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

re grade increase. I guess that depends on what 'current' means, and which subject?

DD2 gets grades for longer tests (mainly 5s at the moment) and if she actually achieves the grades she is currently getting in those in the final exams then I'll be ecstatic:

• there is a world of difference between revising 1 or 2 topics for a test and knowing 10 subjects completely for summer y11.
• on the other hand, I would expect 'question answering technique' to improve, especially for things like English & History.

We will get given 'current prediction' which is 'if they keep working at same pace this is the grade we think is most likely they'll get in the end'.

DS2 sits his GCSEs in 2021. I am using the same revision resources that DS2 used in this summer’s GCSEs. I get DS2 to learn topics, and then he practices relevant topical questions; and checks against the mark schemes. Only issue we have is AQA economics, as no set text book or past papers - so using OCR Textbook.

I would say try and expose your DC to topical exam qns and mark schemes asap. You should be able to get some from subject teachers.

Typo

I am using the same revision resources that DS2 used in this summer’s GCSEs. - I mean DS1

Happy New Year to all parents of y10s.

DD2 is currently in our dining room doing a maths test she missed before Christmas as she was ill. I can hear a lot of despairing moans. Unhelpfully, the test didn't say how long it was, so we have guessed 1 hour as it was due to be done in class.

Happy New Year to you too @TeenPlusTwenties

DS hasn't done much over the festive period, despite the fact he has tests when he goes back.

He has done about 3 hours on Seneca for History over the last couple of days.

He attempted some Biology revision, but then came to me to say that he doesn't really learn anything by reading and making notes and trying to decipher said notes. We realised he could do Biology on Seneca and will start that tonight. He reckons he manages to remember more when he hears it so has asked me to do the work with him (ie, read out the info while he makes flashcards) and then let him do the quizzes. We can then go back to the flashcards and I quiz him on them.

Looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of learning myself over the next 18 months haha!

Hello The slightly depressing bit is when you realise you know the stuff better than they do!

Haha Teen... It is slightly depressing.

I failed GCSE Science back at school, DS did suggest if I was going to help him, I could resit my own GCSE and maybe pass this time 😂

Happy New Year all.

DD has done limited revision but she's had a lot of homework to do, she had a meltdown about maths, her teacher this year is poor and that's a worry as she has been moved up a set and would have this teacher right through now. Her previous teacher built her confidence up so much and it's sad to see her knocked back down, just been speaking to a tutor who is highly recommend in our area and deciding if this is worth it as it's obviously quite a cost

How much HW are your DC getting, and is it consistent across subjects?

DD is getting more or less nothing for Drama, & very limited for Food & Geography. Whereas core subjects plus RE (which most are doing as short course this year but DD is doing as full end y11) are setting more regular homework and more regular tests that obviously need revising for.

On the one hand I'm relieved as DD would struggle with much more, but I am rather anxious, especially regarding Geography.

DS has had to do 1 hour a week on Hegarty Maths.
He's had History homework (on Seneca) at least every other week.
And since September he's had... 3 pieces of English homework (very short pieces), 2 tasks on Educake for Biology along with revision packs over Christmas for that and the other Sciences, and zero Geography homework.

DS doesn’t do any homework at home, so am really unsure how much he gets (I’m not thinking much tbh). He arrives at school 40 mins before school starts, has 15 mins between lessons and an hour for lunch. He would much prefer to not have to work at home at all, so I assume he manages to get it all done somewhere in amongst those times.

Dd1 took last years higher maths paper (that’s what she said it was anyway) as a test before Christmas. She was really disappointed to get a 6 ( I thought it was fine) but she has been getting 7s and 8s in other tests and is predicated an 8 at the end of year 11. She puts a lot of pressure on herself to do well.

Is it possible to get an 8 at gcse if she only got a 6 in that test? She went back through it, and realised she had made quite a few silly mistakes. She had a really stinking cold that week, so probably wasn’t feeling as focussed as usual, but she might have a stinking cold the day she takes her GCSEs.

She’s a hard working girl, but probably didn’t revise as much as she could have for that test.

For the record d be happy with a 6 at gcse as long as she was happy with it, but I know she would be disappointed.

catapillar I'd have thought so, as they will still be teaching syllabus up until Christmas or so next year, so there would be things on the paper she hadn't even learned about yet.

I have parents evening in Feb. I am concerned about my ds subjects in geography, RE , Spanish and Business studies.

They seem to have lots of tests in the sciences, maths, English and computing to make sure they understand the topic but nothing in the other subjects.

Am worried a different technique will need to be learned for geography, RE and Business studies.

Plus a language needs to be tested regularly. My dd is in anothe school and is in year 8 and has approx. 40 vocab. Per week whereas my ds has no vocab tests...slightly concerning since he is in Year 10!

We have to wait until the end of April for parents evening which seems very late - they'll be most of the way through year 10 before we can get a better idea of where they are at!

DD is doing pretty well although revision is still an issue and I have to keep helping her make timetables then nagging her to do a full hour (she tends to do 30 mins then won't do another 30). She is terrible for saying "well noone else is doing it yet" etc etc when her first exams are 4 weeks away so a lot of content to go over in not very long. She had a maths tutor last term who I have booked for the entirety of year 11 for her as she struggles with maths and is currently getting 5's which is fine but I know she can do much better. Science is her very weak point and her teacher assessment in her report was 3 and 4 for combined science. We're signing up to Tassomai today and I'll be getting her to do 20 mins a day.

Art is a bit of a worry at the moment as the workload is huge. For some reason they spent the first half term drawing various things as some sort of weird practice/teacher assessment but none can be used for coursework. Last half term DD did one large piece which is amazing but now she is finished the teachers are saying ok you need fill 50 pages by the end of this school year so get on with it everyone . Maybe say that at the beginning and don't waste 6 weeks on pointless crap? Very frustrating!

I think DD will do ok on her GCSEs but I know if she pushed herself a bit more she could do really well. It's hard to know how involved to get to be honest!

Our parents evening is early March, which I think is quite well timed. Then they have 'year 10 exams' pretty much straight after the Easter holidays.

An hour is a lot to do in one go. Does she get bored? Would either mixing subjects or techniques (eg some revision cards then something online) help do you think?
(DD struggles to do more than 20mins at a time, you have my sympathy.)

With the Art, do you think they wanted to give freedom to explore without the pressure of it being coursework?

Agreed on the hour although once she has done 20 mins or half an hour she seems to give up for the day. I'm so sick of nagging but I'll keep going!

With art - no they all had to draw the same things in the same style. It really did just seem to be a big waste of time. DD is enjoying the coursework much more. They got to choose their theme and DD has gone for culture and diversity. The piece she is about to start is a Japanese lady wearing a very large and intricate headdress which she is doing in oil paint - since she can't do this at home she can get on with doing artist and culture research so hopefully the pages will start to fill up soon!

Titchy Sat down with DS at the weekend and he wants to aim for 1-1.5 hours a night, splitting between 3 subjects.
Started this week and he's found that doing 20-30 minutes on one subject, then doing some Maths and another 20-30 minutes on a different subject seems to work for him. Maths is the subject he finds the easiest so it's less of a slog for him. Would it be worth your DD working the subjects she struggles with round the subject she enjoys the most? We find the Maths breaks it up if you see what I mean.

Eng Lang and Lit are my big worries - especially writing. Getting DS to refresh himself on lower KS3 grammar and vocab. He reads The Guardian for 20 mins in the morning and evening, and ensure he checks meanings of words - he reads on his ipad. Still feels like putting an Elastoplast on a broken leg - but small steps. Any advise welcome on lang/lit.

portico English is my biggest concern too. DD's SPaG has always been 'interesting', though it is improving, and her thinking isn't very 'deep' so she makes quite basic/naïve points. I've outsourced and paid for a tutor because I just don't have the expertise to help.

Language - what is required for each question is taught to them, they just need to do it. Literature - make sure they read/listen to the books, get a DVD of the Shakespeare, know some quotes. Go and see the Shakespeare if you can, and if doing An Inspector Calls go and see that too. I'm wary of film adaptations as they invent things which I think would be misleading.

TeenplusTwenties

I have engaged an Eng tutor, too for DS2.. She is an examiner for the same board. This means nothing to me. DS1 went through two tutors, 2 of them were examiners for the board - all in the space of 12 months.

I just need ds2 to achieve 7s in Lit and Lang. This means improving vocal and grammar first. I used Eng Lang resources from Singapore and India to help in Grammar school prep; same resources are being reused for GCSE.

7s! We are just hoping to get the passes!
Why on earth does he need 7s?

He may end applying for Dentistry, so needs a min of 7s in the Lang and Lit.

… Is it to stay on at same school for 6th form in general, or a specific requirement for chosen A levels, or because aiming high for uni so you think straight 7+ is required?