Y10- 2025/2026

she is ok thats.. school are excellent actually - wellbeing took her for a cup of hot chocolate when she was so upset over the science test

Your poor dd @Lisamummy22girls I'm glad she managed to do her English and hope the school were supportive. My dd has managed to keep it together at school but we've had lots of tears at home this term, most recently over an English assessment where she didn't do as well as she hoped- she perceives herself to be "good" at English and humanities and puts so much pressure on herself. In reality I think she's doing well academically across the board, got high predictions in her latest academic review and tries really hard- she's fragile emotionally though, has ASD and finds school draining so my only aim is to keep her in one piece and for her to get what she needs for college, which I think will suit her much better! We're in concert season now which is nice, listened to both DDs sing at a local Abbey with the 6th form college last week and the music was amazing which inspired both DDs. I am very much enjoying higher standard concerts too!

@Lisamummy22girls so sorry to hear it. Hope she’s ok and able to relax a bit during the weekend. We are battling with (not) revising for more tests next week -biology, chemistry and geography..looking fw to Xmas break so I can stop worrying about him not revising sufficiently !

Oh no @Lisamummy22girlsim glad she did English. My dd is doing childcare and had a practical last week which counts towards the gcse coursework. She was in tears before that she said.

Well my poor DD had a panic attack in science today, she was in floods and didn't do her test… she did manage to calm down and do the rest of her day as well as her english assessment

That is a good way to show the head of dept. We have a well meaning Maths teacher who apparently just keeps talking non-stop. Dd is also being assessed for ND and really struggles not to simply listen meaning she can't do the work set in class because "she just keeps wittering on" as she said. There have been a few incidence of teaching different methods to other sets but the HoD seems happy to keep her there. I will see what her end of term results are like, I think we get exam results and grades next week with the reports.

DD seems to be doing well academically but very anxious with self harming starting this year - which is why ND has been suggested. I feel we held it together until the teen years but there has always been something a bit off, so we will see what they say.

She's in set 2 for everything so hopeful 7's or higher across the board.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew I know. I’m so upset thinking of how she was perceived for the last 18 months, banned from school trips and such because she couldn’t be trusted - no she was just struggling in school environment. Detentions 4 days a week usually.

she’s not been late once to school since September, she’s more engaged in lessons. More compliant on uniform. She’s a changed child.

they need to understand not every parent pushing for an adhd diagnosis is doing it to excuse bad behaviour.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky it must be so frustrating that it took so long for the school to get on board, but a massive well done for making it happen – and hopefully your DD's experience will all be more positive from now on.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew DD’s English class has just started J&H and her teacher hasn’t bothered to hide the fact that it’s his least favourite part of the GCSE course. They are just gritting their teeth and getting through it.

No predicted grades yet. They call them forecast grades at DD’s school, and we will apparently get them termly from the end of next term. Meanwhile, we just have to trust the process…

Does anyone’s DC have any ‘weak’ teachers? DD reports that one of her science teachers delivers boring lessons and doesn’t really explain things very well. The revision list this teacher supplied for a recent test was scanty, missed off a key topic and included an A-level topic they hadn’t studied… DD took screenshots of her revision list and a friend’s (who has a different teacher) and emailed the head of subject with the evidence, asking whether they could all have access to the same information. She got a quick response, and a survey was sent out to all students, and the revision list for the next test is much better, but it’s frustrating that she had to do that.

wow @Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky - what a bittersweet update. So glad that things are going well for your DD, but it's a real shame that it's taken so long for her needs to be understood.

Parents evening here was reasonably positive. DC2 informed us she was "locking in" for year 10, and certainly the feedback from the teachers was that she's been dicking about less. The child who never reads even informs me that she's really enjoying Othello (although Jekyll and Hyde and Leave Taking are still a struggle). She has quite a range of grade predictions, some I think over optimistically based on unexpectedly good Y6 SATS performance. Still no nearer to even thinking about post-16 plans.

Weve had Parents Evening and reports in the past week, so we know how she's doing.
Apparently the application fir Extra Time will be looked at in January but the English teacher thinks it will be awarded, they managed to get lots of evidence that it benefits her.
Had Mock coursework in her Btec, and that was one mark of full marks which the teacher was very pleased with.

It's really useful, just the familiarity of the papers helps.
And it's good to know how much revision you need to do for what grade.
Doing this already is really helpful. We haven't seen any revision what Y10, does yet. So we don't know if he's currently coasting or working.

Sort of, his parent's chat, in all subjects, said he should be aiming for the A grades, in everything and if he fails it will somehow be our fault! Not quite sure how they worked that one out.

You can sort of tell, I think, but it's totally possible to bring grades up 3 from Y11 November mocks to real thing. At the moment our Y10 gets within the top 3 marks of most of his tests across the board, he is doing the three sciences separately, is in top maths and english, so us and his teachers, and himself are expecting decent grades from him. All he cares about is afterschool sport clubs and drama! Neither of which he wants to do for Alevel or a career. All we are doing at the moment is keeping an eye on him and checking his marks don't take a tumble.

Our eldest did a small set of final mocks in March just before the May when he sat the real exams. His marks were very decent, we said, that is great progress from your November mocks but now they mean nothing, no mark, good or bad you get previous to the real exams means anything really. We found it helped to keep that in mind, no dwelling on past mistakes, learn from them, no relaxing on past victories, you need to do all that again. And he did two more months of lessons and revision and some of his final grades were lower, but enough to get him into the 6th form first choice college.

not sure anyone remembers my previous posts but I had a school meeting last week to tell me how well my dd was doing this term…….that would be because she is now diagnosed adhd and medicated and she’s not just naughty then as you were telling me for nearly 18 months…..

Yes so does my son. I’ve sat with him every night this week doing the English. He’s too distracted otherwise. He’s done some physics papers but doesn’t spend long enough understanding where he went wrong, so I’m not sure how useful it is.

We have done the revision homework but my DD really stuggles to do any of her own revision

she has target grades - most of them are from year 7 and havent changed but she had a new Business studies and PE target grade

Weve been getting them from Yr7 in every report. The "target" from SATs and the grade projected from their current level.

Then the teachers give you a completely different one based on opinion rather than Statistics.

My son also has physics and English tests tomorrow..and hasn’t done nearly enough revision. Happy days! Does everyone have predicted gcse grades? We don’t have anything yet and no mention of them. Is that something that happens next year?

We are limping towards christmas - DD is shattered and the ASD mask is slipping!

she had a 30 mark english assessment tomorrow and a triple science physics test - happy friday!!!!

Theres a T Level in Animal Care, equivalent to 3 A levels.

Good evening all,

Just caught up whilst waiting for the Y10 to cycle home, think he is talking in the car park, not much I can do about that!

He had an almost full set of "mocks" real ones, to see where they are. He hasn't told me any results yet but they are sort of irrelevant, he is much more vocal about his drama play and sporting extras!

No mention of work experience here, not sure it matters, no one has asked about our Y12s Y10 work experience, but if he has to do it we will find something I am sure. He already has a part time job and does green volunteering once a month. We shall see.

So steady here not much information yet, will ask about results when he decides to cycle home.

Hope everyone as calm as can be.

I went with DS to school post 16 options evening - it's mostly for Y11 but I'm glad we went as we established DS just doesn't quite understand what 6th form is and what he's looking for. We also established he should know by this time next year what he might want to study. I can see so far that Drama is probably a good idea as he's strong at that, I think he might manage a 7 at GCSE, and probably biology as he's quite good at science, and he has some interest in working with animals. Third one is harder - perhaps ideally something vocational to do with the 'working with animals' stuff? Drama/something vocational would be a limiting factor on where offers both post-16 - found out one possible local 6th form doesn't have drama, for example.

So I think I/DS need to look into the 3rd subject vocational options by the end of this school year so he can ponder over summer.

My best advice is cold emailing, if it's someone specific don't get too stalkerish but just detail some cool projects they've done and why (very important) you like that work or are interested in it. Don't just do their 2/3 most fecent things from the website cause that looks like you haven't done that much work, do some things across a few years.
Even the same for the general organisation - many places will say yes to just about anyone but they don't advertise this on the website. So just be brave the worst they'll say is no. Plus you only need 1 yes. I had no contacts, neither do my parents for anything at all, so I just emailed a lot, but put effort into them and it worked.

AI can be helpful with this but make sure you tell it to, fact check everything and not make anything up.

Also even in places with red tape, if you email the right people they often ignore it, rather than emailing the organisation as a whole. The council can be great as well for good local gov experience. Also websites like Springpod and Futures For All (previously Speakers for Schools) they have apps/website with loads of details on work experience programmes, so I highly recommend those. Also SMF have good programmes and Sutton Trust as well.

@jeansgenie The Science Show sounds fab, although sadly it wouldn't be DC2's cup of tea. Hope you have a lovely time.

Not too much homework here (urban state comp) but outside of school music is increasing to fill all of the available time, like @brackengirl by the sound of things. She's currently doing music stuff on Fridays 4-7, Saturdays 8.45-16.30 and Sundays 12-3. She's keen, and says she'd only be bed rotting otherwise, but I do wonder how managable it will be next year.

Worrying a bit about work experience. Apparently this is compulsory, but we have to sort a placement out ourselves . Neither H nor I know anyone who can offer anything (all my friends are public sector with lots of red tape around that kind of thing). DC2 isn't wildly enthusiastic about much either, which doesn't help.

We are looking forward to a break too.. DD has coped ok and is doing ok with the homework although 3 tests on Monday seems a little harsh!

DD is very much looking forward to half term- she's found the ramping up of homework over the weeks quite hard work although she seems to be keeping up ok (just moaning a lot!) She has a lot of rehearsals for the school play and came home saying her flute teacher thinks she can do her grade 6 after Christmas which is good but I need to make sure she doesn't get overloaded, otherwise it's too stressful for everyone!