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.

Thanks TeenTimes Two - I normally go into the school at least once per term and speak to the Head of the Year and ask about my DD where they normally gives me an insight of what my DD is doing and what my DD can do to improve.

International school to UK independent.

International only had one parents evening, and termly reporting, but just numerical, with no words to let you know how your child was actually doing. No marked homework during term so no way to gauge what their nebulous IB based achievement score (using IB 1-7) for years 7-9 was on their reports.

UK independent for Year 10. Again just one parents evening, but twice termly reports in Christmas term (half term and end) and then termly after that. Full paragraphs written by each teacher and then their assessment of their work to date and their predicted GCSE grade.

So, while both technically had termly reporting, I knew more about my child after 6 weeks at a UK independent than I ever had from our international school. Really depends on the style of report that you are getting and whether you are seeing marked homework on a regular basis to gauge progress also.

State school. We get two reports each academic year; one mid-year and the other after the end of year exams.

I wouldn't want them more often as DD gets a bit stressed about them and worries about her grades being under her target.

We had a report at Christmas with very lengthy comments but no grades - probably more helpful really - the parents eve in Feb, then parents evening and an end of year report in July.

Together with regular tests and homework I think we’re pretty well informed.

Hi, Shiny, Floottoot here. 😁
(NC'd a while ago after some trolling on another forum).

DD is doing ok, thanks. Her school is still falling woefully short of adequate SEN support, but DD worked hard for her year 10 exams and managed 6/7/8s in all subjects.
It's still a slog every day and very much hands-on from us, but she's finally seeing that hard work pays off and life is easier if you deal with things as you go along.

Reports:
Both DCs at selective indies.
DS gets termly reports, with challenge grades and flight path grades and brief comments about areas for improvement. At the end of the year, he gets a full report.

DD gets termly reports with only effort/working at grades, and an end of year report with commentary.

Both have one parents' evening a year - DS in November, Dd's was in March.

Just through the other side of GCSE’s with Dd. Top tip from us would be joining online Seneca premium. Worked a treat to keep motivated, it tracks progress and has mini courses right up to hyper cram the night before plus it is multi exam board with targeted learning.
I have a multitude of unopened CGP books although I did buy every type of revision aid. Flash cards didn’t work for Dd. It was a combination of condensing notes, some mind maps for English Lit but otherwise Seneca !

Next report for DD will be the end of term one where teachers write comments for subjects, the other termly ones are just actual and predicted grades and effort.

I have my fingers crossed for DD today as she has her Drama group performance which counts towards her gcse. It’s been postponed 3 times as one of girls in the group always seems to be off sick on the planned day. All the rest of the class did theirs before half term and DD is getting annoyed it has been dragging on so long when they were all rehearsed and ready ages ago.

Hi floot it’s “Lioness” here🙂. We chatted upthread. Mum of DS with SEN at an Indy. Glad to hear your DD is doing okay and got through this academic yr. How is her organisation coming along? those grades are fab! DS did very well too although had one unexpected shocker of a 4 in English Language which we are querying. English is his strongest subject and got an 8 in Literature so it’s very puzzling how he got a 4 in language.

Has you DD had any thoughts what she might like to do for A’levels?

Hi, floot, not sure if you remember me, but we have chatted too. Was wondering what had happened to you, glad you are still here.

The holidays can't come quickly enough, I have so many issues to sort out with dd. nothing major but lots of little things, that I feel once addressed may make a huge difference.
The biggest being understanding how learning happens.

Worried about 6th form and qualifying for next level - anyone else worried?

littlebillie DD only got 4 GCSEs and failed maths so it got somewhat tense. What are the entry requirements needed?

Hi Shiny and RomanyQueen - lovely to hear from you both.

Dad's organisation is improving slowly, but she still needs checking up on daily. She's better able to organise deadlines now, but her school folders and notes are still a work-in-progress, to put it mildly, and her bedroom is a permanent bomb site.
I did all her exam revision with her, other than Latin and drama ( not something I felt I could help her with).
She's hoping to do drama, English lit and drama at A level; she managed 8, 7, 6 in her year 10 exams, so looks to be on course, although history feels like a huge mountain to climb.

Shimy, that IS an odd result in English. That said, English language seems very specific these days and all about exam technique and mark schemes. DD used Mr Bruff videos and revision guide, which seemed to really help; she lost the most marks for SPAG ( unsurprisingly) in the creative writing question. Not sure how best to tackle that...my life's work.

Romany, Dad's revision technique is scattergun at best - no timetable or plan, just start and see where it takes her. 🤔 Her school hasn't offered any kind of help, hasn't suggested revision guides or techniques etc. I tried to Gary it between videos, note writing, flash cards, past papers etc but it didn't feel focused or targeted, so I need to up my game before mocks.

We've got 3 weeks of term left and a zillion school trips, activities, concerts etc between now and then, so any kind of studying seems to have fallen by the wayside.

DD, not dad!

Shimy, dd's English results were relatively low too - 5 and 6 for Lang/Lit - where the teacher has her working at a 7 in lessons and I would have thought she'd possibly be pushing for an 8 next year, as it's always been one of her best subjects. I hope she gets the hang of the exam technique because she was always going to get lower results in the sciences/languages/Maths but writing and analysis are her strengths.

Always - History is intimidating isn't it! It's dd's best subject, she regularly gets full marks in homework and in the first half of her exam she was on course for a 9 - but then she totally ran out of time, so her overall mark was a 6. She was so disappointed! There's so much to learn and it's so time pressured too!

crazy, that is exactly what happened to DD in the exam, and to a friend's DD too! The difference in marks between the 2 halves was huge, although I understand that her whole class did less well on that part of the paper, so it could also be to do with the topic ( she's doing USA 1929-2000 and Changes in Crime and Punishment, and did well in the crime and punishment part).

Interesting to hear about the English lang & lit results. DS got 5/6 when at parents' evening I was told on track for 7/8 at GCSE. Seems a big gap to address though I will say not much revision done.

Free and Also (not Always sorry!) - glad to hear others have had similar experiences!

Also, dd is doing completely different topics (it was Germany up to 1945 that she did well in; I can't even remember what the second topic was - maybe the Cold War?). She's totally nailed the technique as she's been getting very good marks in her practice questions for homework, so I've suggested she do all her homework timed from now on.

Free - dd didn't really revise for Lang, she wasn't sure it was possible? I'm a bit concerned because she's not impressed with her teachers (she has 2) and she reckoned they'd only had about 3 pieces of homework all year. She said a different class who have a good teacher have homework every week and most of them got 8/9! So it must be about technique and practice.

@Crazycrofters You’re right. I contacted the English teacher and they have intimated it might be about DS’s technique, although we’re still having a face to face meeting. It’s just so odd English being his best subject.
DS struggles with time keeping in exams but is usually the first to say he ran out of time, but this time around he couldn’t think of what he may have done wrong.

@Alsoplayspiccolo Glad you’re till around . It’s been a tough year for them hasn’t it? But they’ve come out fighting.organisation wise I think she’ll get there just slowly but will get to the point where she finds what works for her, revision wise. I thinkas they get older and more self aware they will turn to available tools to help them get organised. DS has finally started to realise the benefit of putting everything in an electronic diary and setting alerts (in advance!) on all entries.

Writing & analysis re DS’s strengths as well so it was quite a shock for him. I think doing all homework timed from now is a very good suggestion (thanks to whoever said that), I’m going to discuss that with DS.

Crazy DS said the same, how do you revise for Eng lang? I'm going to push him to just read more generally across the holiday in the hope of widening vocabulary and getting his speed up. Then might ask school in Sept for some good revision resources, there must be something ! Will be interesting to see what the teacher (has same one for both lang & lit) writes on the end of year report.

Yes, I was only thinking last night that I should set dd some reading targets over the holidays. She used to love reading, but she doesn't really find time for it now which is a shame. Any ideas of good books to read?

I'm a teacher and my advice would be to start recapping as early as possible. In Y10 around Christmas time I would recommend just 1 hour a week (or even less) of recapping what was taught from September onwards.

So many students get to February in Y11, realise its close to exams, start knuckling down, but it's far too late to thoroughly go over 2 years worth of content then

Do small, tiny amount but starting earlier would be my advice. Keep reassuring DD that her best is good enough, that GCSE's are not the be all and end all, and if she is struggling to ask for help (or ask you to) within school.

Good luck to your DD

Quick question for all you lovely parents on here:

For parents evening, obviously we have to report from an academic point of view, would you like to know how your child is doing from a personal point of view too? Or would you just want to know about academic only? (e.g. if they're happy, confident, polite, have lots of friends, well mannered etc.)

optimistic I like hearing 'engaged' and 'contributes well' and 'tries hard' and even 'pleasure to have in my class', but I'd find it weird if a subject teacher started commenting on friendships unless it impacted learning. If I was concerned about friends I'd approach tutor or pastoral support.