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.

hi @acertree I've sent you a PM with a link. Conscious that I don't want to hijack the thread!

@teentimestwo It is absolutely based on the principles of agile project management.

@whistl thanks. I'd love to find out more about your spreadsheet. My original was straightforward and that's really become the digital tracker. The main thing that I've been working on is the 000,000s rows of data for all of the syllabus and getting the physical side sorted out. So far it is going really well. But I'm imagining that it could really start to fly in the new year. Thanks!

Can I join please? DS is at a mediocre local comp, has ASD, anxiety & depression, he's had a lot of problems this year, decided in March that he wanted to live with his dad, left home by stealth, went to stay at dad's for part of Easter holidays & never came back. His dad has MS & as well as school spends time caring for him, dad was rushed in hospital during summer holidays & DS missed quite a few days school as he was anxious about dad, school were knocking on door several times but DS just couldn't cope with his dad's illness & school, dad came out of hospital & DS got back into routine of going to school & settled down only for dad to be readmitted for 10 days with suspected meningitis which turned out to be a chronic infection that had aggravated his MS. DS has had real problems adjusting because every time dad is poorly & taken in hospital he had to come back home to me, says he will be glad once he is 16 & can be allowed to stay at home on his own. He is doing

Maths
English x 2
Combined science x2
History
Geography
Computer science
Drama BTEC
Ethics no qualification

He is brilliant at essay type subjects, loves reading & soaks up information like a sponge, not so good at maths, takes after me as I'm useless at it but like him loved anything that involved reading & writing essays. He has loved the history syllabus as they have been covering the cold war, WW1 & 2, American history & the evolution of medicine, being ASD he was already obsessed with the cold war & knew more than the teacher. He works hard at subjects he is interested in but skims maths & will be satisfied if he gets a level 4/5 pass, he is already working at level 7/8 in English & history, level 6/7 in geography & computer science, level 5/6 in science & looks to be merit/distinction in drama. He does 1-2 hours homework a day & is interested in a career in railways which is one of his obsessions, would love to train as a driver & then maybe progress to working in rail safety, accident investigation type jobs. He has work experience in the summer & has applied to the rail networks, local theatres & libraries. He's struggled with the social side of school ever since he started at primary & only has a couple of friends, he prefers to be in adult company.

Nathanmcgurl it answered the following questions both at subject level and across the whole 10 GCSEs.
How much have I done so far (in hours and % of work)?
How much do I still have to do? (In hours and %)
How confident am I on each part? (this one turned out to be crucial) and was also aggregated up to topic, paper and subject level.
What are my current priorities?
What have we still not covered in class?
How much time do I have left?
How much free time have I got?
What is my timetable for today? Tomorrow? The rest of the week/ month?
What is my homework and when is the deadline?
When can I fit in my homework?
When are the revision classes?
When are my exams and how long until each paper?
If I stick to the current timetable how much progress will I have made, subject by subject on a given date?
If I stick to the current timetable, what % of the revision I feel I need to do, will I have done by the day that I have to sit the paper?
Have I scheduled too many or too few periods of study into my timetable for each subject?
How many days and hours until it's all over and I'm free again?!
How many more hours am I likely to have made 60%/70%/80%90%/100% progress on Tassomai?
How well did I think I did (input straight after he'd sat each paper - this really helped him stay confident over the 10 week wait for results).

The inputs were:-
the list of topics and sub-topics from the board specifications,
DS's 1-5 confidence rating on how well he knew each sub-topic,
DS's estimate about how long he needed to learn each sub-topic (updated with experience of how long things were taking)
the dates of each paper
the homework given that day and due dates
The revision class schedule
The football schedules, and other times and dates DS wanted kept free
A default period of study (set at 45 mins)
The progress readings from Tassomai which I used to try to calculate how much more time was needed.

The outputs were detailed subject reports which highlighted his priorities, a calendar which planned which subjects he had to study each day. Plus a list of outstanding homework.

I think the calendar shifted constantly?

Sorry I pressed send without writing the last sentence. I was just going to say that it was dynamic. Some things took longer, some took less time. Sometimes DS would give himself time off (but he came to see that all he was achieving was reducing his free periods later). I think there must have been daily adjustments, but they were easy to implement.

This thread is really good as it shows the many differences from school to school.
I have a worried dd, we have managed up until now to go through school with no targets, predictions, or any other measurement.
Unfortunately, school have just issued them and even though it's what we would have guessed, just didn't want to hear it, I suppose.
There is an one 8/9 and seven 4/5. I'm hoping the end of term report will give us more to go on.

Romany better 4/5 than 2/3s though! The 8/9 is a fantastic outlier - is it in something more creative like Art?

Has she been planning on doing A levels? With those predictions you probably should have a plan B of BTECs/Apprenticeship and maybe even a Plan C in case one or both of Maths & English aren't passed.

Hi Teen

The 8/9 is music and unfortunately she has to do A levels as no Btecs or others offered.
Maths and English are included in the 4's but if the worst comes to worst and she doesn't pass, they have said she can do functional skills rather than resits if it's evident she won't pass.
I contacted the conservatoires she hopes to audition and they said they'd accept functional skills.
I haven't told her this as I want her to try her best, but will revisit this decision if her mh begins to deteriorate.
She does worry and despite reassurances from school and home thinks she's failed already and her choice will be affected.

Romany unfortunately she has to do A levels as no Btecs or others offered

Honestly, I really would apply to other 6th form locations as a backup. Broadly speaking 4/5s aren't going to cut it for achieving at A levels, I can't see how it would help mental health to be doing A levels and struggling for 2 years with them.

It looks like you are looking studying music after 6th form?
Does she need to have done Music A level for that, or is it 'just' an audition? Is there anywhere local she can do Music A level + a BTEC Diploma in something?

Or a course like this ? www.thecollege.co.uk/courses/btec-level-3-extended-diploma-music-technology (Which I know isn't high end music performance so may be totally unsuitable)

Interesting reading how every child is different.

Ds1 worries me.
I told you all that I was going to Parents Evening. It was good. Well, fine, er ok. Occasional distracting behaviour or not concentrating.
With the repeated comment that he was 'capable of so much more'. He's bright, does the bare minimum. Lazy little toad. Gets good marks though : in recent tests, maths he came 8th. In his year! History 88%.

He does bugger all. Plays fortnite and fifa all the time.

And like expat, I've only just found out that he's been excepted to do DofE Silver, having NOT done bronze so need to do a year, not just 6 moths.
I was hoping that he could volunteer for six months in one place, six months at another, at the same time, starting now: but I'm not sure that's acceptable?

Teen

There's no chance of changing schools, she wouldn't entertain the idea, she is so happy and thriving with the music and has so many opportunities she wouldn't in any other environment.
It really doesn't matter if she gets a D at A level and music being compulsory will be one that she will do well in.

Romany That's OK then.

My DD is doing Bronze DoE in Yr10, did some of your children do Bronze in Yr 9?

I have found it interesting seeing the difference between schools on here.
Even locally there is a difference between when schools do their Mocks in Yr11, when they do DoE practice & real expedition. Also how many GCSE are studied (9,10&11).

DS2 will be doing bronze DofE in year 10.
DS1 was supposed to do it in year 10, but through lack of self-organisation ended up doing most of it in year 11. I would strongly recommend NOT doing that!

To be fair though, DS1 summer born and most of the charities don't want to employ someone for the volunteering section until they have turned 15.
He could have and should have done the physical and skills sections in year 10.

Sorry everyone for going AWOL. Work and (my own) study had got better of me. Dr has started CBT but still suffering anxiety related attacks. She has exams next week for sciences and aims to put strategies in place for those.

@whistl
The spreadsheet sounds immense!

@nat6999 I have a train driver husband so feel free to pm me there are also some great engineering /mechanics apprenticeships out there on the railway. They are quitehit on health and safety so anything your son can do regarding that that interests him will be valuable.

whistl DD doing DofE, has been volunteering at Guides since September, completed the skill part by doing grade 5 music theory (which she needed to do anyway) and is 3 weeks into the physical part doing couch to 5k so hopefully finished by feb ahead of the expedition. Not sure how they fit silver into year 11.
Romany your DD sounds like mine, is adamant she’s staying at school to do music a level
Teen back up is a good idea I’ll look into that for DD as no BTECs at school, unfortunately our nearest college is 20 miles away...

So ds has officially been moved back into bottom set English. But he prefers the teacher and his classmates in the higher set distracted/bullied him (one in particular)

But next week is work experience. He’s looking forward to it. I’m nervous about him being in a customer facing environment.

It’s such a shame Romany your dds school doesn’t offer btecs. Dd’s School offers limited ones which makes it simpler for the non academic but talented young people.

It would be good, but I think with so few children they don't/can't offer much more than they do. I can't complain though as I always say on these threads, we knew when we signed up.
I do respect that they don't make out it's anything other than what it is.
We spoke last night and she seemed more determined to prove them wrong, so you never know, she could gain a level here and there..

There are about 40 in dd's year group. The main btec subject they offer is drama which is equivalent to 2 A levels as they find it more relevant to their training although they do offer A level theatre studies as well.

So far ds is loving Work Experience. The owner's husband played 2nd Keys for a couple of shows ds has been in and another worker played Bass. He says its "chill" which is teen speak for great.

I have a Year 10 DS (sitting GCSES in Yr 11) I've not noticed any ramping up of work or pressure to be honest - maybe I should be worried?!

DS did bronze DofE in Yr 9 but only the volunteering, skills and sports parts, they do the expedition this summer.

Alexander

There are approx 25 in dd year, it will increase to double this for 6th form though.

Mine is doing DofE Bronze through Scouts, she would like to continue and do the others too.

Yes Romany it’s roughly the same at dd’s School. Her year group was one of the biggest ever with around 35 in year 11 but most of the year groups are approx 25-30 but increasing to around 35-40 in 6th form.

Yes, thats an entire year group. When dd started in Year 7 there were 18 in her Year group which was the smallest intake for a while but they had quite an influx in Year 10 which took them to being the largest year group the school had known for a while.

Romany's dd and my dd attend a fairly unique type of school.