Y10- 2025/2026

Whiteboard pens delivered today and highlighter stocks increased.
The school times are changing and lunches are moving to an hour later, bit of a problem when we have a child that physically can't eat before school. I'm back to researching filling snacks for break times.

Thanks, I think he is feeling very overwhelmed by the whole thing, I do know it is supposed to be fun but that hasn’t stopped the nerves a few days before!!!! I’m also not coping with the chaos!

my DD struggled with DofE too - did Bronze last term
She HATED the expeditions - she has ASD as found it too chaotic and unplanned - I know that the idea but she just hated it
We do it through a 3rd party expedition company at our school and they were so inclusive and made various consessions to make it easier and she managed to pass Bronze.. safe to say we wont be doing silver and gold

Apparently the Works has a set of 10 different ones.. (my 12yo is hankering over it)

Dd1 more than happy with 8 highlighter colours she has... 4 bright, 4 pastel.

Weve had the annual hunt for purple pens as their school has a colour code system for all subjects (blue/black... normal, purple corrections, green peer marking, red teacher marking....) and purple pens are a pain to get hold off.

@AK1984 what is the DofE panic about? Supposed to be fun! My dd is just finishing her bronze, has her second and final expedition coming up and really enjoyed the whole experience (well, aside from having to switch her physical due to injury - that has been demotivating but she is getting there slowly).

@AK1984 not doing DoE but we did "suddenly remember" yesterday that there was a load of science she was meant to be completing before the return... I knew there would be something! She's taking triple science and the school are keen to keep their high marks in it, so it will be a good way to hopefully ease into the level expected. I've been getting school bits and trying to forsee what might be needed. She said for English they do a lot of colour coding so her current set of 5 colours isn't cutting it and she has to double up. Anyone got suggestions of good highlighters with 10+ different colours? First world problems!

Much Ado is great, it's an easy to follow story and the language is quite accessible. There's a Kenneth Brannagh film from the 90s that is worth watching and the National Theatre have a recording of David Tennant and Catherine Tate doing it on stage that is fun.

Hi all, not nice to hear that others are also struggling but it gives me great comfort!!! We are currently having a panic over bronze dofe that starts tomorrow and the fact that he has a teacher that teaches much ado about nothing and not Macbeth! I don’t even know what the story is!!!! Anyone else doing these current sources of anxiety!?

Is she doing one the newer playe? Princess and the Hustler or Leave taking?

@AuditAngel thanks! She's not doing An Inspector Calls, but I'm sure that there'll be similar resources for her texts (Othello, Jekyll and Hyde, and a play whose name escapes me right now...).

TheTurn0fTheScrew for DD1 I bought a comic version of an inspector calls as she has a visual processing disorder, she found that helped.

This is exactly my concerns about DD. She's naturally bright so hasn't had to really apply herself. School
Have been terrible with homework and pushing them (hardly any at all for years 7-9) so studying will be new to her.

Hello - hope it's alright if I join?

DC2 is at an urban, slightly below average performing comp. She's not the biggest fan of school, and broadly finds the work neither interesting nor easy. It's not helped that she hasn't got her first choices for her three options. She missed out on doing music, which is probably the only subject where she is confident. So it's Spanish and Food Tech, which I hope will be fine, and Graphics, which she plucked from the air to avoid being allocated to History or Geography, despite not being very arty or techy .

My main worry is currently English Lit. DC2 hasn't read a book since Y6 (although luckily literacy is not the issue). We are going to need films/audio books of everything, I think...

I do have an older DC but they are quite traditionally academic, and found school and college straightforward. DC2 is likely to follow a very different path, particularly post-16, so in lots of ways it will be like going through things for the first time.

DD's timetable has been up on the school's online platform for a couple of weeks. Not necessarily a good thing because now she's worrying about having so many new (to her) teachers. Maybe finding out on the first day back would have been better!

We haven't heard anything about needing specific books yet. Her school buy subscriptions to a few learning/revision apps, so a lot of the resources tend to be on there.

@jeansgenie DD hasn't really done anything academic over the holidays. They've been given a bit of maths homework to do but DD has only just started it. Her excuse reasoning is that this way it will still be fresh in her mind when she goes back.

Oldest DS starting year 10, he has ASD and is hopefully having an ADHD assessment soon. The school is absolutely rubbish with communication and he has had minimal homework/revision for the last 3 years, going to be walking the tightrope between his anxiety and getting him to do some work.

Hi everyone, hope it is ok to join in. My middle son is starting year 10, my eldest has just done GCSEs so it feels like getting straight back into it and I’m dreading them both doing exams at the same time! My year 10 one is at a different school, and is not as naturally academic as my eldest so it could be harder going, but he has a much bigger range of subjects available to him, and is doing DT, engineering, German and Enterprise, which will hopefully suit him, but with 3 involving coursework he does need to get his head down! Hoping he gets on a bit better with science this year as his predictions from the end of year 9 were 3-5, and I think he is capable of a bit more, and I’d like him to at least have the possibility of doing the higher paper. His brother is very good at science and doing A levels in physics and chemistry, so is going to try and help him.

Checking in!

DS has chosen Spanish, RS, Business Studies & Geography as options.

He's reasonably academic but very much views school as a social club rather than a place to learn, he’s no trouble though so we’ll see how we get on.

At our school we will get a list of books that are good to have
The CPG books and the English Lit books are mainly what they ask for I think

TheLivelyViper thanks for the suggestions. She is supposed to be provided with print outs of what goes on the boards, but they don’t always remember. It will need her to potentially train a new batch of teachers to do this. It is included in her “Pupil passport” as an accommodation. If given the copies in class, she manages, just can’t read it from the board, she uses an overlay which helps read in a straight line.

Her sister has a similar processing disorder and used a laptop, but DD2 would prefer to continue using exercise books and is very neat. We may be asking for soft copies of all slides as her books get ridiculously fat last year.

The school have been very good, it is just getting a new batch of teachers to get used to it.

Hi. My eldest is going into year 10. He is academic but prone to not do much!

With English Literature- the main thing is to know your texts. Buy your own copies of set texts if they’re not given their own to keep. If you can read them too then you can discuss them together. The students who do best know their books inside out, re-read them and have opinions about them. It’s all about the detail in the text. I would avoid videos and short cut ways to a grade 9 etc. At this stage, just know the texts really well.

Place
marking

I would just say if you want to get stuff, I'd go for revision guides over textbooks. This is because they'll likely have textbooks in schools and at the very least can take photos of them to use, there's also lots of online textbooks and resources. Whereas a revision guide will help to test them, it will have exam questions and tips for each questions, it will have questions for the content as well to go through and different tasks. The textbook is only useful for the initial information - and if your DC know how to summarise well and how to pick and choose info, but they'll have that all in lessons, can use videos on YouTube (of which there are loads) if theh forget something and can go back to their books. Plus revision guides do have the sake information just more condensed which is useful.

Just the normal equipment list. (And buying the Set Texts for English if we want to)

I'm sure more will be required for her BTEC Animal care but they haven't said what yet. They take it turn to bring the animals home which will be fun, I've just told her no to any insects! (I'm happy with the reptiles, amphibians and mammals...)

Timetable is never given until the first day at our school. Bit frustrating as we would like to see it! Been doing GCSEs since Y9 and no book list. We had options to buy revision books before the end of Y9 exams but it was all quite light touch initially. As far as I know English texts are supplied by school, they didn't start the English curriculum in Y9 thankfully! Reading the same books for 3 years would have been a nightmare.

Has anyone had a kit/equipment list for starting year 10? Like specific books they need? Our school
Have sent nothing. No timetable and only
Confirmed options the week before school holidays