Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

[indy69]

Good morning Mums,

My DD will start her GCSE journey this September. MN always has such good advice that I thought we could have a new thread to support each other. My DD has 4 options apart from English, Science AQA and Maths Edexcel. She has Art and History - Edexcel, and Psychology and Economics - AQA. It wpuld be lovely to know what your DC are doing and we could share resources here. I look forward to meeting you all on this thread. We have 4 weeks to go to start of term and a ton of homework to finish. My DD is feeling too lazy to do anything at the moment, but I guess they have earned the break. I will start reminding her next week about the work. Thanks

You've just reminded me he has science homework to do before term starts!

DD1 going into year10. No homework or reading done this summer.
She is doing ( as well as English,maths, science) :
French
Spanish
Philosophy and Ethics
Drama
History
And possibly Arabic which she studies but not sure she wants to do a GCSE in, maybe later on.

No study books yet either.

DD2 is going into year 9 so I've got a few busy years coming up

Can I join?

Dd is starting Y10 doing
English x 2
Maths
Double Science
French
Computer Science
Latin
Geography

The only Lit book I know she has is 1984, which no one else has mentioned, which makes me wonder if she is correct!

We used these for the older ones, which were useful for different subjects. Stopped loose sheets from getting crumpled in the bottom of the school bag.

https://www.rapidonline.com/Cathedral-Products-BAGCANBL-A4-Canvas-Zip-Bags-Blue-34-6152?IncVat=1&pdg=pla-301834677750:kwd-301834677750:cmp-757443575:adg-52933089748:crv-208119960428:pid-34-6152:dev-m&gclid=CjwKCAjwnf7qBRAtEiwAseBODmdYMWXTMsC6hTAgiLg6WJCwo-trdV2L1UgJc-Q5r6AFkNGmgfwyRoCW4cQAvDD_BwE

I'm joining too please.
DS chosen options are:
PE
Engineering
Media
Geography
Obviously doing English and Maths and Sciences etc.
No homework has been set!
His attitude to school isn't positive but he seems to be getting a much improved attitude to revising for some of the end of term exams he had. It paid off too so hoping that follows through for the next two years.
I feel a bit helpless in helping him though as the school are not great at communicating when exams are and homework hasn't been regular then they all set loads at the same time!

Going shopping this weekend for stationery etc but just bought DD this as she said some of her friends had them last year and they are very useful www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FWYN8TQ/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8. Will hopefully stop the masses of crumpled up bits of paper at the bottom of DDs bag .

DD has told me studies have shown students work harder if they have really nice stationery they enjoy using.

I'm about to get fleeced.

My DD1 goes into year 10 this year. She’s doing English lit & Lang, maths, further maths, triple science, history, geography, PE.

No holiday homework, no textbooks/book details, but have bought a shedload of stationery and are mid decorating her room to include storage for school books and a new desk!

I like your DD's style Lynette!

Thanks for the thread, and hello to others.

My DD is going into year 10. As well as the core GCSEs (which include ethics) she's chosen Geography, History and Photography, all taken at the end of year 11.

Her DB has just finished year 11. Revision guides were untouched by him () so DD has nabbed those.

DD2 is starting Y10 in September!

She’s doing:
Maths & English obviously
Triple Science/Seperate
French
History
Drama
Spanish

separate*

My emoji re my DS and his untouched revision guides failed to materialise on my post, interestingly much in the same manner as his actual revision. Lots learnt for us too going through this this year.

DD should ace all her exams then if nice stationary is a prerequisite, it looks like a bloody WH Smith's catalogue in her bedroom

Only one tip:

Take their phones off them when they work and when they sleep. You will increase their chances of good grades by 10!!

Dd1 going in to Y10 in September. She’s taking the normal English and maths, and then triple science, history, Spanish and dance BTEC. She started her English literature in Y9, so has already done Macbeth and an inspector calls.

I heard my DD and friends chatting today. Looks like they are already stressing for the GCSEs. I think I need to have a chat about not thinking about exams immediately and panicking. After all they have 2 years to go. On the other hand maths and science exams first week back 🙁

cauliflower very good point re phones. And the laptop...

Joining in too please! Eldest ds starting next week in Year 10 - no idea yet as to timetable, teachers or classmates.
He’s doing 11 gcse’s which scares me, but doesn’t seem to phase him as yet.
2 English
Maths and Further Maths
Geography
German
3 sciences separate
Computer Science
Graphics

No homework during the holidays which is good.

Take their phones off them when they work and when they sleep. You will increase their chances of good grades by 10!!

I'll only do that if DD1 is not doing as well as she ought to be. She has done really well in Y7-Y9 without ever having to regulate her computer or phone use. My approach is always to trust them to be sensible about things first and to not try to fix what isn't broken.

I posted towards the start of this thread, but have a new name, so thought I'd repost and bump for the start of term.

DD2 has gone back today to help the new y7s, and starts back properly tomorrow. It doesn't seem like 3 years ago that she was starting herself.

We are hoping for a few particular teachers that have taught her before and 'got' her, but she knows it's luck of the draw really. A couple of teachers she really didn't want have left since last teaching her.

We have installed a new 'Billy' bookcase with a shelf per subject to try to keep things organised!

My eldest is just starting.

The core subjects are:

English Lit and Lang, Maths, Numeracy, RE, Welsh and Welsh Baccalaureate. The RE and Welsh Bac course are already started in yr9.

She chose Triple Science, Drama and Geography

She still disappointed as she wanted History -but last minute they said it wasn't running she still hopes she might be able to do A-level- and there was no foregin language option right from the start.

In some subjects half the exams are to be sat end of this year which seems very soon especially as she very late summer born child.

Haven't got all the guides yet - I did thanks to seeing this thread earlier keep an eye out over summer in second hand shops or sales but no luck. Oddly the two book shops who have revision guide sections don't have many for main welsh board and having overhead some conversation in summer the staff aren't very clued up about their stock or local exams.

Tri How small a school is it that it can't run a History GCSE? I'm really shocked!

No that small - overall 1800 ish - not sure how many each year but small sixth form.

It's smaller than schools DH and I went to but not by much.

They've had an odd system in DD1 y7-9 only half year doing geography then switch to history and not always with subject teachers. They also had free choice at GCSE for first time - so no streams just list and they had to pick with some limitations then try and timetable. I think it all led to very low take up.

There's a new head and top team and child in year 8 came back with a much more usual timetable - though still over 2 weeks but has history and geography one a week as well as new subject drama. I was trying to work out what had gone from previous year to have more time for these and couldn't.

The lack of foreign language option was teacher shortages apparently.

Sorry not clear on re-reading.

DS now has a history, geography and drama lesson every week where DD1 had no drama ever before this year and both had one lesson a week slot but half the year it was history and half geography.

DD1 loves history is it was quite the blow and they were very late telling us though she should do okay with geography.

DD was back today, very happy with her timetable and teachers.

She had English today and said there is a compulsory speaking part to it which doesn't go towards the GCSE but she will be graded formally for 🤔

She's currently upstairs organising and labelling her folders and seems very enthusiastic, praying this lasts