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.

The right balance will be different for different individuals, but I think it's important to pace themselves. Best not to start at a sprint now, nor to leave everything until the last minute.

I'm worried about burnout. DD is currently sick in bed and so stressed about the amount of work she's doing, plus early morning revision.

I've cut down on her sport, to give her a chance to 'breathe' and have some down time. She's still doing enough but I think I'll be getting in touch with school again as she does nothing but work every night, and that combined with the early morning revision lessons is just too much.

Your poor DD Wheres. Apologies if I missed whether the work load is school-driven, DD's drive or a mix of both, but wish you all the best in getting it all back under control.

Wheresthebeach
Although it's horrible for your daughter that it has come to this, I think it's better that you are aware now, rather than in six months time.

In Y10 DD was asked by the school to keep a log for two weeks of the time she spent on homework / studying. (This was useful for her and the school as it showed up that half of her time was being spent on one single subject). If the school doesn't seem receptive, perhaps it would be useful for your DD to do something similar, to provide evidence that this level of workload is not sustainable or healthy.

Sometimes in Y11 the teachers (who are themselves under pressure) forget that their subject is only one of many, and they each give revision work that would seem reasonable for that individual subject, but accumulates to too much when all the subjects are added together.

Wheresthebeach the poor lass! She really should not be under so much pressure at this point in time. I would be having words at school.
The early morning revision classes-are they in prep for mocks and if so when is sitting them?

Hope your DD feels better soon Wheresthebeach. You are right Silverhill sometimes the teachers forget their subject is only 1 of many!

Hope you can help your dd to cut back Wheresthebeach (or put pressure on the school). Dd's history teacher used to set the most ridiculous amount of homework each week, but some of it was writing notes on the next topic, which they'd then go over in the next lesson. We told dd to leave that and just do the notes in the lesson and the teacher agreed that was ok at parents' evening. Dd feels her notes aren't as good now as she struggles to keep up with the teacher, but something had to give.

Def school pressure, which is odd as they go on about balance, mental health etc etc. I've just called time on work tonight under the 'enough is enough' heading.

Silverhill think that's a good idea, maybe if they see it in black and white it will register. I think part of the problem is DD is doing it all, rather than letting some subject slip. Mind you there is talk of detention if work isn't handed in on time so that just adds to her stress.

Mocks are January...so a fun filled Christmas! I hope that she does well on the first set of tests, and then maybe she'll listen to the 'you can't do everything they are asking, something has to give'.

Those are really good points you make, Silverhill and the log idea is an excellent one.

I am not exactly laid back about GCSEs! I think every single mark is worth fighting for and, if you choose your A levels wisely, this is the last moment in your education where you have to perform in subjects that you have no interest in and/or or you are weak at so it's worth a bit of effort before you drop it forever. It's also the first and last time that you will ever be compared nationally to everyone else born the same year as you. So, it's worth a bit of effort, but not to the point where your physical or mental health is put at risk.

Having felt aligned with the school since reception and having consistently encouraged your child to do as the teacher asks for a decade, it is an odd sensation to start drawing a line and begin pushing back. However, if the teachers are combining to (perhaps inadvertently) put too much pressure on your child, or even if your child is doing it to themselves, then as a parent you owe it to your child to look at the holistic picture and protect them.

I’d do the log thing Wheres and speak to the school. Seen a lot of DC go through GCSE and learned damages limitation the name of the game for some. It was for my DD.

I said on the thread at end of year 10 that a local lad killed himself over the summer, he was a little older than ours but not by that much. He is the third to do so over the last few years here and it has hammered home to me the importance of mental health. The lad this year was the son of a friend. Very sadly he only told his Mum how he was feeling the night before, she had no idea before that. Sorry to introduce something so depressing but it has shocked and saddened me beyond words, it’s something that before I’d read about in the paper , you never think it will happen to someone in your circle but it has.

PostNotInHaste That's truly awful! His poor mother.

It does feel like teen suicides suddenly become a topic in the GCSE year, and it does feel like its bad but its somewhere else. I mean, GCSEs are important but they are far from the be all and end all whether you are a future PhD or destined to get a slew of 1s and 2s or anything in between.

There is way to much fuss made about GCSE's, more so since AS levels have been dropped and now the talk is that Universities are looking at GCSE's.

I'm going to do the log thing, and then get DD to stop work on each piece of homework after the allotted 45mins.

Thanks everyone.

When does GCSE timetable come out.

wheresthebeach Good!
Also, I would compare the log to your DD's homework timetable.DD's homework timetable equates to 13.5 hours per week with strict instructions from her school if she is spending more time than that to alert them if the fact!
Given your DD is sitting mocks in January as is my DD, I would question why her school has scheduled early morning revision classes- seems too full on to me
mcmen05 The exam boards have published when the 'exams proper' are and Quaire has provided a link to what are most likely the main boards.
That said, DD's school provide an individual timetable after January mocks as there is often 'a change in direction '.

• homework and Quair - serious need to visit certain 'spectacle provider moment

I had a HUGE argument with Ds1. He was sobbing, asking me to stop and telling me I was totally stressing him out!

Hoy contacted me about detention, being late to lessons and not attending school revision lessons which have already started.

I also said I couldn't see any revision being done. No revision timetable (as per Quair and my previous posts to her).

He has done one of the online assessments and said it was rubbish. I said he wasn't open minded and hadn't given it the respect it deserved.

He has a careers meeting st school in a month and has done nothing towards it: no going into the 6 websites they suggested, no filing out the questionnaire. Just a shit attitude.

Dh isn't even speaking to him atm.

He's been incredibly rude to me for weeks now.

I'm so fed up. Good job I'm off to Dubrovnik with the girls for a long weekend because he's hacking me right off!

@Oblomov19 would he like a pen pal? Or maybe we can ship them both off to a desert island til July.

My DS has been quite nice to me since I told him I had deleted the homework app from my phone and was going to have no input at all into it. I'm just sick of the shouting and tears and threats. He could do very well if he made any effort but he doesn't care about school or exams and doesn't see the point. He should pass Eng Lang and Maths without too much trouble and if he ends up with only 2 GCSEs it will be him that has to live with it. His future goals are a plumbing apprenticeship and college one day a week. But not fussed about finding anyone to take him on. Thinks it will fall into his lap. All he cares about is playing football, FIFA, and watching YouTube videos. If only PlayStation wrote exam papers

Can I join you all :) School sent the GCSE timetable for next year this morning and the November Mocks so it all seems very real now! No 6th Form at his School so it will probably be 6th Form College to do Maths, Physics, Graphics and possibly Further Maths, he has wanted to be an Architect for years. Unfortunately he couldn't do Graphics at GCSE as it clashed with triple science so he's a little worried he won't get to do that at A Level.

Revision isn't going great, he finds anything else to do other than school work My other DS is in 3rd year at Uni but lived with his Dad through GCSE's so it feels like my first time. DS's School is quite academic and does a lot of tests/mocks and he is doing okay but is probably cruising a little too much, he's started to not enjoy school, he seems to have outgrown it so I think College will be really good for him - just need to get him there! It's just me and him at home and we get on great so hopefully he will be okay - difficult to know how much to push them though.

Does anyone have issues with this thread not being in your watch/ I'm on area? It's really annoying as I have to then hunt it out!

A month into year 11 and I feel a bit like I'm losing the will to live really. DS has done no revision, has attended 2 after school clinics ( out of about 12!) and just doesn't seem motivated. It doesn't help that he's got problems with a girl in school .

Now we're on to looking at college / A Levels. He's predicted mainly 7's and 8's ( apart from English which is a 6+). We just can't work out how many A levels he should be taking? His strongest subject is Maths and he particularly enjoys Physics and Geography. Anyone know anything about Further/ double maths?

It all just feels a bit overwhelming

I think if you don't post for a couple of weeks threads fall off your TIO. I dip in and out of several longer term threads like this one and have found it happening, its annoying.

Have you been to any college open days? The subject staff should be able to advise about choices and combinations. I agree about it all being a bit overwhelming but I feel more on top now having been to a few open events.

School sixth form opening evening next month and also booked to go to the college open evening in December. parents evening this month which seems early as it’s normally much later in the school year.
@PandaPaws99 your post about PlayStation exam papers made me laugh!

DD went to her school 6th form taster day last weekend, and has an open morning at DS's school tomorrow.
She's planning to apply for a drama scholarship at one school and an adversity scholarship at the other; applications have to be in by the end of next week, so she's going to have to get cracking on a personal statement this weekend.

Her present school is so rubbish at communicating, I have no idea when we would need to confirm any offer of a place or when we'd have to give notice to leave. Nor do I know what happens if she gets an offer but doesn't get the required grades; we've said that if she doesn't get the grades needed for A level choices, she may have to think again about whether A levels are the right path for her.

There's maths and then there's further maths.
Some sixth forms teach maths A level in year 12, then you sit the exam at the end of year 12 and start on further maths in year 13.

Other sixth forms teach the two together in 1.5 of teaching time (so each A level only get 0.75 contact time). Not wonderful, but it's a valid response to squeezed budgets and difficulty in finding teachers who know enough to teach A level maths.

Some schools say that if you want to do FM, then you have to do 4 A levels, because some uni courses say that you can only count one of Maths and FM in your application. However, uni maths courses insist on FM and then they just want one other A level, and they really could not care less about the 4th.

So, how many you do depends on what you want to do at uni and whether you want to retain the flexibility to decide maths isn't for you after all.

A good rule of thumb is if you aren't good at algebra (i.e. if you don't find it easy) then don't look to do Maths A level and definitely don't try to do FM. A lot of people get 8s in Math GCSE without really getting to grips with Algebra, and then they struggle in year 12. So look beyond the grade.

Many sixth forms start on 4 A levels, irrespective of whether FM is in the mix and then drop to 3.

I forgot to add, some schools even teach maths and FM like two separate subjects with double the time they'd give to just Maths A level. This is the ideal, but not always what is on offer.

Thanks @Quair