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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Reluctant teen & GCSE revision

22 replies

lovelylegs2019 · 19/09/2019 18:41

Help! I have Y11 teenager who will just not consider doing starting any of their GCSE reversion. Didn’t do anything over the summer even we tried encouraging, bribing & various other ways of trying to support them! School have rung twice this term saying normal homework not being done either even tho we have asked them to get on with it - what ways have other parents used to get their kids started!?! Thanks

OP posts:

mrscampbellblackagain · 19/09/2019 18:44

Does your teen have mocks soon? Mine has his after October half term but is struggling to revise as he has a long school day and at least 2 hours prep a night.

I would focus on getting prep done as a priority - could he stay and do it at school? Is he focusing on what he wants to do longer term?

BananaBooBoo · 19/09/2019 18:48

To be honest it's up to them at this age, you can't study for them. As much as we might like too. I provided encouragement., food, regular outings and left her to it. All went well!

GreekOddess · 19/09/2019 18:49

We must share a son

I feel your pain. Mine is adamant that he is staying on to study for A levels but doesn't seem to get that he isn't going to magically boost his grades by another 2/3 grades in most subjects unless he actually starts working!

ILiveInSalemsLot · 19/09/2019 18:54

Ask him -
Does he know what he wants to do in the future?
What are his plans if he fails all his GCSEs?

Original poster

lovelylegs2019 · 19/09/2019 19:44

I’m glad I’m not alone then! Would like to do a course in performing arts at college a level three requires at least five good grades or there is an option of a level two with not so great grade requirements. Maybe you’re right maybe just starting to plan stuff would be easier! Oh I miss the days of when sats was our biggest worry

OP posts:

SolitudeAtAltitude · 19/09/2019 19:47

yes, make a future plan (let him make it), that focuses kids more than nagging (in my experience!!!)

DS had vague dreams of doing something with computing or science, figured out what A levels he'd have to do, figured out what GCSE grades he needed to be allowed to do those a-levels. figured out that he'd even need a 5 in English to be allowed to do Physics..... and that motivated him more than any nagging!

YouAreTheEggManIAmTheWalrus · 19/09/2019 23:05

Son in same year, they've only been back two weeks, revision isn't even on the radar yet. Mocks are just that.. practice.. I'm alarmed that this is even an issue but maybe that's just me. If they don't know it now will they ever?

Fivebeanchilli · 19/09/2019 23:19

My child did fantastically well in their GCSEs and was doing no revision at this stage. School set homework and that was always done but no revision before the Christmas holidays for the mocks in January (4 hours a day over about 9 days). Then nothing was done again till Easter but they worked 8 hours a day during the Easter holidays and worked fairly solidly throughout the exams and May half term. I'm not sure revision all through the year is really advisable.

Lovesformula1 · 19/09/2019 23:47

My tip: Have a word with your local dustman. Find out where they all leave from in the morning and/or dump the rubbish in the evening.
Take him for a visit.

Noodlecoke · 20/09/2019 00:02

Some dustman make more than teachers though

GetUpAgain · 20/09/2019 00:05

What's your DCs personality? If they don't revise and then get low mock grades will that motivate them to revise in future?

Mo2g · 20/09/2019 00:16

At this stage the more you push the more they resist, even though you are only doing it because you care.
Is he aware that if he doesn't get the grade 4 at school he will have to retake GCSE maths every year whilst he is studying at college until the academic year after he turns 19? That might change his mind....
Equally try looking up the kinds of jobs he might be interested in doing one day and finding out what qualifications are required. That way he can see the importance of it. A lot of courses and degrees will not let you in if you don't have your maths. Seeing that he could be potentially stopping himself progressing in the future could also help him understand the importance.

LoveGrowsWhere · 20/09/2019 08:27

We've just had a yr11 meeting at school. Mocks in Jan. They advised revision should start in Dec and then be steady through to exams. For now focus on homework being done properly.

berlinbabylon · 20/09/2019 08:41

Not sure dustman is such an awful job.

Making lazy garlic - now that IS an awful job.

RedskyLastNight · 20/09/2019 08:49

My DS didn't do anything over the summer either. My reasoning was that this year will be hard enough.
My DS sounds like yours, except that, following his end of Year 10 predicted grades he did have a bit of a watershed moment and realised that doing a bit of work when he felt like it was not going to cut it and he did then ask for some help.
We've started by saying that all homework must be done to the best of his ability and he must revise "properly" (at all would be an improvement) when he knows he has a test coming up. I've also suggested that aiming for 10 hours a week of work out of school is a good place to start. The idea is that he does homework, then he does revision for any known tests, then he uses left over time to do extra revision. We are working on just the first two of these for now! I'm now looking to sit with him and agree when he will do after school study as I think it will help him to have the discipline of regular times. I also want to sit with him and write down a list of the areas that he needs to focus on for "extra revision".

I should say that I've previously been very hands off, and this is in response to him realising how much he has to do to catch up - I couldn't have done this 6 months ago for example, as he would just have kicked off. So I think a large part of it is mindset. And I suspect OP's DC is not there yet.

I think starting revision after Christmas is excellent advice - for a child that has worked steadily through secondary school. And presumably in a school where they don't have November mocks!!? DS has coasted and needs to start now to catch up (and he does have November mocks).

MilkRunningOutAgain · 20/09/2019 11:36

My DS has now just started 6th form so was in your position a year ago. He’s bright but hated school, always has and still is not keen. He did work for GCSEs, but was very clear that he wanted to pass them, not get stellar results. He worked a little for mocks, which helped as they pointed out what he didn’t know, and then 2-3 hours a day from the Easter holidays onwards. He did all homework and was never in any trouble with school, though he never spent more time on it than was strictly necessary. In the end he got a string of 5s and 6s and two 8s (in his best subjects that he is now taking to A level) - a solid but not brilliant set of results. He’s happy, he can progress as he wants. I’m not unhappy, after all he has 10 strong passes, but not delighted either, as he could have done better with more effort, particularly lower down the school in yrs 8 , 9 and 10. TBH, I think it’s me that’s being unreasonable, it’s his life not mine, and he has what he needs to go on to the next stage, nonetheless I do feel flat about it all. I tried not to nag him, & was hands off (not out of choice, he wouldn’t accept any interference as he saw it), though I offered tutoring for years (which was consistently turned down) and encouragement (probably too much). But it does show there’s no need for a bright kid to work all hours to get a solid set of results. I should add he’s a highly organised kid, and the hours he spent working were actual work, not messing about. Though to my mind he didn’t push himself to try to understand harder stuff in subjects he didn’t like, sciences for example, but was happy carefully rote learning easier stuff.

ILiveInSalemsLot · 20/09/2019 11:59

my Dn coasted and then panicked in the summer at the start of year 11 so started working, worked really hard from September, revising and doing homework.
Ended up with a couple of 7’s and the rest 5 and 6. A lot of her friends who all coasted too but didn’t revise as much as her, ended up with 3’s and 4’s.
GCSEs are really hard.

Seeline · 20/09/2019 12:53

It's too early for revision yet unless he has mocks really soon.

Y11 is a long slog. Full on revision at this stage will result in burn out. And if he's not keen now, you won't have a hope when he really needs to buckle down.

Concentrate on getting homework done. If he has topic tests etc try and get those learnt well, with some resources that he can use again later in the year - flash cards, mind maps etc.

RedskyLastNight · 20/09/2019 14:42

It's too early for revision yet

It depends what's meant by revision. In my DS's case, "revision" means going over material he's already covered in class, didn't understand the first time round, and didn't do anything else about. So essentially, it's bringing him up to the point where he would have been if he'd worked steadily. I suspect OP's DS may be the same.

farmthelettuce · 20/09/2019 14:53

Dd did her GCSEs last summer (did amazingly well) and was in no way starting revision at this point- she would have been completely burnt out by Easter. She revised for her mocks in December in November and then re-started revision around Feb. There’s no need for stress from the get go

JakeAllfree · 20/09/2019 15:23

Hey! I've been a maths teacher for a number of years so I think I can offer some help here.

At the moment if your DS/DD is not revising consistently for their GCSEs this doesn't mean that they've doomed themselves to failure - there's still a lot of time left before exam season...

However...

it's so important to get into good habits early on in the year, this will reduce stress come June/July/August. I'd recommend starting off very slowly with something like 15-20min per night and going from there. At this point getting into good habits is more important than doing 100s of hours.

The one subject you want to be careful of though is maths (I'm a maths teacher hehe.) It's so important that you study maths in the correct way - so many people find maths really difficult because they try to learn it in the same way that they would learn any other subject.

I’ve created a free training video explaining pretty much everything you need to know about studying maths in the correct way so you can make sure your DS/DD does exactly that!

You can view it here: www.revisionboost.com/free-lesson/

Hope this helps!

Mum1o1 · 20/09/2019 23:28

Explore : www.ipielearningcentre.com

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