Year 10 GCSE Support Thread

[OrangeCinnamon]

Hi all,
Can we have a thread for Year 10 support please? Even though Dd started in Y9 I have already noticed a massive ramping up in pressure and her anxiety I imagine it is a fine balance of being supportive but not a helicopter parent. How do you motivate but not nag? How do you encourage good study/revision skills without being overbearing? How can I help my Dd to be resilient....so many questions hoping for some hints, tips and support along the way.

Dd is Summer born so struggles sometimes. Her main loves are Music and the Humanities subjects. She bobs along with Maths and Science and despises French. Wants to be an international popstar, historian, writer, journo or judge! She sufffers terribly with low self esteem but hopefully this term will be able to get her on a course of cbt.

[CinnamonOrangeCremeBrulee]

Just filling up the last post on the very first thread!

We're still going !

2022 Latest Thread

[OrangeCinnamon]

Thank you all...Just as the academic year comes to a close (or has closed in some cases) we reach thread limit !

This has been a great supportive thread and I've made a new one

new thread for year 11

Eeek year 11...definitely need some hand holding

[OrangeCinnamon]

That really is crazy @comefromaway hopefully this will change in Year 11 if not I'd be writing a letter!

[FreeFreesia]

That is a bonkers way of reporting! If I received that I would become the parent who wanted meetings in school to discuss every subject. (I have only emailed 1 teacher on 1 matter in the four years DS has been in secondary school.)

[Comefromaway]

The format of the reports at ds's school is frustrating. He has target grades of Grade 6 for everything. He is not on track to achieve those targets except for in maths, music and Business Studies. But I don;t know how much under target he is as you literally get + = or - on the report. So in year 9 when I was told under the old reports that his was only likely to achieve Grdae 2 in English but he has been told verbally that shouldnow be a 4/5, there is no differentiation. In science I don't know how much below target he is.

[Oblomov19]

Just checking in with you all.
New thread soon.....?

Ds hasn't had any end of Y10 exams, unlike you lot.

Instead: Lots of recent talk of A'levels: visiting their 6th form (different site) and the local college.

He seems complacent. Like he's gonna breeze his GCSE's and just go to his 6th form, with "all his MATES"

I reminded him that he needed to pull his finger out first, work his socks off in Y11, to get said GCSE grades required, to get in!!

[PostNotInHaste]

How lovely to have musicians on the thread! DH’s side is musical with a fairly famous composer way back but it hasn’t really filtered through unfortunately.

So glad DD is better RomanyQueen. I t sucks but I guess knowing how she is likely to be does give you time to get a few things in place to try and take the edge off next year if possible .

Good it’s nearly over Heifer, DS starting properly at end of the week where it’s the whole clear pencil case, no labels on drinks bottles, old exam papers in the hall for core subjects. Up till now he’s had two subjects just done in classroom. Roll on 4th July.

[Heifer]

Its the last day of DDs Yr10 Mock Mocks here and I have to admit I will be glad when the're over. It's been a huge learning curve for DD. She revised really well for a month or so before they started but dropped off with the revision once the started. They lasted 1.5 weeks so thankfully not long. She is knackered and has had enough. Doesn't help that she has to redo 1 of the exams as they were given the wrong paper to do. They hadn't covered a lot of the exam and teacher realised he had photocopied the wrong 1....
They have been using old GCSE papers so have been given the right amount of time for each exam, I think it's been a massive step up from what they usually do so hopefully all helpful for next year.
Just got to see how she has done now. Plenty of resting up and meeting of friends planned next :-)

[OrangeCinnamon]

DD is doing her theory at a club at school and then get's entered into the exam when she reaches grade 5 level - she is taking ages and I really want her to get it out the way at the beginning of next school year. She has her grade six for voice tomorrow so fingers crossed that goes well and then she has all she need for entry to college, then we can look at Uni ! I have no idea about modes or anything musical so feel all out at sea when she talks about it - a rather odd feeling!

Glad DD better @RomanyQueen !

[Comefromaway]

He wants to ultimately study Music Tech/Composition.

[RomanyQueen]

Sounds under control with the music. It's so good that for schools not offering GCSE the kids aren't at a disadvantage when applying for music college.
i tell dd that those taking it are at a bigger disadvantage if they don't get a good result.
Not that she's worried, her prediction is 8/9.

[Comefromaway]

Yes, we have worked out that he pretty much knows everything on the Grade syllabus with the odd gap due to not havong worked through the syllabus systematically so we have bought the books and a couple of sample papers and hope to enter him for Grade 5 in the autumn.

Dh will then try and get him to Grade 7/8 standard by the time he is 18. Dh did 2nd study harpsichord at college so is really good at stuff like figured bass. Ds hasn;t come across that yet, but has an encyclopeadic knowledge of modes.

[RomanyQueen]

Comefromaway

Hi, would your ds be able to work through some study books for grade 5 and you enter him yourselves, or if you don't want to ask a teacher you know.
I know a few kids who have done this and worked through books independently.
Or a private teacher just for the theory.
The ABRSM have some free resources up to grade 5 theory.

Dd is much better now, many thanks. I saw the stress coming away as we left school on the train. She ate well this weekend and has less than 2 weeks now, which has helped. Just a big band concert tonight and then rehearsals for Mahler, which I've managed to get out of attending

[Comefromaway]

They do but they are either weekday afternoons (from 3.30pm and he doesn't finish school until 3.15pm) or they clash with his theatre rehearsals. He has just given up dance though as it was too much for him.

What he does need to concentrate on though is getting some music theory grades as some of the unis he is interested in wants ABRSM music theory in lieu of A level music for those offering Btec's.

[OrangeCinnamon]

@comefromaway my local college does music programming/production days as Saturday activities ...called something like 'nativemeetups' worth looking into to see if yours do ..to get through the next year!

[Comefromaway]

Sorry to hear your dd isn't well Romany.

It's been a turbulent time with ds who hasn;t been sleeping, and tried to run away when we restricted access to his devices late at night. He had become obsessed with transcribng an arrangment to a song by ear so that it could be played and sung at a school concert and was staying up till the early hours!. Plus he's been in two musical theatre shows in the last 6 weeks.

But anyway, we took him to an open day at a local college on Saturday and he absolutely loved it. The music department is prettu self-contained and the tutors although very different persobnality wise seemed easy to gel with. We literally had to drag ds away.

So he just needs to get through the next year so he can go there.

[OrangeCinnamon]

DD has just gone for sixth form taster day at her academy's college ..How can my 14 year old be doing this? It's all going so fast!

[OrangeCinnamon]

How did it go with Assistant Head @RomanyQueen1? Poor Dd hope things are better for you all now

[ksb76]

Optimistic - I would love to hear a teacher's perspective of my child other than academically, particularly with my DS (who is v quiet and v reserved and getting information is like getting blood out of a stone!).

I had an informal chat today with one of his teachers that included just that - a discussion of his Y10 mock, generally how he has done and his sense of what Y11 will bring, and then a quick comment about how he has observed him this year in class - his interactions, how his confidence has changed etc. Was lovely to hear as DS changed school at the beginning of Y10 so has been a big year on lots of levels.

[PostNotInHaste]

DD developed stomach migraines during them unfortunately . Do you think your DD will listen? I wonder if she might be more receptive once into the summer holidays possibly?

Does she exercise at all? I think she needs to focus on self care and develop a routine where she gives equal emphasis to her physical health and relaxation/doing enjoyable things and understands these are just as important as exams. When I was really stressed when my Mum was I’ll used to do what I called arrive appreciation and would try to clock up 3 a day. Just little things but making sure I did actually take some pleasure in something. A friend’s daughters both got stressed and saw a counsellor who gave them some coping strategies.

DS is a bit of a vampire and will just sit in room if left to own devices so I’ve decided that he will be doing couch to 5k this summer. I think exam season next year will be tough and I want him to be physically fitter than he is and outside a bit more as I think time surrounded by nature is therapeutic. . DH will have to do it with him as did the first session that I thought would be a doddle but miscalculated the difference his leg length versus mine made - he has a slightly pink neck, I was bright red and sweating buckets at the end and we only ran for a minute at a time !

[RomanyQueen]

Post

Oh thank you so much for that, I'm sorry your dd was like that, I thought it was just mine. She's been in a terrible state.
If she listens I'm going to give her tips for the nerves and stress, because she'll be really poorly come GCSE if I don't.

Anybody with any tips btw, I'm all ears. I'm speaking to assistant head on monday.

[PostNotInHaste]

RomanyQueen that’s awful , poor you and poor DD. They are under so much pressure. It’s damage limitation when it gets like that, the results don’t matter, preserving mental (and physical ) health is much more important. Really feel for you, I still have clear memories of scraping vomit off the floor with DD.

DS said he has done 1.5 hour paper on Germany which is is quarter of the syllabus. So how do the papers actually work , how many and how long, does anyone know?

Pointed him at Seneca after the post further up thread and apparently they use it at school.

[FreeFreesia]

Optimistic I'll trade you . I like to know about the academics only if time is extremely rushed. Quite often I'm told DS could put his hand up more often, so I'll pass that on (no children at parents' evening even though secondary). I would want to know if impolite as would reinforce the message. I tend to ask 'is there anything else you want to tell me?' and assume if nothing else is said then everything is at least reasonable. There's usually a bit about confidence/personality/friendships in the end of year report from the form tutor.

'Recapping' please could you expand on this. Does it mean rereading notes and learning quotes? I asked DS if his problem was understanding or lack of knowledge and he replied the problem was what he wrote. Is there a good online revision tool because I wouldn't think it lends itself to multi-choice questions? He is averse to flash cards in any subject.

[RomanyQueen]

I have a very sick girl at home atm. Am trying to get some food into her without her being sick, she's been like this for 2 weeks.
Stress and nerves all over the place, she has to take a tablet to hold her food down.
It's awful, I hope she will be ok with some tlc this weekend and now the exams are over.

[PostNotInHaste]

Bit worried about DS coming home now, he’s sitting part 2 of history paper today. I’ll expect a less than happy mood then !