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.

College wasn't great for DD1. She fell into the less mature & needing strong pastoral care camp, but we got through it, just about. DD2 is only y9 and I think may be suited to Sparsholt - it's fantastic to have that option accessible should she decide to go for it.

Hopefully second time around easier Teen. I need to believe it will be or I’ll panic Friend’s DS went to Sparsholt for degree , our local for 6th form is Kingston Maurwood which is on the radar of a few of DS’s year I think.

During conversation with DS I asked if someone said you had to do physics or chemistry for A level what would you do meaning which. He replied dryly ‘cry’. Shows how much shit teaching can put them off. On the flip side a great teacher can make the world of difference.

We had an email from DD's school yesterday, informing us that January mocks will start 2 days before term officially starts, " so as to maximise curriculum time".
Is there really so much content left to cover that an extra 2 days is vital??

Oh gosh. That will put pay to your nice post Christmas plans. I've been really surprised at how much content History has.

I think cutting the Christmas holidays short is piling on more stress and is unreasonable to both pupils & teachers. Sounds like school is having a panic over some of this years papers. 2 extra days is 1 extra hour per subject.

I guess the advantage of the Hants system is that it forces DC to reevaluate what they want to do. I think it would be good for DS to change schools for sixth form (there's a few past incidents he could do with getting away from plus he now has a particular reputation in school) but I suspect he will want to go with the easy option and just continue in his current school sixth form.

Shocked at the school recalling students early (were these previously inset days?) for mocks. Not so good for those who already have plans ...

It seems ridiculous to me. Apart from anything else, it means finding transport for DD for those days ( school is 35 minutes away and DD usually gets the school bus).

An hour extra a subject is nothing! She could get more than that working at home.

I'm also slightly miffed as it's my 50th birthday just before the mocks now start, and it would have been nice to sneak away for a night or 2. No chance of that now.

Also not much fun for the staff who have to come in two days early, and who might have had other commitments of their own (childcare etc).

Hello all, I have not posted here for a long while and see the thread has moved on a lot so I haven’t gone through all of them. DS finished his end of year exams last Friday. Revised all by himself which we’re quite proud of due his SEN. He rand out of time in Geography and another subject but school still refusing to give him extra time due his adhd. Biology he said was very hard.

We’re still toing and froing on what he wants to do for A’levels. He really likes Chemistry. It I’m very wary of the workload of Chemistry at A’level and what impact an overload might do on MH. He also wants to do History which combining them together just sounds like a lot. Has anyone’s dc here done Chemistry at A’level who might be able to shed more light?

I'm guessing it will be mostly invigilators, not teachers, in but I agree, silver - rubbish all round.

Two of my sons have done A level Chemistry. My youngest son is in Year 10- I have actually forbidden him to even think about it- as he said if older brother X who is so clever (A* and high UMS) and even he has found it impossible then I'm not doing it.Our DC have done Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics and FM in different combinations and it is the one they all agree was impossible.

I agree that Chemistry A-level can be tough. I found it hard work, and I was good at it.

Maths A-level can be hard unless you are either a natural mathematician or willing to put the work in. DD is not confident at Maths and has no plans to do Maths or Science A-levels.

She is getting good grades in Latin at the moment, but that's another one I suspect would be a big jump from GCSE to A-level.

How do you make a 15yr old who is really enjoying Chemistry and getting A’s in that it’s a whole different ball game at A’level? The other option would be Biology, but he doesn’t enjoy it as much although could knuckle down to it for A’levels. Physics would not be a good idea at all as he struggles with Maths and is hoping for a 6 next yr although getting top grades in Physics at the moment. He definitely wants to do one science, just hard deciding which one.

Shimy
Does he need to decide yet or can he wait until after Y11 mocks?

What's the 'point' of doing 1 science at A level?

It doesn't seem enough to go on and do science at university, so wouldn't doing a humanity or MFL be better?

I know it would be more rounded but it would be a bit out on a limb. He could do a new subject eg. Psychology perhaps?

Yr11 mocks are in January, but after that he has to be certain which ones he’ll be doing, so the only thinking time he’s got really is between now and December. I think this is one of those he’s going to be undecided about right through the tothe last minute. Just like he’s GCSE subjects, he had the same dilemma with Art.

The reason he wants do 1 science apart from the fact he really enjoys them and gets straight A’s is he wants to study something like Business management/marketing. He has been Looking at university websites and their entry requirements. Most state to do humanities and social science subjects but Durham in particular (if I remember correctly) state 1 humanity & 1 science would be preferred. So he’s using that as his yardstick to choose his a’level Subjects. He’s already decided on Economic, and trying to decide between History & Geography Which will be easy as he has a somewhat stronger preference already and mocks will be the final decider.

That leaves the science subject. Just to add he hates languages and very weak at it (always C’s) so that’s not on the cards at all. Although I agree it would complement his future career very well.

Do they include Geography as a science though? I ask because at the moment dd wants to do a Psychology degree but she’s not planning on doing any sciences at A Level (apart from Psych). Most degrees only require one science A Level (to include Psych) but some prefer or require 2 and at least a couple have included Geography in their sciences list.

Dd is already considering Geog A Level so this just seems like another reason to choose it - might be the same for Business Management?

Isn’t Geography a humanity? I didn’t think it was a science. Happy to be corrected.

Meant to say ‘Social science’ not humanity.

Mmm not sure maybe a look on new informed choices website?

DD has driven me mad this week. Done virtually no homework since Monday. Gets huffy when I ask about it. Positively apocalyptic when reminded revision required for language mock next week. Yesterday did a writing exercise...fair enough but wouldn't let me look at it. Today made a fuss about starting then did one 8 mark question in 45 mins. I'm really hoping she was distracted or something onherbloodymobile as she got totally the wrong end of the stick when answering. Yet school say she's fine and capable of 7 plus. There were some real issues with diction..she won't read but school are not saying there are issues. I've made comments on the answer sheet to help her

Anyhow the issue is she was so rude and disrespectful. Refusing to bring the paper from upstairs, only giving me half of it (I had to Google sources). When I asked her what we could do to help her 'want' to revise for the exam and get a good grade response was 'I dunno'. I feel so.upset like it's a constant battle uphill and now I'm going to have to ask her for tangible evidence of homework and revision. She can't be trusted to get on with it.

I'm so sick of it all DH was no help ..heard her being rude didn't bother to say a thing. I'm forced into ranty nagging mum mode and I hate it .

She seems to be doing enough revision for her music exams but not bothering with anything else.

Sorry just letting off steam none of us I gather wanted to grow up to be stressed out raging Mums.

I had heard Chemistry is hard at A level, I hope DS will look again at physics then and see beyond the incredibly shit teacher they currently have. Tassomai is coming soon I think and that’s one thing I’m to school for, a big saving.

Would have thought geography would come under humanity. Biology will be the most helpful science for Psychology degree, we used to share some lectures with the Neurophysiology students.

Orange I think the problem you have is she probably is capable of 7 plus and is well aware of it. I know things are a bit different now to a few years ago but general consensus amongst those who have left school recently is GCSE is fine and for some it’s relatively easy to get through without lots of revision but that A levels are different.

We’re all different in this but I don’t see the point in battling over it at this stage. A set of worse than expected results will give more of a kick up the backside than a parent in my opinion and at this point we still have a lot of time. Probably just my DD but Naggy Mum Mode backfires and made her go the other way so I had to back off. She did need to work and was not a 7 plus student and things did go wrong but a few years down the line I’ve been really impressed at how self driven she has become within studying. She said it took her a long time to figure how best to deal with her particular style of learning. At GCSE the more I pushed the less she did. Personally I’d back off at the moment and see what happens but that is just me and others have a different view on that.

In other news DS is on the waiting list for driving lessons which seems horrendously early but apparently the guy has quite a few for 2020. He’s been quite talkative this week and I think appreciating my vague attempt at being supportive to take pressure off with exams starting next week. Had a long chat and I think at the moment he’s thinking of doing Maths and Computer Science degree or possibly law and U.K. still a mess by time he comes out of education he’s bailing and going to Germany or somewhere apparently,

Back to Geography - it can be a Bsc or a BA at degree level so it’s a crossover subject. Definitely worth checking whether it’s inclufed as a science for degree entry purposes anyway. I know Biology would go well with Psychology but there’s no chance of my daughter doing that!

Orange, I agree with Post, maybe now is the time to let her fail, when it doesn’t matter ? Or at least find out how work translates into grades. They don’t all necessarily have to put in hours and hours of work to get good grades either so it’s useful to find out what’s required.

Dd didn’t really manage any biology revision - or very little - and got a 5. That’s actually quite a useful yardstick, especially as she finds chemistry harder but put in some time and got a 7. I think the motivation will come next year - for now I would leave her to her own devices!