and how much to push/support currently.

She a different child in a different place - even school is in better place. I'm sure she could get better grades with more work but push too hard and we risk triggering her anxierty and pushing her off course. Plus she has started earlier than last child with revision - so hopefully that means won't need such a huge push later on.

My DS similar. I'd really like to know if kids like this can pull it out of the bag at this stage - I am hoping so.
What does your DS need to get to his next steps? Mine only needs 4s for his college course but he is capable of a lot more.

Just found this thread and would like to join.

My DS(16) has just done his second set of mocks and just getting a few marks trickling in. A 4 and two 5s so far. He's very capable and could get 6s and 7s in most subjects but he's left it all a bit too late.

He's started working harder now but came to me a couple of days ago saying he's feeling daunted and overwhelmed by how much content he needs to cover because he's done the absolute bare minimum up to this point. This follows months, if not years, of me and his Dad trying to motivate and encourage him to want to do well and work a bit harder 🙄 Anyway, 8 weeks until his first exams and that's still time to cover a lot of ground.

He actually has his Food & Nutrition practical exam tomorrow so all focus on that at the moment. Keeping everything crossed that he nails it 🤞

You have all encouraged me to email his maths teacher. Thank you 🙂

We use mathsgenie a lot. Both the past papers and the graded worksheets. I’ve been working though the grades 4 and 5 worksheets with DS and I think that’s helping with getting the higher marks on the foundation papers.

My DS is consistently getting 5 on the foundation papers and 4 on higher. So he is doing foundation as he seems to have a higher chance of a 5 that way. Also agree that doing the higher is very demoralising. He gets 80%+ on foundation but only around 25% on higher and many of the questions on higher are just completely inaccessible. It also takes some of the pressure off and frees up more time for English (which is more of a worry).

That's actually really helpful thank you. I'm going to push for the foundation paper I think, he's really worried about failing the higher paper.

My DS1 missed a 5 by 2 marks a couple of years ago in his mocks and did Foundation in GCSE. Ended up with a very high 5 in that (like 90%) and all the pressure for the last few months gone.
5 is good enough for the course he is doing now but he really benefitted from studying all the higher tier material but not sitting the exam. He is currently doing core maths as part of his college course.
I was not sure it was the right thing at the time, but the school did advise it and they were right.

He got a 4 in the higher but his school are putting most of the pupils through the higher paper as I was told they only need 25% to get a 4. I think they are hoping for some bigger numbers

ahhhh that's not good from the school. It's true you need a lowish % for a 4 in H but they surely understand that 25% in H paper is 25% of much harder questions. Demoralising for the DC to take an exam they cannot access 75% of. In MFL there is no way I would enter a candidate who was achieving a 4 into H. F all the way.

If anyone is doing History then the BBC bitesize podcasts are really good and helped DS formulate his essays

I'm thinking the same for DS. He got a 4 in the higher but his school are putting most of the pupils through the higher paper as I was told they only need 25% to get a 4. I think they are hoping for some bigger numbers 🤷‍♀️

But I would much rather DS had an easier paper to work from, even if it still gives him a 4, but gives him a better chance of achieving a 5.

On a positive note, his Drama coursework has now been added to his mock which has given him a 4. He just needs to pass his bloody English now (I would forsake his drama for English if we could 🤣 just to get him over the line!)

Ds sat another set of mocks last week. His maths result is a 5 but literally only just scraped a 5 (higher paper), I'm so torn as to whether I should ask school if he should do the foundation paper, aaaargh!

I'd like to join! DS has asd and didn't sit his
gcses last year due to anxiety and hes having a go at 4 subjects. This year it's the turn of DD, also asd. Very gentle reminder revision going on here with both of them!!

Haven’t tried BBC bite size as my DD is a bit overwhelmed with too much choice. She’s “happy” to do SENECA revision, so she’s sticking with that for science, and CGP flash cards for other subjects. It’s all a battle.

Bitesize is always considered a good resource. I know for our exam boards, (mainly aqa and edexcel) we've been recommended seneca, mathswatch, maths genie and French with Eileen. My son likes the light up hub on insta for English.

I feel more at home on this thread than the others but thanks for the link 🙂

DS has perked up a little bit. He is still deflated that all the hard work he did for the mocks hasn't really improved his grades, but we have had some of those teen conversations (the ones where you are driving and not looking at eachother or making tea or something - not the contrived conversations 😂) and he has agreed to let us help him and formulate a plan. So that is a big step for us.

DD has applied to 6th form, not her first choice but no other option as colleges too far away and she is uncomfortable on trains. She has had conditional acceptance, which is great but she is so worried now about achieving expected grades. Her memory is not great and currently dealing with a medical condition that we have yet to have diagnosed and so lots of tests and time off. Stressed out mum and worried Dd. Glad to find this thread.

Don't worry, it's all confusing and I do wish there was a foundation level English. I agree with you that it is a hard paper to revise for.

I found some examples of sentence starters which I hope will be helpful for him.

Year11Thread

There is another thread for year 11 that has been going fur a long time. All are welcome. And no unlike @gatheryerosebuds said, not all children are expected to get all 9's. My ds got a 2 in RE last year at a catholic school!

Come and join the year 11 thread. We are very welcoming to all, especially those with anxiety, MH, not high achievers.

Ah I had no idea there was no foundation… apologies for a misleading suggestion.

And I actually think it is possible to revise in a meaningful way for English lang - the answers required are quite prescriptive and you can learn the terms you need to use. And there are lots of ways to plan and plot out useful elements of the creative writing in advance too.

There is no F and H tier for English GCSE any more, lit or lang.