Year 10 - support and questions

[GetUpAgain]

My eldest is in year 10 and I am starting to think he should be knuckling down more. He seems to get on fine at school, but he is a very stereotypical teen liking hours of sports/gaming/youtube at weekends and I don't know if he should be a bit more focused now.

I suppose I want a crystal ball to see if I should interfere a bit at this point and instill some pressure to study more. Or are the teen years hard enough and I should let him carry on being responsible for himself?

He is happy how things are at the moment and I don't want to cause him stress. But I also don't want him to coast when I think he could do better. He is in top sets for everything but doesn't like the attention of being top of the class/getting awards so he doesn't want to actually shine.

So hard to know what to do! He has no real career aspirations, just subjects he enjoys more than others.

Hi my eldest is also in y10, we are pretty lucky in that she's quite conscientious but does need to learn to stop chatting!!
I do worry that she puts a lot of pressure on herself although I'm not sure how much of this is her mad how much is a school...
Her y10 exams start after half term and she's just received her predicted grades which also seem to have focused her, for now.....

Hi. You both might like to join this thread which has fallen onto page 2 behind all the 11+ threads.www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3653238-Starting-Year-10-GCSE-2021

My DD2 is y10. At the moment I'm just making sure she revises properly for the frequent tests, plus helping her where she struggles most. She has y10 exams after Easter, so the Easter holidays will need to be structured around revision I think.

I am battling with this question from the other side as my DS is in Year 11 (as in, should I have encouraged him more in Year 10?). In Year 10, I chose to do what Teen suggests - just made sure he kept up with homework and did "some" revision for tests. And was on had to help with things he struggled with - if he asked. He clearly could have done much more.

With the benefit of hindsight, yes it would have been better if he'd done more in Year 10, but actually you can't force someone to work if they don't want to (well you possibly can, but it's likely that the work won't be effective and your house may turn into a war zone).

It has meant that in Year 11, his attitude towards work has improved, and he's much more ready to accept my guidance (in Year 10, this would have been called "nagging"). There is definitely also an element of, him not seeing the point of doing extra work in Year 10 as GCSEs were too far away.

I don't think (must ask him) if he had his time again, DS would have chosen to do more in Year 10 to make Year 11 less pressurised. And at the end of the day (as DS keeps reminding me :) ) - these are their exams, not ours!

In 'revision for tests' this includes in my view making appropriate revision resources. (Though in our case I'm making them.)

Thank you, I will join that thread

@Redskyatnight I would love to know what your DS thinks. What would he recommend to a current Year 10?!

DD is in year 11, so slightly ahead of your DS.
At the start of year 10, her school invited the students and their parents to a "revision breakfast", during which we were informed that students should work 2.5 hours every weekday evening and 6 hours a day at weekends, there should be no sleepovers and no family holidays. 😕

Frankly, it was nonsense advice and I suspect only given so that the school could absolve themselves of any responsibility for results.

GCSEs are a marathon; steady, regular mileage is key. In DD's case, I can see that lots of things are only just coming together for her now, so slaving away day afternoon last year wouldn't have made a lot of difference. What I would say is vital is to make sure books and notes are kept up to date and organised, and that concepts are understood as they're taught; you don't want your DC to be trying to understand for the first time when they should be revising.

Getting a grip on online revision resources is a good idea too. There is so much available, it can be overwhelming, so good to find what suits your DC and get them to start using them regularly, for things like homework/end of topic tests etc. For eg Free science lessons, Seneca, Corbett Maths, Khan Academy, Mr Bruff - different styles suit different students.

I think making good quality revision resources now that he will be able to go back to in Y11 is one of the best things he can do. I teach English and our Y10 have now done their Shakespeare play and their 19th C text. Having mind maps of characters, themes, plot overviews, quotation flashcards, definitions of sophisticated vocab, notes or saved videos about the historical context etc will all make revision easier before mocks and exams, and save so much time.

Revisiting topics now and again for a bit of self quizzing or a practice question will also help keep it fresh.

Other than that, doing homework thoroughly and purposefully, and preparing carefully for assessments is enough in my view.

Argh typed a reply and lost it! Thank you for replies, great advice.