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.

DD doesn't have exams until June but she seems to be having tests weekly or so (subjects shared around nicely so am assuming there has been discussions between subject teachers). She has started to make revision notes for these tests so these will come in handy for the end of year exams.

Seems to be a lot more homework now so she is getting used to having to do more work on Sundays than before. She always used to get homework done at school or evenings but she just doesn't have the time with revision as well so now knows that she has to leave some time Sunday afternoon or evening. She plays club hockey Saturdays and helps junior training (DoE) or county hockey in the morning or afternoon. I am trying to make sure she gets at least 4 hours on Sunday to just chill though or she starts to feel pressured.
Things seem to be going well (famous last words).. Things have definitely been stepped up at school but she is managing at the moment.

Exams week before Summer half term here. Lots of regular tests too - no time to coast.

Year 10 Mocks the two weeks before Easter here. Seems to have been revising a good amount since half term and we have sorted revision timetable between us. He doesn’t like doing revision cards, but has got some good revision stuff from school and all the relevant guides plus kerboodle for science and geography. They have a lot of tests during year but these are the first sit in the hall, clear pencil case etc tests! Am not sure what the revision quality is like, but he is sat there doing it so will be interesting....

ADOX Advertising via pretending to be helpful isn't allowed. If anything I expect it will lose you business. Not very bright.

DS is beginning to work harder now. I think the pace has started to ramp up (obviously this is nothing compared with what is to come though).

Hi everyone I’ve just found this thread. My Dd has her mock exams the last week in March, first week in April. She’s doing triple science, Maths, English Lit, English Lang, R.E, Spanish, History, drama and Music. Bought revision guides which she’s been working on and recently started making flash cards. She’s been revising an hour a night, is this too little or too much do you think? Also any advice on ways I can help her are appreciated.
Thank you!

If she has exams in a couple of weeks, I think an hour each evening sounds about right. She can then relax in the Easter holidays.

Just coming in to say DD had an actual morning off timetable today to learn revision techniques - How to make a revision timetable, revision cards, and Red Amber Green tables - meant for self assessment on what they are to be tested on and prioritise revision. I'm v pleased as I feel it really does need someone outside the home environment to talk about revision techniques DD always goes from standpoint that I know nothing!

@hogwarts2004 DD exams start 1st April and they've recommended two blocks of 25 mins each night seems achievable !( dependant if they have other homework of course)

Would love DDs school to work on revision techniques. I’m really annoyed at her school at the minute. If they’re doing triple science they stay for a compulsory extra lesson on a Thursday. The past 6 weeks they’ve cancelled them for one reason or another.We were told if they missed one it would be classed as an unauthorised absence.

That is a bit rubbish Hogwarts I do hate double standards. DD school has drop in science but not ccompulsory and the triple science have only just found out they are on the pathway recently so no extra time for it but they do do 3 year gcse. She wasn't chosen and wasn't bothered lol your Dd is effectively doing two more gcses than mine...with the extra triple and drama being one mine doesn't do. It is a lot to fit in so maybe a quick note to Head of Progress enquiring how it will be caught up will be necessary. They don't need the extra pressure

I ought to stop posting messages whilst on busy trains! Sorry for bad grammar people

Did anyone else's DC do the UKMT kangaroo or Olympiad on Thursday? DS2 did the grey kangaroo.I thought he'd mind having to stay an hour late at school to do it, but he seems quite excited.
I find him really difficult to predict, because a lot of the time he seems to not really care. He often does the bare minimum and is always full of excuses when his marks aren't good - the fault is never his for not revising - but then at other times he does really well at something and is delighted.

No Dd didn't Whistl. I remember entering ia competition at school ran by them though! It was supposed to show if you had natural ability with maths I was chuffed to get a reasonably high score especially as I was a C grade student!

I hope he gets a good result he seems keen at least !

Hi folks.

Well year 10 has been a rollercoaster so far. We had an awful parents evening in Feb where we were told ds was in danger of failing everything except music and they were very worried. When he gets stressed he sits in tests and writes nothing. He has spurts of very high energy then crashes. He's had blood tests, we've tried to get CAMHS refrrals etc all to no avail. He wasn't sleeping but the hospital refused to prescribe melatonin. Last year he was top of top set maths but this year they were thinking of dropping him a set. We alsways knew English was dicey but in that at least with th help of a tutor his standard has raised from Grade 2 to Grade 4.

However a few weeks ago they had a careers fayre at school with universities and colleges in attendance. Ds went round every one and asked for details of music technology btec and degreees, then he started researching at home too. He then decided that he was going to be be motivated and make sure he passes his GCSES (we even promised him a Macbook if he gets reasonable grades) I don;t usually beleive in rewarding for Grades bu ds needs something.

However he was really railing against having to do any study/homework, especially if homework hasn;t been set by school but in stead hes been told to revise for tests. He comes home from school and just wants to closet himself in our study with the kepboard and his music software or go t singing/dance/musical theatre rehearsals. He was rebelling against doing the Tassomai/Senecca programmes even.

But then something has changed this week. Aliens have abducted him and replaced him with another child. He has been getting up at quarter to 7 every morning and doing 100 maths questions before breakfast! Two of his teachers have also signed the class up for Seneca and he has become very competitive with being at or near the top of the leaderboard. His English tutor says he produicing work of betwen Grade 5/6 standard, even the occasional piece that is around a Grade 7 standard.

Whether it lasts or not I don't know but he is determined that after GCSE's he doesn't want to do this stuff again/have to re-take his GCSE's but wants to do a full time music btec course. His knowledge of music theory and harmony is very advanced and he reads books on composition techniques that are set on degree courses for fun.

That's wonderful, Comefromaway. It sounds as though he has found his inspiration!

Regarding Melatonin: if you know someone in the US, they can buy it for the price of a bottle of multivitamins in any supermarket and post it to you. A paeditrician give me this advice and I've done it twice. U.K. Customs don't look at it.

Unfortunately I don't know anyone in the US.

Ds told my mum that he had a detention in one of his subjects (his worst one) but instead of it being a normal detention the teacher started talking to him about his future and how important it was that he gets his GCSE's so that he can do what he wants to in the future. She then took him to the computer and they printed off prospectus for various college and university courses in music technology and looked at the entry requirements. it seems to have had an effect.

That's amazing to hear @comefromaway. Sometimes it needs someone from outside the house to inspire ( what do we know we are ONLy parents after all lol)

There is something quite scientific/mathematical about composition they even say that those who are good at it are usually really adept at computer programming etc your son sounds excited about his future which must be lovely.

DD has started mock exams today - she has stuck to a revision timetable for the first time , am hoping it will pay off! Her revision pattern was v erratic before . She is scared she will get into the room and forget everything

Well she didn't forget everything but there was lots of stuff on the maths paper they hadn't been taught apparently..although I'm not so sure as it was non calculator... we will see!

Who else has mocks this week?

Yes to mocks this week. Two yesterday - DS so tired he fell asleep on 5 minute car journey to the pool afterwards... He said yesterday’s seemed to go well. Three today inc non-calc maths which he isn’t looking forward to. He’s revised a lot inc making flash cards for the first time ever! They also had a revision week in school last week, but he says it all feels v different to previous exams and far more serious. But that’s the whole point of mocks I guess. Last one next Monday.

Since when have Year 10 exams been called mocks?

Both my children's school's call mocks the exams they hold in November (ds) & January (dd) of Year 11.

Ds has internal exams in May but they are just that, normal end of year internal exams.

@comefromaway it is a new thing DD school are doing calling them PPEs/Mocks and actively doing revision sessions for them and reproducing exam conditions, end of term/half term tests are distinctly different and classroom based. The idea is to get them used to GCSE style routines and experiences

But yes I should have said anyone else has Mocks/Tests /Exams this week

@estherfrewen he must have been exhausted after the pool then! Be glad when this week is over and they can have a proper rest.

I was wondering that too, Comefromaway. DS's school has mocks in December.
Everything else, is just called "class tests", "end of topic tests" or "end of year 10 exams"., even when they are taken in the school hall with an invigilator.

The only other thing that was called "mocks" were the past papers that the DC do at home in the Easter holidays of year 11 (which were called "Easter mocks" for a reason that escaped me. Maybe it just sounded serious?!)

I'm coming back to this thread after a bit of a hiatus (year 10 has been a whirlwind so far, and I also suffered a bereavement just before Christmas, which has taken the wind out of me).

We had parents evening just before half term. All DD's teachers were very positive about how she's doing. With a lot of pushing and involvement from us, she seems to be settling into a half decent routine of working/ revising at home. Her test results in maths and physics have gone up from failing to mid to high 80% this term BUT that involved me basically tutoring her ( I didn't actually take or pass any of the sciences at O level, so it's a definite labour of love!).
She's doing really well in English, history and drama without any input from us, but has lost her love of geography, due to a teacher that seems not to have recognised her ALN.
End of year exams are in May, and she has ICT GCSE early May too, with the mock at the end of this month.
Discussion has turned to sixth form choices, in the hope that having an idea of what she'd like to study at A level might keep her motivated.

I'm worried that I'm becoming obsessed with the whole GCSE thing; it's quite often all we talk about, which can't be a good thing. 🤔