Y10- 2025/2026

All fine so far here, DS happy with subjects and generally with teachers, quite a few he doesn’t have many friends in his groups which he is a bit annoyed by but ok.

Haven’t heard about when work experience is yet but think it may be early year 11. Eldest at a different school had it at the end of year 10 and had to sort his own which was hard as many won’t take under 16s. He did it in the local leisure centre in the end which he enjoyed.

Work Experience already being sorted here, I think it is harder these days as lots of places won't take under 16s for insurance reasons. Worth trying local libraries if that's of any interest, they are a good bet. I know when mine were at primary a lot of old pupils came back for their work experience. Guess it's a familiar place at least.

I'm not sure about sanctuaries. There's a children's farm nearby and I know kids have done work experience there in the past, so he definitely ought to contact them and probably soon. There's a few dog groomers, and quite a lot of vets, and a kennel/cattery place as well, come to think of it.

Do you have any local sanctuary's near you? We have a donkey one and one for older pets with health conditions - both have cafe's which would probably like extra hands. It might be worth him asking in there or at a vet's? Maybe he could clean the cages or towels or something? It always feels like they should be able to find kids stuff to do but actually I can see it might be a pain. We're in the middle of nowhere so anything dd does typically involves me being a taxi.

Work Experience at end of Yr10 here too.

Good start here. Happy with her classes, loving her Animal Care lessons which having a surprisingly larg amount of written work, been confirmed on the dance team again (I wasn't surprised, she's not the best dancer but she's the most reliable). Adjusted to the new timetable. And settled into her new out of school clubs as she has not long turned 14 so "moved up". (I'm not so happy about 9.30pm pick ups... I miss the days it was 7pm home and bed!)

They expect them to sort it themselves as well! I can think of some places I can prompt him to ask. Oldest was very organised but nothing quite came through. we managed to pull some strings with a charity my family has associations with at the last minute.

DS wants to do something with animals, I may suggest he uses my profile to write a message to our synagogue Facebook group as there may be some people with connections there. I'll ask at my employer too, but not sure what they could do with a 14yo.

It must be so much harder, as office stuff will mostly be out because there's no tea making or photocopying needed and people generally need a laptop and login to a network to do anything, plus you'd be hard pressed to find someone to oversee you who is in the office 5 days a week.

We had a back to school meeting. They will be taking recommendations for adjustments from adhd report to some sort of SEN meeting this week so then I will know what they can and cannot implement. They have put her in the stream to sit the higher maths paper - this is the subject she really struggles with so I need to keep an eye. She is quite bright underneath the inability to focus and process instructions so hopefully if meds work it will be the right choice and she will be fine. However I don’t want her to end up failing if she cannot keep up.

Wow, work experience @Echobelly - I wouldn't know where to start at 14 - I don't think they do paper rounds here any more. Do they give you suggestions? Trying to remember when we did ours but suspect it was Y11. Dd has been asking to do a job for a while but I don't know where to look.

Dd all settled in well, TS tests seem to have gone well so far (well, being marked so no chickens being counted yet!). She's happy as they are allowed to pick which PE to do so she can ditch hockey and do "multi-sports" whatever that is. Of course only told me this after I spent £70 on a stick, shin pads and mouth guard. Not impressed.

Just had an intro evening for Y10 - was useful to get idea of all the tests coming up and stuff, and the work experience week they're supposed to sort for March.

New form teacher seems very fond of DS and like she'll be very good at her job. There's a bunch of monitoring and homework book signing we're supposed to do, that we have no idea about from DS and I'm a bit ugh because I feel surely the point is they should be getting on with it themselves without lots of monitoring, but then DS will need a lot more help and support from us than oldest. I'm just worrying now how stressed DH might get about all of it.

How's it going for all the Y10's?
DD has coped really well with the "first" of all the lessons as new teachers/ seating plans stress her out but she is mostly ok with them and extremely pleased they have gone back to single sex PE lessons. She also has a good part in the school play which has made her very happy as y11s don't tend to get big parts so this was her last chance. DD2 also happy with her medium part so our house is harmonious atm- long may it last!

My DD is doing TS and her class is very boy heavy too.. 32 in there and I think 11/12 are girls

Well first Monday back and Little has found himself in the middle of a love triangle!

Oh to be 14 again, must admit it's very entertaining hearing about the dramatics about, well very little to be honest.

This is what happens son if you let an emotional 14 year old girl cry on your supportive shoulder for 2 and a half hours after school. (I messaged to not give any relationship advice no one ever thanks you for it - reply message he knows he's trying to escape but it' hard)

I did my A levels at an all girls school, biology chemistry physics maths and geography partly because I was fed up of sciences being seen as boy subjects, I suppose I was surprised it hadn't moved on a bit!

@TickingAlongNicely
My DD is doing triple science and apparently it is a pretty even mix of girls and boys. She isn't keen on doing science A levels but chose triple as the teachers are better and behaviour is better plus you don't have to do an extra study session with cover supervisors!

Mine is at an all girls and they do well at triple science in particular, so quite a few girls in ours! Not helpful for you I'm afraid but as an aside it was one of the reasons we went single sex. They've a new Chemistry teacher who has told them if they get below 80% in the start of year test it will be noted in the end of term report and he will make them re-test. Not sure that enamoured him to the class for his first lesson!

You’re an actual star. Thank you so much, honestly. I do know about the pomodoro technique as it seems very popular on TikTok (studytok) but it all seemed overwhelming. Revision timetable would be a good starting point. I don’t want to scare him off so some easily digestible resources with variety would be great and you’ve given some fab examples. I’m going to sign up to quizlet etc. I’m with you on the talking the answers out too - I used to do the same.

I will take this all on board and come up with a plan, already have the list of which exam board for each subject but when I was looking at the CGP books I could see this type of study constantly out of workbooks wouldn’t be beneficial.

@ASongOfRiceAndPeas Revision techniques everyone should do, but that I think may be good for him that you can research are 1. Spaced repetion (necessary for exams which are linear and testing all of 2 years at the end) and 2. Active recall. 3. Blurting on a whiteboard is one of my favourite methods but doesn't work for everyone. 4. Pomodoro method

Doing an 1 hour of useful revision a day consistently is always better than do 3 a day for a month when starting y10 and thengiving up. Especially if they aren't used to studying or revision as part of a regular thing. I personally don't like things like pomadro technique of 25 minutes and 5 minute break (some people adapt it and d9 50m, 10 min break) - what will you actually achieve in 25 minutes and then a break, you get out of the headspace of the subject and then distracted for me or hard to get back into it.

I prefer 2/3 hours of a subject at once with maybe 1 break of 15 minutes. It's not the pratice I'd recommend but for me staying with it for a while was better.

I'd also say for revision timetables for everyone on this thread with a DC, please don't do the 1 hour after school on Monday is history then Tuesday chemistry (for everyone in y10/11). Without adding more detail so they get there and sit down and it's like what part of history???

Paper 1, paper 2 or paper 3. What sub-topic of them? Exam pratice or flashcards? Or Blurting on a whiteboard? It just gives them a reason to get stressed and then not bother or just finish some notes from class.

Having detailed revision timetables, using an tracker below made by this guy and explained in his video with a link to one you can copy on gogole drive and edit for yourself is much better. I did this across A-levels.

Sorry those are English Lit technical terms not revision ones. I read it back and its not very clear, so sorry. Though he can throw them in for GCSE as I often did.

Honestly the fact he doesn't want long information can be good - a flashcard with a whole long paragraph isn't as useful as one with the quick bullet sentence answers. Revison resources should be as condensed as much as is possible for the optional amount of detail needed. I found that doing my flashcards outlood was the only way I'd do them (I have dyspraxia and getting assessed for ADHD, wasn't naturally academic either and wasn't diagnosed at all in school, slightly done to some unconscious sexism).
I don't use them too much (used for key facts for history, Sociology etc and then quotes for R.S and English) - but talking the answer out worked for me, I could sit there and have the answer in my head. Also don't look at the answer whilst your thinking even if you want to, I also would have some stress ball or other figets whilst walking around my room or sitting down whilst I spoke out loud. I will say for my English and R.S quotes I did them every day (from 2 weeks before my final GCSE exams for R.S and 3 1/2 for English - I planned to do 4 but didn't).

Quizlet is very good with games etc, but more is paid than when I was doing GCSEs, I did do a free trial and pay one month in the lead up of A-level season and it was worth it though. Brainscapes is a website for flashcards with saved repetiton built into it already and Anki is amazing (popular with medical students but for a reason.__

Those doing Triple Science (on the space of 2 GCSEs)... DD is surprised how few girls in her class. 25 in class, 8 girls. (There ate two classes, she doesn't know the stats for the other class). Its invitation then they chose to accept.. some of her friends dulid turn it down.

What ate the stats in your schools? I thought itvwould be a bit more even.

Thank you SO much I really appreciate your reply. I’ll look into the bathos, pathos, anagnorisis techniques etc as that’s not something I’ve come across before. I find it hard to help him with study as although I struggled to revise I was naturally academic and retained information easily (not anymore though!) but I know flash cards and bullet points help him to digest and retain information better. It’s just giving him the kickstart to actually do it and online learning in small segments at a time seems the way to go. Thanks again 😀

Maybe he stays in the school library for an hour each day so he does the homework, and then know he can game first for 30 minutes when he gets home? I know obviously if he was exhausted from school, the hour may make it all harder but perhaps in the morning?

I've put some links yo videos with overall good, detailed advice for everyone in Y10/11, however I think it's a good idea to start from there, have a look at some of the tips and then adapt for your DS. Lots of them are actually may be useful for a kid with ASD, as they focus on strategic techniques so that a few hours of revision is actually worthwhile.

Personally, I'm not sure how useful this is for him but - make homework which isn't useful revision into it or don't do it (risky, I got away with it because I'd do more than what it was for my adaption and my teachers knew I revised a lot). So for example the whole class hw you may have some videos to watch on x topic or read x article or write chapter summaries for x book. So how I can use this for the future as a revision resource/active recall was my first thought (for homework which fit into this so like my examples above).

Okay maybe I can make bullet point chapter summaries not just describing the plot (if you know the book well you won't need one and a quick YouTube summary video is available) - so instead I'll do it with the key moments of techniques/change in the text which are structural analysis and things that for most essays whatever the topic, I want to include. Maybe bathos, pathos, particular techniques like anagnorisis etc and then a few bullet points around it with analysis points/triggers. I'd probably do something like that on a document on googledocs, or A3 sheet. Or maybe instead of just watching the video and writing notes, I watch it and then find the key stats and studies I want for this topic of crime (say Sociology) and then make the flashcards already, with those answers. So no I don't have direct notes of the video but I have it on flashcards (online is easier) and I'll be more likely to use the stats/studies in an essay rather than general background info of AO2, real life examples. That sort of stuff meant homework which wasn't revision tasks/exam questions became more useful to me for long-term.

Placemarking! My DS has just done a full first week of yr10 and I’m feeling hopeful for the first time (ASD behavioural issues have kind of marred our experience) but I just left him to it over summer to relax and he’s dealt with the return to school very well. I think he’s matured over the summer and seems to really care about his GCSE results so we’re actively trying to move up sets in science and English (already in higher for maths). He’s come so far since primary school which was a complete write off but still majorly struggles with any kind of home based study or completing homework due to concentration levels and getting distracted with TV/gaming etc.

Im looking into in person tutoring for a few subjects but it’s so so expensive and would really appreciate pointers on successful revision strategies for an autistic, non-academic child with limited attention span! TIA