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.

Thank you that's really helpful

One of my dcs schools is recommending maryglasgowplus.com for MFL but I haven't looked into it yet.

Makes note of date 20th August.

I use all your knowledge on this thread ALOT! I asked ds about his notes and if they were up to date?

Everytime I ask him about anything he assures me that everything is okay. I just can't believe it is?!

Thanks for these tips ! It's sooo helpful !

Both my two use duolinguo for languages as recommended by school- it's a user-friendly way of keeping n top of language skills in quick bursts (it's an app, so you set how much you plan to do each day and it reminds you) - but as others have said I do't think it's driven by GCSE syllabus. DD is currently teaching herself korean on there too! Parents info eve tomorrow night - should be interesting...

Oh, and ds has discovered a fab mind map app which he is loving for his revision notes - he's dyslexic so it's a great way to make more engaging looking notes on the laptop :-)

Just wondering how much homework everyone else is getting. DD is getting three pieces a night at 45 mins each and is expected to go into school at 8am for revision classes twice a week. Revision classes aren't compulsory, but will become so if the girls don't show up . Seems a bit full on !

DS has started his Computer Science NEA (the one that they have to do but which doesn't count towards the grade).

He doesn't appear to have much homework. Certainly less than an hour a day, including revising for tests.

My DD is getting a couple of pieces a night. She’s doing business b tech (gcse) which is mostly coursework.... she’s getting that most nights.

Definitely more than last year as homework was always quite light. Maybe 10 pieces last week in 3 x 12 mark questions. Nothing like as much as some schools though. We have mocks the week before half term so doing about 10 - 12 hours a week revision at the moment

2-2.5 hours work here after school. Some times all homework/coursework, sometimes all revision, sometimes half and half.

Lots of sporting commitments at the weekend, though, so perhaps she targets school work during the week?

I like the fact that Kingscote School Staff posted just below Esther Frewen ...!

DS swims a lot so having to cut down on that now. He did well in end of year 10 exams so am trying to keep him focused for the steady slog of revision. More mocks after Xmas I think.

DD has lots of sport as well. We are cutting it down over winter to give her a bit of a break.

DD’s mocks aren’t until February. That doesn’t feel like a lot of time to work on areas that are highlighted as problematic.

DD school have sent a letter saying they should be doing approx 10 hours total of homework and self study a week this term. This seems to be inline with what she is doing.
DD has also been using the Duolingo app for French. I think it’s quite good as it keeps sending notifications if you haven’t done it each day!

Hi all,

It's hard balancing homework and revision. It's even harder sometimes trying to work out what is homework task vs revision task.

Lots of overwhelm here and the dreaded fear of failure has reared it's ugly head. Dd kind of just shuts down . We've signed up for academic coaching sessions so not tutoring in specific subjects but covering stuff like motivation , time management etc. I feel we have just got stuck in this circle of negativity and we need outside influences.

Not sure how much can say about it due to mn rules but will let you all know how we get on. If we break out of the circle!

OrangeCinnamon
Hope she finds it helpful. If it's good, it could give her tools that would be useful beyond GCSE study.

DD struggled today. In several of her lessons she was so stressed that she was not able to do any work at all. She brings the work home with her and does it in her own time, but this then adds to her already significant evening/weekend workload. I've asked her what it is that makes her so anxious, but she says there are too many things to list.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Thanks Silverhill.

The advice given tonight to tackle the overwhelm was step by step so we have to concentrate on two things next week. One of them doing homework to best of ability.

Could the school help with some perspective/prioritisation for you do you think. They are not helpful when they seem to be throwing everything at them these past weeks.

My dd keeps getting given out to by Spanish teacher nothing she does pleases her.
The teacher rang me one day last year just after my mum died and started ranting at me about homework.
My dd really tries her best with Spanish and I check if she has completed her homework so this teacher has nothing to complain about but she still finds something.
My dd asked her form teacher if she could move to a different teacher but he said it is not an option the only thing she can do is drop the subject and this is her only foreign language.
She enjoyed Spanish to she got this teacher and wanted to do it as an A level subject.
Any advice welcome.

They are not helpful when they seem to be throwing everything at them these past weeks.

Individually by subject the demands seem sensible and proportionate. Some of the stuff they are being asked to do overlaps with what DD has been doing already in her own time, e.g. organising notes, making sure there are no gaps, creating revision materials.

What concerns me is the accumulative effect as Y11 goes on. If the Maths teacher says "You should be doing 30 minutes of Maths every day" and the English teacher says "You need to spend 15 minutes every day learning quotes in addition to homework" and the science teacher says "Spend 10 minutes every day learning definitions of key words" and the MFL teacher says "You should be spending 20 minutes every day testing yourself on vocab" and the humanities teacher says "You need to spend 2 hours every weekend making mindmaps on each topic" then DD is the sort of person who will take that literally, and add it on to her homework, the revision she had planned herself, and the catch-up work from times when she was too anxious in lessons to work.

mcmen05 I think I would speak to the Head of Year at this point. Explain the issues DD having with this teacher and say you are very worried about how it is negatively impacting DD with a tough year to get through and ask if they could have a quiet word with the teacher. I’d go for the ‘I’m so sorry t make a fuss but having left it for a long time hoping it would naturally resolve it hasn’t and I can see the effect it’s having on DD so I thought i’d Have a quiet word with you and see if you could gently intervene ‘ and see what happens.

Just my view and I’m sure others will have other thoughts.

Silverhill do the school help at all ? My friend’s Dd struggled with anxiety in year 11, she was High achieving and put herself under huge pressure - worked so much her back seized up and she couldn’t move from being bent over at one point.

The school were apparently very good and worked with her to manage things. I can’t remember what exactly but due to his his dyslexia at one point he supposed to have hand outs from each teacher of things from whiteboard each lesson. He s isn’t need it but i’m Wondering if something like that could be helpful for your DD so that if she does freeze she has an outline to work from and help her catch up?

Went to see HoY today. Intervention lessons (ie revision lessons) have already started this week for a few subjects. Will gain momentum.

Mocks in November.

Apparently his current teachers are all pleased. I'll get a 1/2 termly email of his progress.

Sounds good. I'm satisfied.

I am shocked at how many hours of homework/revision/call-it-what-you-will : your dc are already doing! And the pp who said school had emailed to say 10!

I think Ds1 is only doing a few currently!

PostNotInHaste
That's a good idea. I will ask.

DD is the same Silverhill - it all adds up to impossible.

I've started to tell her to knock 5 to 10 minutes off each request to make it more manageable.

My fear is it will only get worse, and I will email head of pastoral care about it if does. Next week we're going to write it all down and see what it adds up to and and start managing it that way. If it looks bonkers then I'll send a to summary to school and ask for their advice on how to avoid burnout.