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.

DD’s plan is to go in to school as usual, bags the big corner table in the library with the comfy swivel chair, use the super fast WiFi, eat lunch (that I’ve paid for...) and have quick access to teachers if she has a sudden brain freeze half way through a mind map.

She reckons that if she was at home alone she’d be tempted by the telly or playing with pets.

DS is doing a lot of work every evening - like 3/4hrs a night. He’s been predicted G8’s and 9’s and I worry he’s purring too much pressure on himself. I can’t knock him for effort though. We go for a 6th form tour this week. He’s staying on a school, it’s a great school and had great A level results last year. They do a lot to help student who want to apply to Russell group uni’s and so I think it’s definitely best option. He agrees so we aren’t looking anywhere else.

Quair it's my understanding there is no break for a timetable clash. School will decide which one is to be sat first then straight on to next for security reasons
This happened to DDs friend- same school- whom much preferred to sit the papers the opposite way round. I may be wrong though,

@quair yes it is why would you assume it isn't? I happen to have been shown on the school website what they produce and they produced a similar doc for PPEs

The PPEs where named so by school but equivalent of Yr10 mocks

Orange because you knew a very small detail about your school's future GCSE support process. It just seemed that the most likely reason was that you had been round the block previously.

It makes no difference either way - I was only trying to get to know each of you.

3 or 4 hours every night at this stage is a lot! I'm trying, without much success, to convince DS2 to do 70 minutes a night.
I dug out DS1's old GCSE timetable and I added up how many hours he did, and then divided that by the time available with the result that if DS does 70 mins a night now, it should mean that he won't have to do 10 hour days in April.

I can't get Ds1 to do any revision! He insists he's ok. I am at a total loss.

And struggling myself. I feel ill, I'm doing a new job 4 days a week, and still doing my old job now 2 days a week.

Quair,
I would very much appreciate seeing the old timetable you pulled out.

Sorry @quair I thought you were questioning my single child status
Perhaps we ought to get everyone to rrintroduce themselves at next thread ?

Oblomov - its nothing special, just 45 minute scheduled sessions followed by a 15 minute break. Typically 3 sessions per night from March onwards and 9 on non-school days. How much time DS could give depended on what homework there was.
I am remaking it now for DS2 and that's why I was looking up the exam dates. If last time is anything to go by, it will get adjusted 1000 times between now and mid-June. From mid-April onwards, school just felt like a nuisance that got in the way of revising!

We are not really getting into timetables proper yet, but ds is doing at least one 30 mins of revision per day on a subject rotation - going through revision books/textbook/watching videos and making up mindmaps. 3-4 hours is a huge amount, darbs: that's one motivated kid you have there! Ds's school haven't started much in the way of revision help yet - there was meant to be a talk on Weds but they've just postponed it... If his friends are to be believed, there's not much revision going on generally as yet. DS is planning to stay on, but we're applying for a couple of colleges just in case - application deadline for one was today which seems really early?

DD has written a very impressive (and multi-coloured) revision timetable for her two week half term. Will be interested to see if anything resembling it gets done..,

DD had a clash. I think there was a small break but not a lot. In my head it was about 20 mins. But it was a few years ago so can’t remember properly. Also she had a bit of a panic attack in the first one on the hall so threw that one as in stopped trying as wanted to be ok for the second so it was a bit of a disaster and I think she might have made it to pass 5 were it not for that.

All these kids revising already is getting me worried!

As I was driving her home from the second birthday party of the weekend last night, dd told me that another benefit to dropping Latin would be she'd still be able to have a good social life! She wants to have a really nice year apparently, as she's planning to leave her current school after GCSEs. This means she can't spend all year working and doing nothing else as she wants to make the most of seeing all her nice friends....

I can see the logic! Hopefully she will also do sufficient revision over the course of the year...

crazycrofter the advice i'm giving DS is sensible but I highly doubt that he'll take it! I think most don't study yet.

However... year 11 as a nice, social year is a very ambitious aim. Who does your DD expect to socialise with from February onwards?

crazycrofter: ds (who is doing less than a few here) is doing more than most if not all of his mates. And I don't think I started revising at this stage in the year and I did ok ;-) I'm encouraging him to crack on as a) his school don't seem to have dialled up the homework yet, so he still has time b) he has an ASD dx, and is prone to anxiety, so I'm hoping that him feeling & being told he is 'ahead of the game' will help - if only a little. Tbh, it's more a psych game for me at the mo than thinking it will make a massive difference, as I assume he'll have forgotten anything he revises now!

Crazy DD isn't revsing for mocks or exams proper as yet-just keeping on top of homework and revision for tests on 'current stuff'. I think she will start after half term for January mocks.
If DD drops Geography now prior to January mocks the extra time won't be spent on her other subjects -just more parties and socialising!
She is going to a huge one this weekend-don't want to think about it tbh.
DD still wants to keep Saturday as her 'down time' day even in the run up to the exams proper and if she plans her time/revision effectively there is no reason why she can't.

DS quite fancies keeping Saturdays free too! I've offered Friday nights as a compromise.

I suspect its going to be hard going to get DS to revise and even harder to convince him to revise the subjects he likes least i.e. English!

Haha, I'm sure she'll find the socialising drops off from Feb/Mar anyway. I'm definitely in favour of her keeping at least one day free a week though until as close to the exams as possible. No one should be working 24/7!

I also feel that GCSEs is just the start... I've heard anecdotally of kids burning themselves out in year 11 and feeling totally demotivated by year 12 when they realise GCSEs are almost forgotten as soon as the results are out and all that matters then are A Levels...

It's a long game and it's good to get everything in perspective. GCSEs aren't that important! I guess if you have a laid back or lazy child that might not be the most helpful message though!

They get a really good long rest after GCSEs. I think DS1 had 10 weeks of doing nothing unless he wanted to in the summer between year 11 and 12.

A levels, IME is learning to quickly stop thinking in terms of "ooh look a new school" and start thinking about what you are going to do at university.

My worry would be more about burn out in year 11 if they work 24/7 now, will they still be able to work hard when in counts next Easter?

I have to agree about burnout, if DS was to do 3/4 hrs of revision after school he would have absolutely no down time at all. Everyone needs downtime IMO. Our mocks are in December and as I said some of the work was done back in year 9. That's the reason we have decided to start now but only 30 mins and for some bizarre reason he hasn't had much homework so far, has me puzzled because for 4 years there has been a steady stream of it

DD spends all of Sunday (8.30 - 7) on her hobby, so we are very firm about focused work being done on both Friday evening and Saturday.

Burnout is,of course, something we all should be aware of and I too wouldn't want DD doing 3/4 hours revision per night at this stage. Not that she would or even could given the level of homework she has currently.
An interesting ancedote from me would be a conversation I had with one of DD's teacher's at parents evening following her Yr10 mocks. They said 'I can not question your attainment grade but will say don't rely on natural ability when you're facing all your subjects at the exams proper'
Wise words for those of us with coasting/ lazy DCs- in certain subjects!
That said, it's early days - in my opinion- in the long game that is GCSE year and a 'healthy balance of work and play' will no doubt differ amongst us and our DC.

*a healthy balance