OK - GCSES. Parents and teachers, tell me the truth.

DD1 is in year 11 and is doing similar subjects to your DD and is predicted good grades. She has a hectic out of school timetable including gold DOE. I was passing the time of day with the Mum of one her friends the other day and we were talking about cleaning of bedrooms and when I suggested to the Mum that she supply her DD with a duster, she said she might after GCSEs . This particular friend is allowed to do next to nothing in case it interferes with her exams. I'm completely confident that DD1 and her friend will end up with similar GCSE results. I'm also confident that DD1 has had a lot more fun with her out of school activities over the past few years.

DD doesn't have a paid job and that is the one thing that I am reluctant for her to do - she does voluntary work (more than is necessary) as part of her DOE.

Just keep an eye on things - if she's having fun and motivated to do well, it'll be fine.

"It's once she gets to A level that something will have to give"

That is exactly what is bothering me right now. Ds still of the opinion he can do it all.

It's once she gets to A level that something will have to give - jump from GCSE to A level can be a shock!!!

Something might give...but your daughter is probably intelligent enough to work out what. (although there may be some tears on the way!)

DS has after school activities on 4 nights out of 5, rows on Saturdays and quite often rows in races miles away on Sundays.

He's managing to keep it all together but he focusses on the GCSE modules/courswork and sometimes skips the odd homework.

This Easter he's really working, about 4 to 5 hours per day as has tons of coursework all due at the same time and 5 or 6 GCSE modules in May.

I'd say keep up the interests your dd has, she needs a good balance of playing hard as well as working hard. If anything has to give I'd say it should be her p/t job. She seems a bit young to be in paid work tbh.

My son will be finishing Yr 11 in the summer and is predicted 9-10 A's or A* and 2-3 B's and I've never see him do any homework at all! What he does get, he does either in the hour before school-he arrives at 8am-or in his lunch hour. So it is possible to have a life outside school during GCSE's and I think it would be rather beneficial!

Do let her do DoE - it's fab. Ds managed silver starting in year 10 (has now finished it bar the final presentaton) and he had an impossible number of other extras - but in that case they are probably already doing most of what is required for DoE, so it's mainly just the expeditions as extra which are brilliant fun (even in the snow).

She would be able to do music for her skill, riding or dance for her sport, probably some horsey stuff or helping at scouts for volunteering and she might even be able to do her expedition by horse if she could find some other like-minded people.

Everything's relative, isn't it seeker?
There are plenty of schools in the country with c.35% 5A*-Cs.

If you're in a GS where they get ,say,70% A grades, it's a rather different scenario.

I have one in yr 11 and one in yr 10. The GCSE courses have just changed so the younger one has already sat some modules - 40 min exams.

Both of mine are very active - particularly the younger one - drama mon night, rugby training tue night, extracurricular music wed night, rugby training thurs night, rugby matches at weekend plus social life! The older one is into slalom and wild water kayaking. He has chosen to restrict this to one day each weekend in order to keep up with coursework/homework.

So I guess my message is that a bright, motivated girl like your dd will understand what is required of her and if it means cutting down some activities then she should be the one to choose to do that.

Let her. She'll be fine. She sounds very bright, and therefore I suspect will be able to identify if she is over-stretching herself.

dd does nada
in year 10 predicted A/A* but i am thinking more like A now...she is very lazy
like others said GCSEs not what they used to be

Gosh your dd sounds really bright, my ds is also in yr9 but is only average level 6

I wouldn't worry until she starts the coursework, thats what will take her time, but to start at 7pm is ok isn't it?

My ds has to have a break from shcool when he comes home, refuses to start hmwk till after 6.30 says if he does it any earlier his brain feels like its going to explode!

MY DS is in Y10 at a grammar school.He gets home at about 5 o'clock and has his tea,practices his instruments and then plays on the X box til about 7.30 before doing his homework.To be fair he has chosen things which aren't too heavy on coursework
At G/S there are SO many children who are mega bright (DS2 s Y7 class there 2 kids who did Maths GCSE while at primary school)

Spanish shouldn't be a heavy subject with the new syllabus. Speaking test is now divided into 2 so although 2 fairly intensive preparation periods, it's very short term. Writing is also only 2 pieces now and again short and intensive. So that should reduce the pressure on that. Learning for the current speaking test is a lot more challenging!!

just seen you have listed her subjects - they look a good well balanced set. 10 is not too many - the core ones & sciences are fairly straightforward for a bright child. Spanish & history will have more demands than some (but are good choices non the less) and fine art is known for onerous coursework (dd's teacher was unable to explain how this was going to work with the move to controlled assessment, but I distinctly got the impression that it wasn't going to be possible for it all to be done at school supervised and a 'flexible' approach would be taken). Performing arts will have some time demands too I should think.

So some heavier subjects there - but a sensible number, so it should be OK I would think.

OP, I think your DD will be fine. If she's getting those levels in Yr 9, she will not find the academic work of GCSEs that difficult. I agree with the poster who said that A*s are often more about flair or talent than hard work - that's certainly the case in English and Performing Arts (I teach those subjects)

When I did my GCSEs (admitedly in 1991, but if you believe the DM, they were MUCH harder then), I was doing piano lessons and guides on Mondays, singing lessons on Tuesdays, two separate choirs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, plus taking part in musical performances and full-on musicals at the local boys' school, which often involved rehearsing til 9pm three evenings a week, with all day rehearsals on Sundays for the weeks we were involved. I also had a Saturday job during Yr 11. I went to a bog-standard comp. I came out with 5 As and 5 Bs (this was before A*s, remember) and didn't feel like I was over-stretched or missing out on "downtime" - I loved the activities I was involved with, and would have been loathe to drop any of them.

I tell you what is a shock in year 10 ( i have 30 of them at the moment as a tutor group)
a) lots of defferent deadlines
B) they distance themselves from you a LOT - loads of parents have commented on this
c) they might start NOT enjoying school if they did before.

There are rfantastic kids who juggle a lot so dont give it all up in anticiaption.

Some children need more downtime than others imo and some can catch up in the holidays if necessary too. Keep an eye on things and have a plan in place as to what stops if things get too much, but you may well find for a concientious child, the reduced number of subjects in years 10/11 leads to a smaller homework burden (which also seems less onerous as it's subjects you have chosen too). On the other hand if she's at a school that makes them do huge numbers of GCSEs or if she's chosen very homework intensive ones then maybe you will have more cause to worry.

If she doesn't mind not having downtime that is fine, my DD expects to do all the activities, have downtime and it is the coursework that suffers, GCSEs this summer - oh dear!