Y10- 2025/2026

DD has also had a good year 10- better really than expected as for the first time ever she seems to have a group of friends where she feels one of the group rather than an outsider in a group which has done wonders for her mental health. Academic wise she continues to do really well, she scored all 7-9 in her mocks, passed her music exam with distinction and won the headteacher's academic award, she has worked really hard though (is a perfectionist who is very hard on herself) so does deserve it. I think with Y11 she needs to keep outside interests and hopefully friendships going as otherwise I could see her burning out before the exams get here or getting completely demoralised by one bad result- it feels quite a fine line between academic success and metal wellbeing sometimes.

Year 10 has flown by, but mocks in Feb sort of seem a long time ago. ( they did yr 11 mocks then year 10 mocks straight after).
We are in Wales so one maths paper, one English paper and 3 science papers (one for each) have already been taken. We get results day 2 years in a row!
The next maths exam is in November and we have had a message to say there will be maths work online over the summer. They are encouraged to do it to reinforce what they have learnt so far, in the topics for the next exam.
Some other subjects have asked them to finish things that have bern started over the summer too.
Scary to think by thus time next year, hlthry will have finished GCSEs.

My DD is also talking about making revision materials for the sciences - she talks a good talk - I just hope she does it

My DD has had a good year 10.. had most of her mocks back and are all 7-9s (6 in Biology)

She is pretty resistant with revision too.. I just cant see her say in her room doing hours of revision as well as homework on the new content..

she is so lucky to have the brains she has but doesn't seek to have the work ethic so will ok well but could do very well

Glad it’s all gone well for her! Having so many teachers change is a bit frustrating, but hopefully the new ones will be good.

DS isn’t super academic, but I’m really pleased with how his first set of mocks have gone, with all his grades being between 4 and 7, particularly science where he got 6-5 having previous had 4s as his most likely grade, and he’d struggled in year 9 with a teacher he didn’t really learn anything from. Despite a few things going on a couple of months ago that could have really thrown him, he seems to have found some motivation to try and achieve his best next year. He’s intending to work on his DT NEA over the summer, and in my ideal world he’d keep up a little bit of work, especially maths where he didn’t do quite as well as he should have done, but I am a realist!

I was going to ask the same question about revision as my son is really resisting. He also has a ton of coursework to do for DT and even that is an argument. I’ll keep pushing to do a little each day. Unfortunately the DT is on the computer and he keeps procrastinating (moving to other websites).

It’s almost the end of term! How does everyone feel Y10 has gone?

DD seems to have had a good year, with solid friendships and no dramas. Academically she seems to be doing well (report pending!) but the ‘end of year’ exams (in May) were a useful wake-up call in terms of how much revision to do for each subject, and how best to do it.

She’s losing four teachers at the end of this year which is not ideal mid-way through the GCSE course, though in each case she knows who the replacement(s) will be and she thinks it should be fine.

Is anyone’s DC planning on doing any studying over the summer holidays? Just after her end-of-year exams, DD regretted not keeping all the maths and science units previously studied ticking over and expressed an intention to work through them all in the holidays. I fear those good intentions may not translate into positive action! I will gently encourage but the drive must come from her really.

Work experience completed thank heavens. Now dc1 is revising for mocks in a couple of weeks, I've tried to be relaxed about it, this has possibly gone against me as she doesn't seem to be bothered about revising at all.
I've drawn up a loose timetable and sat whilst she's done some revision cards so some work is being done.

Having treated the test freeze as an anxiety thing I think now it might be mostly capability and that causing anxiety, which means it's more solvable. I think we need to keep him doing writing tasks, even small ones, over summer and maybe try just one history question a week ago he keeps it up.

@Echobelly that's such good news. Well done to DS for breaking through the block yesterday. Fingers crossed he is able to build on this.

DS actually sat his history paper today - he couldn't write a thing in English Language, Lit or History last round of tests and this time round as I think I've mentioned pretty much choked in both English tests, so my hopes weren't high but he actually had a crack at every question, although he says only at the end could he think of a few things to write for the longest question.

Not expecting a high mark, that's fine - but recovering from such big wobbles about a long-form answers test is really encouraging.

DD has mocks starting next Friday so is revising hard. She seems to prefer doing practice papers/ questions than making notes so I guess mocks will show whether this works for her.

Hardly any schools round here have 6th forms but there are two large colleges for A levels and most kids go to one or the other. DD has a taster day at the end of June for one where she gets to do 4 taster lessons but the taster day for the other one was fully booked within an hour so she didn't get a place, we'll just visit during an open evening and hopefully she'll be able to work out which one she prefers.

@CouldNotStayAway DD school is only to year 11 but the local college is incredible and the majority of the kids from her school go there

My DD is currently revising for a week of mocks in June
So far she is going along ok

We have open evenings coming up in July for the 2 local 6forms so she is looking forward to seeing whats on offer

Their mocks are before Xmas (I remember mine were after) I'm guessing so at least they get some sort of break at Christmas.

Dd did her exams a bit earlier and so we have been getting results this week. So far lowest grade is a 5 for Maths, which she was actually pleased with as they were all real GCSE papers and marked to the real grade boundaries. She has x3 7's and some 6's so far too so she seems a bit more relaxed now, which is a relief. She mamaged a little revision over the Easter break but it was an eye opener for how many topics are building up and the need to identify any areas she is unsure of to focus on.

@Echobellymy DD was diagnosed adhd last summer.

She really struggles. I have been speaking to her about revision and needing to start and she finally told me Monday that she’s been trying but just can’t. I want to try and find someone who can support with strategies for someone with adhd but it’s not very likely she will engage.

school have brought in an EP and she starts with them soon so that will maybe bring some more support.

on the plus side she is finally regularly taking her medication and that has lead to a massive improvement at school.

Effectively DS will now have non-stop revision of some kind all the way until GCSEs, because they have to retake any end of year ones at the start of Y11 that they fell far short on (so that's Eng Lang already and very likely History and Eng Lit too as a minimum), then there's mocks before Christmas - I suppose it's a relief they do get a bit of a break at Christmas - then Easter mocks (and we know from oldest's experience everyone is just burned out and unmotivated by then so doesn't do too well) and then the real thing.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

@brackengirl I have been aware of the provisional timetable being there for a while (came across it by accident), but haven't said anything yet because it could change - and it is 12 months away. If it doesn't change there will be more before half term than after, but the one DC will be most concerned about is later ( my head tells me that is a good thing as there is more time for revision without the distraction of other subjects, but in other ways DC may prefer to get it out of the way).

When oldest DC did the Y10 exams they spent too much time trying to learn the quotes - and I could kind of see them doing it, but as they found the academic stuff quite easy generally I decided to just let them make the mistake and treat it as a learnin experience. They did well in most of those exams, but neglected maths somewhat so that suffered