How to support child in GCSEs

[Examamum]

I often see comments that bright kids at state schools with engaged and supportive parents will do well anywhere. That has not been the case for my eldest. When their first mocks were poor, I arranged tutoring for one subject and online group tuition for 2 more, I bought the revision guides for every subject and created a subject content tracker to help them study. Net result - the grades did not improve and they have a set of very poor results, that have limited their future options and are far lower than they should have achieved. What else could/ should I have done to avoid the same for my younger child. Are parents typically coaching their children on each subject?

Get tutors for English, Maths and whatever their preferred A-levels or college requirements are. No more than 5, that's all they need. Let the school deal with the other subjects. There's so much unnecessary competitiveness around getting tons of GCSEs but if they get to 6th form (if that's what they want) who cares, at the end of the day.

But if they aren't academic or don't need high grades, personally I wouldn't stress. They just need to pass. Let them decide whether A levels are right for them - they have to actually want it, you can't do it for them.

@Examamum so sorry that your DC did less well than they hoped. How frustrating for them and you too especially as you did so much to support.

Are parents typically coaching their children on each subject?

I mean no. For one reason, no bc they won't have the expertise, knowledge and exam intel. I taught secondary MFL and tutor that subject now so I would be fine on French and German; I have also supported numerous students in Eng lit and lang so would be OK there too, but beyond that, GCSE physics err no.

And ofc most parents are not teachers so would not even have the level of expertise that I can lay claim to.

So what can you do? I suggest that the key is, how much actual active revision did your DC do? Revision guides are great but if the YP doesn't open them os use them then they won't help.

Tutors are helpful too – what kind of feedback did you receive? What sort of PGs did they suggest? Were they teachers, did they have up to date exam spec knowledge?

The way to do well at GCSE is to understand fully what the examiner is looking for. So to take my subject, the conversation in German will not be natural – you will get extra marks if you expand and develop an answer in a way that seems odd – but it's how you do well. There are certain words and terms to use, boxes to tick, in all subjects. That's what the YP needs to know.

Good teachers should be telling them this. They need to revise actively (make flash cards and get you to test them, summarise a topic) and in a targeted way ("The past tense in French; causes of WW1" rather than just "revise history") and then do practice papers to see where the gaps are - then work on those gaps. HTH

at home, as children we were expected to clear the table and do or at least (age dependent) help with washing/clearing up after family meals.

my mother would always let me off helping if I had homework to do. I don’t necessarily recommend the approach but my academic results were way above the expected.

Honestly I don't know exactly what worked, but my daughter got really good GCSEs with practically zero involvement from me. She had occasional English lessons with an online English tutor (whom I highly recommend btw as she explained exam technique which I think pushed the grades up) and a tutor in MFL. She had no help at all with Maths or the triple sciences. She just did past papers and when she didn't understand a topic, she watched YouTube videos explaining the topic and did some predicted practice papers which those YouTubers post. I think if you literally do all the past and practice papers (which my daughter didn't do but her friend did) then you will do well in the real thing as those questions are bound to repeat themselves.