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

Argh, my phone had gone doolally and posted before I finished.
Started

I'm giving up typing, sorry people... Ignore my mentalness 🙈

DD froze in a Chemistry test today.
She said there were too many words and too many numbers.

Hi please can I join this thread....ds started year 10 this year, September ...eek time seems to fly by!

Hello,
I have found out that year 10 doing gcse Eng Lang early. At parent's eve I did express disapproval as lowest predicted grade for ds at 6 plus.
I think for ds a 7 is in his reach but he is lazy with spelling and grammar and what is more doesn't seem to give a toss about it!
He is, at this moment, in his PJs, horizontal allegedly looking up 'stuff' re Eng Lang.
In his mixed ability class I feel concentration going on the 3/4/5 kids and he will have to self motivate or I will have to push a bit for him to do his best.
Ooh- he has shot up. He says there maybe something online he can revise/ work from. I watch with interest!
Any advice appreciated...
Mocks coming up for paper one AQA- what fun!

Dinky 'Mr Bruff'. (apparently is very good).

Thank you.
Will check it out now and email it to him!

Mums,

We have our first parent evening tomorrow. What questions should I be asking the teachers? Thanks in advance

I only do 3 questions at most per subject, most likely will be e.g.:

• are they working hard / participating
• any particular areas to work on
• are you expecting foundation or higher tier (if relevant)
• for Geography I might want to ask 'how can I work out what of all the content is the key stuff' ('cos it isn't obvious to me)
• for English - will you be taking them to see performance of their Shakespeare play
• are there any booster sessions that DC might have 'forgotten' to mention
• is the school going to provide subsidised revision guides

Sometimes I want to raise issues:

• disruptive behaviour by others
• sometimes pace a bit fast
• struggling with practicals

I always ask DD ahead of parents evening if she has any issues in the class.

Thanks Teen
It went well in all subjects mostly predicted a 7 at the end of year 10 if she continues to work as of now. Some subjects say she can achieve a 8 and 9 so fingers crossed that is doable. Teachers were very encouraging so I was happy.

That's great indy we don't have parents evening till the end of March although DD said that apparently we are being emailed predicted grades next week?

She just seems to be having test after test at the moment, but she seems to be doing well especially in History, Physics and Business. We ordered through her school the science and maths revision books and I picked up the English ones in the summer, she said that she finds mind maps and revision cards the most helpful way of revising.

Have also just heard that her Head is leaving in the summer which is really disappointing as she is just fantastic and I have a younger DD still to go to the school.

Have just got back from the orthodontist with her which is proving a bit difficult as because of what she has wrong with her teeth she is under a London hospital and you can't choose appointments so we have to take what we are given, she missed double maths today and going forward I'm a bit worried as we have to go every six weeks.

Hope everyone else is getting on ok?

Uncomfortable You may find the 'every 6 weeks' can be a bit flexible. With a bit of jigging around to 7/8 weeks you hopefully can get at least some appointments in half terms/holidays.
(DD1 had her teeth done at hospital and it was a right pain, compared with DD2's local treatment.)

indy Glad parents evening went well, ours isn't until March.

Teen I've been trying to jiggle all year
Just tried to get her next appointment in the Xmas hols and no luck. Very frustrating.

That's a real pain for you. DD1's all had to be Monday afternoons, which at least meant she only missed 1 lesson at a time.
With DD2 we can book whenever, (which for us means PE / ICT). We should be on the last leg for her as she's been having treatment since start y8.

It really is, clinics are Monday and Tuesday and I only have Tuesday off work so Mondays it is for now, she would like a Wednesday morning as that's double P.E.

Treatment could be another 3 years for her she's already in the second year of treatment and 4 years since she was referred, its a long slog. Looks like DD2 will be following the same route so that'll be fun.

Hi everyone, can i join?
My dd is dyslexic, in yr 10, doing eng/maths/science/ RE, with french history and music. She found choosing options quite a process, as she’d have liked to keep up more practical subjects. Unfortunately the school is very keen on ebacc, so she only had one free option.

I’m relieved she is not going to be doing further maths, as we both feel her timetable is full enough already and some concern about her exam timetable come May 2021, as she finds exams incredibly stressful. Fortunately her extra time has now been confirmed.

Has anyone had world challenge or similar (where you fundraise to go abroad on a project/ hike )come into school ? It looks so amazing but so much to raise whilst doing GCSEs

Great to go off and do something amazing when the GCSEs are over though!

DDs school do this trip, it's to Zanzibar. It looks bloody amazing however she has a severe nut allergy and it wasn't managed particularly well on the last trip she went on. Some of this trip looks fairly remote so we've decided against it.

I agree it's an awful lot of fundraising across 2 such important years but still I imagine a fabulous experience.

Our school does a Kenya Trip.
DD isn't doing it because
a) she doesn't want to go so far away for such a long time
b) she wouldn't be much help on physical projects as not very coordinated or strong
c) wouldn't have the bandwidth for fundraising
d) we've been to S.Africa as a family

Getting a bit fed up of assessments here. They started the week before half term and have been going on so long now we are round to repeat subjects with a 2nd Biology assessment!

Wanted to mention something re Seneca.

DD's school have signed them up to Seneca for Science. But I have discovered they have also given us access to other courses as well. (I don't know if that is normal when schools do it or not).

In particular, for anyone who is doing Food Preparation and Nutrition with Eduqas/WJEC, the CGP revision guide is inconsistent with the spec, but the Seneca stuff seems to follow the spec.

@Teen does your DD do 3 year GCSE's? DS only seems to have the KPI assessments at the end of topics, he definitely hasn't had weeks of assessments. His friend message him before half term asking for help with Physics (his friend does 3 year GCSE's at a different school) and DS laughed and said he'd only done 6 weeks of the course, so would help next year haha!

hellohah Yes and no!

They started the science syllabus at the start of year 9. They got a surprising amount done but they seem to be re-covering now and filling in bits that were 'too hard' last year. (They have also changed teachers and sets for going into y10). So biology they had assessment on Section 1 Key Concepts before half term, and then Section 2 Cells&Control this week.

RE they started last year but most are doing half RE at end y10. DD isn't because she is doing full course, but is just preparing for test on Islamic beliefs for core RE having recently done 'Religion and Life' with her options RE.

Other things like Eng Lit, Geography, Food only started this term but she has had an assessment in each of them.

The assessments aren't full on, but there always seems to be 1 or 2 or 3 to be preparing for so it's dragging on a bit.

I'll have to have a look at Seneca as DD uses that for science too and always has.

We too have had 3 year science and RE but like Teen sets were changed in Year 10 and they have gone over a lot of the stuff they covered last year.

DD just has test after test I think she's just got used to it now!

Yes, hats off to any young people with the spare time/ energy to do the fundraising!

I have heard other families complaining about how they could all just have chipped in for the trip, as it was always the same family members sponsoring the child for x activity, supporting the cake sale etc etc.
There’s also the extra costs with passports immunisations etc. I think it’s unrealistic for us on a number of different levels.

Not sure what assessments have been happening... think they might stick to the same regime as KS3 (modular testing every term). Which I have found a bit much, but perhaps at this stage it starts to make sense.

Our school don't seem to do Seneca for science; is it something you can subscribe to as an individual?

Am I being a good mum or a bad mum?

I sent DD in to school today nearly in tears because she felt sick.
But She has had blips of feeling sick on school days since about June this year which then don't come to anything (ie not sick). There doesn't seem to be a pattern yet (food, periods, lessons) that I can establish. She was sent home lunchtime on Mon, did all day Tue though feeling sick, but came home and ate stuff, then this morning.

So not wanting her to miss lessons I sent her in with note this morning. She went straight to medical room so they rang me, I explained situation, she's at school now but tbh I'm expecting a call at break or even after p1. I'm only 5 mins away so can pick her up easily.

What would your approach be?

I think I need to get her to keep a food diary as maybe there is a pattern that I've just not spotted.

Tricky, did she manage the day? Are you sure it's not an issue at school? Does it happen in the holidays too or just when she's at school?

If she's not actually being sick then she needs to try to go in, may be worth checking nothing else is going on medical wise. DD gets horrible nausea the week before her period.