To do my daughters GCSE course work?

[LolaLouise]

My daughter is adhd diagnosed, probable autism which she is still on a waiting list for years after the referral was submitted, she gets frustrated and gives up quickly, she tries, she really does, but sometimes gets overwhelmed and cant continue a task.

Her art GCSE course work is due in this week, she was very behind. I have spent all last weekend and this weekend helping her get it done. Up until now its been sitting and encouraging her, ive done some of the research whilst shes been doing the sketches needed, and then shes re-written it out, suggestions of sketches she could do, and cutting it all out so she can place everything into her book, helping her with layouts and ordering, but mostly just keeping her on track and focussed in 2 hour windows. There was one piece of art required for it to be done, she tried, for hours, yesterday to do it, but she got so frustrated and couldnt do it, its a portrait of a person. She ended up getting quite upset with the drawing and the looming deadline. This isnt the first time she has attempted it, shes been trying to draw it for weeks, but i put it to one side as she was hyperfixated on it, and in order to get everything else done, i took it off the table and said we would do that last. The sketch is needed as her final piece was based around this portrait, though her final piece was just shapes no details. The teacher has told her she absolutly must include this portrait in her project. Her final exam has already been sat so she cant just change the direction of the project now.

So ive drawn it, its not great, i can draw a bit but not even close to being skilled, but its better than what she was able to produce. She doesnt know ive drawn it last night. Ive started the shading to block out the main shadows, but it needs finishing, which she can do in the same way she has shaded all her other work, it looks vaguely like the person its supposed to be if you squint a little bit. We are going to try again today, ive even suggested to her tracing the facial structure today if we can figure a way to do it as we have no thin paper left to trace with, just really thick watercolour paper and card left. But it needs finishing today to hand in tomorrow. Then we can focus on her other much needed revision.

Her college plans do not include something even close to art related, its one drawing in amongst probably 100 others over the 2 years of project work, in the grand scheme of things i dont think it will make a difference to her grade, but her teacher has said it has to be included, so she is building it up to be the most important thing ever. I just want to help her, and ease some of her stress. Would you give her the drawing and help her finish it? Or is it too much help? Ive convinced myself if she does the shading then its no different to having traced the initial drawing, which is perfectly acceptable in her work, we just dont have the access to do that easily today. Do we try the tracing first and it that goes wrong then i just give her this one to shade over? theres a chance she has tried tracing in school on the lightboxes and they have been discarded already, as i know she traced other images.

How much help is too much, considering her SEN, but also that this is GCSE work?

and you still want to cheat for her

Why would you post this online?? Mumsnet can be traced probably. No judgement about the actual work- but please be a bit secretive!

My mum helped me with mine (told me what to write for the captions and helped me mount the words and stick in the book). I did all the artwork though (I was fairly good and she would have been pants!) but I’m always grateful as she helped me finish when I was dragging my heels with the details. And I got an a*

Your mistake was posting here OP. Do what needs doing to get your daughter through this so she can then get on with other revision.

I dint think OP is trying to be cool. She is doing our of her concern for her dd. Why don't you give a useful suggestion to OP?

OP, first of all I want to say your dd is very lucky to have a caring mother like you. There is no judgement from me if you want to help her make portrait. I understand you want to help your dd who gets distressed easily, buuti think this approach won't help your dd in the long run.

I have a few questions for you. As I haven't read the whole thread, apologies if you've already answered them.

What does your dd want to do in future? What is she going to study in college?

If you let her submit the portrait she made herself, is it going to impact her overall score to the point that it will impact her college admission?
Can she get extension for the portrait given she already have adhd diagnosis and is on waiting list for autism?

I know someone with SEN ( not in UK) who used to get extra time to finish her exams and projects in school. She is doing very well in her college.

I can relate to your dd in getting very frustrated when things don't go the way I want them do. For this reason, I find doing any art related activities highly stressful despite being good at it most times.
For me science and logic based subjects were easy to deal with than art. Is she good in science or maths related subjects?

OP just do it. My mum helped me with my textiles GCSE so I could concentrate on my other subjects. She was miffed when I still got a F grade lol.

I wasn’t interested in the ‘creative’ subjects at all but we had to take one. It was just a matter of getting through it and handing in something for my main piece.

I didn’t turn out to be a cheater or have a life of crime after this 😀

Just help your DD if she needs it

Like you’ve just said, some people have anxiety disorders, not ‘you’ve never lived with someone with anxiety’ which you said in your other post.

I get it. ND kids get a very rough deal at school and unless we do this they can be denied the option of a relevant next stage of education. If the playing field was level and appropriate to demonstrate their abilities we wouldn’t need to do this.
I refuse to play by the mainstream rules. I am so punk. I suspect the school have interfered a lot as well. Good as this gets my child to continue to study the ONLY thing they feel capable of.
What else are we supposed to do as a caring society. Shit on the ND kids by making school so stressful they can’t attend and then blocking them from a level 1 college course because they can’t get a grade 3 in the right subject? Im not talking medecine here. Just a creative subject that they excel in.
And then let’s all cry about how disabled people are given the benefits and unable to work.

You sound like a FANTASTIC mum OP and I've no doubt you know your DD 1000 times better than anyone on this thread.

Hopefully she's making good progress now but honestly I can't emphasise enough how helpful chatGPT could be for her in reducing her overwhelm. These tools will form part of her future and it is absolutely not cheating for her to learn how to use them to support herself.

Here is an example of a prompt you could use.

"I'm a GCSE Art student with ADHD. I have to complete a drawing a portrait based on a photo but I am feeling very overwhelmed by this task. I'd like to use the grid technique to get started. I'd like you to act as my teacher/coach and break it down into very small steps through to completion. Only give me one instruction at a time to prevent me feeling overwhelmed. I will tell you when I am ready for the next step. Please also be encouraging without being over the top."

To give you an example of how it could work, here is it's output a few steps in (in the first three steps to coached me through setting up the grid).

"Excellent—now the fun part begins.
Step 4:
Pick one square to start with—anywhere you like, but the top left is a good option if you're unsure.
Look only at that square on the photo, and draw just what you see in the matching square on your drawing paper. Don’t worry about what the rest of the face looks like—just focus on the lines, shapes, and shadows inside that one square.
Take your time, and tell me when you're done with that first square. You're doing really well by breaking it down like this."

You don't know the difference between an exam and coursework?

Following on from my previous post - I told my chat that I was finding it hard to do the first square and that I needed a bit more help...

"Of course—great question. Let’s slow it down a bit more.
Here’s how to approach the next square:
Look carefully at the photo square. Notice where lines or shapes enter or exit the edges of the square. For example, does a curve start halfway down the left side? Does a shadow cross the top?
Lightly mark those points on your own square in the same places. You can use little dots or short lines to help guide where things begin and end.
Connect the dots slowly. Sketch in the lines or shapes you see between the marks you made. Don't worry about getting it perfect—you're training your eye and hand to work together.
Check your angles and proportions. If a line curves gently in the photo, try to match the same curve in your drawing. It’s like solving a puzzle one piece at a time.
Take your time and give it a go. Let me know how that feels—or if you’d like help with a specific kind of feature like eyes or hair. You're doing something that takes real focus, and you're handling it really well."

I don't understand what is going on here. The GCSE art exam is set over a number of hours in the classroom. What is this project leading to the exam you are working on? Do you actually mean general course work which is submitted?

I would rescue her attempts, possibly iron them and submit them

I accidentally voted the wrong way!

YABU. Honestly, the young people I know who failed at exams, learnt from it, and went on to do better.

The ones who were ‘saved’ when they failed ( got into Uni through clearing, had parents who did their work for them, had contacts to pull on when the young person failed to do their own research etc) never learnt from going through failure, and went on to fail badly later in life ( such as failing their degrees as they never learnt from fucking up their A levels).

It’s better she fails at this and learns from it, than she fails at something important later down the line.

If you want to feel less bad -
be sure “lessons are learned” and that you don’t be doing this again.

Be sure child is clear you will Support and not be doing.

No OP this is cheating.
Find whatever previous attempts she has made and encourage her to complete those.
Or submit them as they are.
Youstated it wouldn’t make much difference to the grade so there’s no need for you to be showing her cheating is acceptable.
Let her grade be just that……Hers

Spot on post 👏👏

A friend of mine effectively did large chunks of the GCSEs of her autistic son. I was shocked at the time but ten years later in his mid 20s he is coming into his adult self, starting to be able to access relevant courses and building a career in something he loves. GCSEs at 16 were simply too early for him but getting them allowed him to stay in education until he matured. So no judgement here.

But if she was telling you what to write then it was partially her work too.
Can people ever feel a grade is truly theirs when it’s the work of more than one.

OP needs to encourage her daughter to complete the work herself

It really doesn't matter how well or realistic your daughter can draw it though. Art GCSE and A level aren't really market on talent anymore, DD's done both and been frustrated how some students who can't draw can actually get higher mark's as it all about doing the research and content and not as much on actually how good at art you are. I assume they have done this so that you don't have to be a brilliant artist to get a reasonable mark. It can however be frustrating for those who are good at the art and not as good with all the notation stuff.

I wouldn't do it for her, she just needs to have another go at it and submit what she can.

Parents doing to much course work for students is one of the reasons why we now have GCSE's that are heavily exam based. But it's not ideal for everyone.

Then she needs to learn that if you have a temper tantrum and throw your work in the bin you need to start again or fail.

You do her absolutely no favours by doing it for her. You teach her that someone will always run to her rescue. And you can't always. You can't go to her work and meet that deadline for her. It's worse later if they don't learn earlier. Plus of course you teach her that morals don't matter.

Mother of severely SEN child here so I do sympathise, but this is NOT kindness.

It’s malpractice. Cheating, basically. There’s no excuse.

Yep - spot on (though 70% don't agree...)

No
They aren’t !

Thank goodness coursework for GCSEs is being removed if this is what everyone is up to.
Hopefully art will go back to being how it used to be. For mine I had to sit in the art room and produce all work under timed conditions. Maybe this will stop the cheats if, as you say, everyone does it at the moment.

I think you have a plan now that will work with the grid.

My autistic DD1 also hyperfixated and stressed over the portrait sketch needed for her Art GCSE as she couldn't get the perspective right, so DH (also autistic) showed her how to get the right angle for the perspective using a grid and then she managed to do it herself.

Support and adapting the process when you have a stressed out ND child is not cheating. You know your child.

I hope that she can finish it and move beyond this today. She just needs to do her best it doesn't need to be perfect. It is hard I know to convince them as they can get very rigid ideas about getting it just the same as what they are copying. DS is also autistic and such a perfectionist, he gives up if any of his work doesn't look exactly right.