How much support are schools be giving for kids who are preparing to take exams in Autumn just incase?

[EvelynHug0]

My ds in year 11 is studying for some retakes in the Autumn just incase. Because of the abrupt end he has obviously missed out on all the school focused prep for GCSEs. I’m really proud of him and how he’s getting on with things but how do you access support, materials and guidance? We did let school know he was doing this but have heard nothing.

That's great that he is motivated to do this. My Ds should not need to retake so has not been doing any gcse work. Good job really as due to his SEN he is very unmotivated and struggles to do school work at home.

All Ds's school have said is to continue to revise the subjects that you think you may need to retake. They have not provided any extra revision material to students though. Did your Ds have many resources before lockdown? If you can afford it maybe look for revision books online for the correct exam board. There are probably some free resources online too. Could you email the head of year or the subject teachers also to ask if there is anything else available?

I wouldn't expect any support from the school to be honest! They're trying to decides GCSE grades for their whole year 11 and 13 year groups as well as trying to teach all the other kids in their school remotely. Most Year 11s and Year 13s would be on study leave by now and working independently revising for their exams. Schools are not set up to help students do retakes - especially not random unscheduled retakes - and the six weeks holiday without any learning and continuity makes it virtually impossible. If your DS isn't expecting to get Grade 4s in Maths and English and the grades he needs to get into college and the next stage then he should consider retakes (and the FE college may help in September), if it's just to get higher grades then I would focus on the next stage of his education and start thinking about which A level choices he needs to make. The lack of formal teaching for what could be 5 months will make most students struggle with exams in Autumn.

He should have been fully set up with revision websites to access before now because of mocks and so on. Is it past papers you are after? The problem there is not knowing what format the ‘resit’ exams will take.

He could access the Y10 BBC lesson resources and the new DfE online school www.thenational.academy/ both of which are starting tomorrow.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

Correct link:

Maths GCSE - good, free website : blutick.com/