Starting Yr11 Gcses 2020 Support Thread [Edited at OP's request]

[OrangeCinnamon]

A continuation of a Year 10 support thread
previous thread

Last thread was great and supportive as some of us tried to navigate year 10 and some very helpful peeps steered us through.

Joining if I may!
DD is a stresshead and works very hard. She’s been revising all summer as she has all her science mocks starting Monday! Not very fair I think. Also a massive history exam so lots to do!

Welcome MrsElijahMikaelson1, that’s tough mocks already. I think DS is worried about the level of content in history.

It is a bit. She has a tutor for French as MFL provision at her school is so bad-her tutor says that since they stopped the AS level, they have pushed most of the content of that down to the GSCE’s

Just checking in again. After the first week back: I say that, he only started Thursday.

Ds1 = bright, but 'bare minimum'. We got him a desk in his bedroom.

I've seen less x box playing recently, but he actually hasn't unplugged it totally, as promised.

He's dropped football now, doing lots of boxing, working on his fitness to get into the Army marines (which apparently is the elite of fitness to even get in!)

He is also Working in a fish and chip shop Friday and Saturday night 5-7pm. last night he went to a party 7.30-11, after his shift at the chip shop. I picked him and his mate up who came for a sleepover. Friend left early to go and play football, Ds1 is now gone off to boxing yet again:

sounds like a social life of Riley: yes, I see minimal work being done.

is everybody's child revising? I asked DS one about how much homework could be done and how much revision and he said there was no homework any more it was all revision I'm yet to see much being done

we have mocks soon so then I'll have some grades and some predictions and some actual ammunition to attack him with ! and say you know this just isn't good enough!

unfortunately he is in a quite bright and he's doing well - he could do a lot better!

I'm cross at all the other schools particularly on this thread and many of my friends dc who are already sat one or two GCSEs. Our school do not do any so DS1 has all of his to come. and that makes me very cross.

I hope he'll get good enough grades because he is at our local school (although it is catholic - I'm not catholic - Dh's family is ) and it's excellent, one of the top ones,

all his friends are very bright, nice family, do loads of sports, (these youngsters got everything going for them and they don't seem to appreciate how good they have got it )

and maybe I just need to relax !

and let him get on with it.

he seems to be absolutely convinced that he is going to be alright and will be able to get a good enough grades to stay on at this school, Ie he is easily going to get into 6 form and do A-levels!!

We'll see!!

DS did about 8 hours work in the last couple of days of the holidays and that was it for the summer. No revision or even revision timetable in sight.

He has though done a couple of pieces of homework this weekend which is progress as last year he would have left it to the night before due in. Played sport for school yesterday and club today. That will continue all year unless Dec mocks are dreadful.

DD homework from school seems to have doubled!! She has squeezed in a bit of revision too. She’s got English speaking next week.

When will you all start looking at 6th forms/colleges?

My DS has started writing up some revision cards. His mocks are December I think. I’ve bought him loads of GCSE revision books. I’m not imposing any restrictions / timetables etc, he’s predicted good grades and is so very competitive which is good but I fear he might end up with too much pressure on himself. He’s in a football league - so practice one and games Saturday but also in a 5 a side so match Friday night. Thankfully he doesn’t go out anywhere with friends - but he does play PS4.

DDs homework has doubled too!
No revision as yet as did end of Yr10 mocks.
She did language vocabulary consolidation over the summer as she is sitting 3 language GCSEs.
She will most likely stay a current school although does want to look at two others both of which will mean entrance examinations in January. First open day is at the end of this month and other is early October.

DS has started revision notes on Y10 Geog yesterday so 1 hr on revision and 6 hrs gaming on the PC. Reversing the proportion of hours spent at the weekend is already proving to be a battle. To be fair, he doesn't have the time Mon-Thurs for any PC gaming so the battleground is Sat/Sun.

Today, 1 hr on Geog and after some shouting, another 1 hr on English - watching Mr Bruff videos and making some notes. I pointed out that I wouldn't be nagging him so much if he had made the effort in the first place for his Y10 exams (far from stellar!)

Extra curriculars are music (Fri pm), DoE volunteering (Sat am) & French tuition (1hr midweek).

I've started on the wine at 3pm. It's going to be a looong 10 mths.

DS hasn't started any revision at all! His school set a fair bit of homework over the holidays which he's pretty much completed (back to school tomorrow).

Anyone fancy joining me on a remote island for the next 9/10 months?!

I've always fancied the Maldives @namechanged how many air miles you got ?

Ah, could probably stretch to the Isle of Wight @OrangeCinnamon ? Will that do?

That's ok I get a good discount on the foot ferry have to sit in the middle though as I get seasick

I haven’t got any air miles so stuck here !

Year11mummy we’ve gone through and all the open days fir 6th form on calendar (mostkynOct/Nov) and DS booked onto a taster day at one. He definitely won’t be staying at current school.

Good morning! Hope it’s okay to join up.

Ds1 has just started year 11. They set a GCSE a year early (short course RE) and got their results last week. He got a 5, apparently 3 marks off a 6, was predicted 6+ and I think/hope is now realising the importance of revision.

He works about 6 hours a week (some of that is term time only), has a music lesson, a climbing lesson and does Explorers. I will read the whole thread later today to see if I can se what everyone else’s children do about extra curricular activities this year. It feels like a lot (Explorers means he helps at the local Cub pack, plus he wants to start his DOE Silver too this year with Explorers).

Can we go today? I think the sooner the better.

Is there a long term stay option available? DS2 has just gone into year 9 and started his GCSEs....and DS3 goes into year 6 this time next year.

Morning! Autumn - mine has been considering his extra-curricular activities carefully. He has a long school day (home at 4.45 or 6 if he stays to homework/study skills club). Last year he did hockey, 2xfootball team, climbing, Explorers, youth club and DofE bronze which included being a Young Leader at Cubs. He also has SENs. He found it all a little much at times last year so although he loved DofE he has decided to leave silver and pick it up in y12, either through Explorers or 6th form. He also thinks he might stop climbing at Christmas and he is going to do 2 out of 3 of football, hockey and Explorers each week (necessitated through changes to training session times). So that means Monday free, hockey/football/Explorers on Tue/Wed, also climbing straight from school on Tue, Thur free, Fri youth club 8-9, Saturday free and football on Sunday (3-6 with travel). This still sounds like a lot, but the nature of his SNs means that sport is hugely beneficial, also that he doesn't have matches, just training, also its his social life, his school friends are widely scattered and he doesn't do gaming/social media.

Joining in.
I'm in awe of all these teenagers working over the summer holidays, giving up activities voluntarily, writing revision plans and talking about their long-term plans!!
Mine did nothing academic over the summer at all....files stayed in his school bag and went back the same way.
He's a boarder so I have no input/information as to what work he's doing in the evenings/weekends. I do know that he plays a lot of sport and music though as both a sports and music scholar. Plus doing further maths and music tech as extras. Plus music theory. Plus one-to-one coaching sessions for his sport and normal training sessions too.
We're going away for five days over half-term, then his mocks are in Nov, so not convinced he'll have time to revise anything over the holidays. I'm just assuming the school is aware of their busy timetable as this is the norm for the school, and will be sorting the academic side. By the standards of this thread I am a very uninvolved parent indeed! Now I'm worried I should be more anxious.

Dd didn't do very much at all over the holidays. Now she's back, the homework load has started up again. She does get a lot and she's been complaining that it leaves her no time to revise. I'm trying to get her to treat it as revision, so she learns as she goes along.

We'd agreed that she wouldn't do dance this year, freeing up an hour and a half on a Monday evening and the stress of the production week, when they're almost at school 24/7. But she's decided that instead she's going to audition for the school musical - which will involve exactly the same commitments! Hopefully she won't get in :)

She already does singing lessons, D of E silver (so a physical activity once a week, yet to be decided, and volunteering on a Sunday), youth groups on Friday nights and Sunday nights and fortnightly Saturday (3 completely different groups!), paper round on Saturday and church on Sunday morning. Plus she's very sociable, always having sleepovers on Saturday nights and meeting friends in town Saturday daytime.

It's too much as she's not a quick worker, she takes ages to get down to her homework and ages to get through it. On the other hand, she's incredibly extrovert and loves all her youth groups, and the D of E expeditions and the other socialising. I know she'd be miserable if she was just in her room studying all the time! (and it wouldn't happen anyway!)

I'm thinking she should just give a few things up for a short window, maybe March onwards, so it doesn't feel so bad?

By the standards of this thread I am a very uninvolved parent indeed!

I'm like this also Takeittotheboss and have bouts of thinking I should be worrying more. DD does a lot, and her aim is to keep things going without dropping anything. She has the added distraction of a 13 day small group school trip end of sept (though BA has other ideas!) and we will be away for most of xmas break to come back into mocks in Jan. And not dropping easter training camp, as she has seen that most of her predecessors have managed to keep training up alongside achieving decent results in both GCSE and A/IB.

I have my fingers crossed that she continues to work fast and manage the juggling, it's just how she's used to operating and whilst I would like her to do well in her mocks, I am trying to add the extra reassurance that that is exactly what they are - an indicator and therefore still time for correction if needed, albeit not much! I would be lying if I didn't admit internally I am not sure if she needs to be reigned in a little, but at the same time I want her to have control over her schedule so she doesn't come out with this year being all about exams alone. We'll see....

DD has had to hit the ground running on her return to school - she had a history test first day back, English speaking exam sometime this week, physics equations test this week, Latin translation test on the Virgil, and 2 geography essays due in.

She doesn't socialise at all during the week (her school is 35minutes away with a large catchment area) and only has school choir, singing lessons and a drama group as extra curricular; she opted out of the school production this term as it takes every spare minute.
I'm glad she's not having to juggle lots of things but feel a bit sad that she might be missing out on the usual teen social stuff ( she has a close group of friends but none of them local, so they only meet up in holidays and the odd weekend).

DS admitted at the end of last year (his predicted grades based on where he was at the end of Year 10 were a huge shock to him) that he thinks it's time for me to nag a bit more (having spent the last few years objecting to anything remotely resembling nagging).

He wants to go on and study A levels and has realised this isn't possible on his current trajectory. He sat down and wrote out the grades he would like to get. They are all at least one and in quite a few cases 2 higher than current predicted grades - but should be possible if he just put some work in!
Having assured me he was going to put lots of work in, he has done precisely nothing so far. Plan for this week is to write out the weeks to mocks (he has 2 sets in Nov and Feb/Mar) and come up with a revision plan. Hopefully, having said he wants more nagging, he will be amenable to this.

Forgot to say, having dithered about his silver DofE for the whole of last year (he only did the expedition which was school organised, and the skill -which was an activity he was doing anyway) he has now started on the volunteering and physical sections. I'm hoping this proactivity is a good sign ...

I am getting major inferiority complex reading about how some DDs and DS have worked or revised in summer holidays.

DS did only the minimum revision that his teachers asked him to revise during holidays. That too in a few subjects, not all of them

He decided to quit private Violin lesson. He used to do a 45 min lesson and had to miss a lesson for doing this. He simply decided to quit because he doesn't want to miss any lesson .

We had cut down on Playstation time, but he doesn't stay away from phone , even peeps on phone during studies. I don't want to snatch it , will wait n watch.

Life was so easy before these distractions of Gaming and phone.