Current Year 10 2020/2021 support thread

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I can’t see a thread for upcoming new year 10s, so I thought I’d start one, as the long-running GCSE one I’ve been part of for DD has been a life-saver.

DS has opted to take history, German, drama and music, plus double science, maths, English x2, and RE.
He’s pretty bright and does well without having to break a sweat (much to my frustration!), but doesn’t really know what he wants to do in the future. He’s a music scholar at his school, so does a lot of music (DH and I are both professional musicians...or were, before Covid hit...) but loves history and English.

His school provided excellent online schooling and he was lucky to be able to go in 2 days a week for the last 3 weeks of term.

His sister has just finished year 11, so we are biting our nails, waiting for results next week. She has quite a different academic profile, having ADHD and possibly dyspraxia, and has had to work hard throughout the last few years.

I hope us parents of DCs just starting the GCSE journey can help and support each other over the next couple of years. 🙂

DS has been sent home to isolate - not his whole "bubble" just close contacts of a confirmed case.

First day today of accessing home learning - we will see how that goes!

Girls are not really on the horizon apart from a select few who are friends and want to mother him!

We've just been sent an e-mail saying school may close but to key worker and vulnerable kids. Great in a GCSE year and would mean both mine out. Argh. At least DD is good at studying but issue is it'll probably go to teacher assessment and she's not good at communicating from home plus will they be able to accept anything done at home.

No Covid cases at DS’s school yet, but 2 boys in his year were caught vaping weed (I didn’t even know that was a thing!) - one has been expelled, the other one suspended.
I know all schools have drug issues, but I am still a bit shocked that 14 year olds are blatant about doing it in school (selective private school).

No talk of A Levels at all yet here! It feels like he only just chose GCSE options! He’s enjoying those though - History, Business and Music - so they’ll be in the running I expect! Currently he would say definitely not Maths/English/Sciences but of course that might change.

No friendship dramas here! Boys school, earlier years seemed to involve the odd fight but now they all seem to get on.

@KoalaRabbit oh no, that sounds like a nightmare. We have managed two weeks back in which seemed like a huge achievement.........
A bit off-topic now but DD is another who doesn't seem to have boys on her radar, she's saving herself for Loki or Dean from Supernatural!!! She spends most of her time out of school playing football or reading, I dither between being worried she's not social at all or being grateful that it means very little drama!

There's weed in our secondary as well as kids buy it for £10. It's a rural very safe area where nothing normally happens so I was surprised though my 6th form was full of drugs and a lot worse ones.

I misread school message it says 2 weeks on 2 weeks off apart from key worker and vulnerable kids. That I expect will mean it goes to teacher assessment so told DD to communicate with teachers - her current predicted grades are very high, all 9s except English and computing which are a bit lower though computing was due to lack of teacher. Trouble is the evidence though.

DS will be a nightmare with this with his ASD, he gets so grumpy with change for 2 weeks, DD said to take him out but not sure would get him back in.

It adds due to lack of staff it maybe more than 2 weeks off. There's a rumour shielding people will be told to stay home from Monday, that brought the school down to 4 years being taught out of 5 last time. I'm just hoping they keep year 10 and 11 in as much as possible. Y11 computing did none of the GCSE course in y10 due to covid and changing teachers. DD thinks 3 of her teachers may go with shielding rules though we will see.

One week to go until half term here. We are just about limping across the line. DD has maths, Welsh and physics assessments next week, and a pile more after half term. Lucky for her we’re in local lockdown, so she might as well be revising.

Re A-levels, if she were to choose today, it would be Art, PD, Geog and Welsh.

After discussing here and then coffee with a friend where we talked about Sixth Form (her DS has just gone) I wasted yesterday on various sixth form websites. History is our constant but I think DS will plump for politics when he looks at the options available. English and Spanish probably in the running.

One week to half term here as well. DD definitely wants History and Politics too Mercedes, think she will do with double maths. She has said she won't do an Economics degree as I did that but the other day she was asking perfect combination for Economics degree and I said Double Maths, History and Politics which she said is what she's doing. This week anyway.

She spent half a day out today with the boy she's 'not interested in' and another male friend and had a nice time.

DD is getting lots of assessments too though probably just as well if schools may close again and it goes to teacher assessment. Not much fun though.

On the assessment train here too. Two down, three next week, then two weeks for half term and another round of assessments.

Glad we’re not getting the boy dramas here, I’m not sure my fragile brain could handle that plus GCSEs plus Year 7 transition for DS. Am on countdown to half term now. And we have no bathroom, really want that finished by Fri.

Lots of tests incoming here too........three next week, both languages the week after then half-term! Was hoping to get away for a few days (not booked yet but looking last minute) but looking at all the news we may not be able to travel at all as we're in an area which is already under local restrictions and rumoured to be put into the harshest set of new rules .

Tests for DS as well, he had some last week which were apparently all ok and the other subjects this week. I’ve just been helping him with some chemistry and maths revision (usually he wants zero input from me so it was nice to be needed). He pretty much knew it already so I’m sure he’ll be fine. As we’ve had no progress report since January it will be good to see where he’s at soon.

Sorry to those who are in and out of school. Another example of how school provision will vary so much.

DD has also started on a raft of tests. To be fair, they quite often have tests before half term, but I do suspect these are benchmarking how they have caught up after lockdown. I have stressed to DD that she cannot any more treat these as "just tests" - they may be used for evidence in the future.

DD says all subjects being tested before half term, week and a half away here - RE and maths done so far and she got a 7 in RE and 7+ in maths which was highest could get.

Orthodontist tomorrow for her and DS just hoping can get braces before a lockdown but not too hopeful, at least we are rural though.

School said a huge list of GCSE guides to buy.

DD's birthday coming up - she had her present early of a sewing machine.

There don’t seem to be any tests happening here but DS2 in year 8 seems to have lots.

I’m hopeful for a parents evening post half term.

I started looking at revision guides and bought some vocab and grammar cards for Spanish. DS doing very well in a spanish and enjoys it but I thought worth getting small amounts in from now as I think it could be an A level contender.

DS found out yesterday that he has a science test on Friday of everything learnt since the start of term, it doesn't seem to give them much time to revise

No tests here whatsoever and surprisingly little homework. Normally has a lot more during this first half term.
My son also has no clue about what A-levels he wants to do so hoping that will become more obvious over the next year as I'm sure I knew when I was much younger.

Tests all over here until after HT. And we got the report with effort and attainment grades yesterday. DD a bit miffed with her art grades, since that’s very much her thing, but generally we are happy campers going into HT.

Two weeks off from tomorrow, three tests to revise for over the hols - Welsh, Physics and Biology.

No tests here.

DS is still isolating due to being in CC with a positive case in one of his classes in school. Due back in on Tuesday.

He has been keeping up with work set using the schools scheme of work, but it's not the same as being in school

Apologies for the radio silence - I’ve been wrestling with DD (year 12) and her new-found social life.

DS has now broken up for half term - 2 weeks, but looking likely to be longer if Wales announces a circuit breaker lockdown tomorrow.
He brought home his half term report yesterday - all good, but he’s not really exerting himself IMO. His predicted grades are all 7s and 8s, but he’s actually capable of 8s and 9s. Maybe he’ll pull it out when he needs to, but as this year has shown, that’s a risky strategy!

DS tells me that they haven’t been given any predicted grades yet. He seems to have spurts of activity but for the first time ever I have asked him to show me a list of homework as I think he has never been a slacker and won’t want to be perceived as such but it seems that he isn’t working to his full potential and he has lofty ambitions career wise where his GCSEs will matter.

Hi all, lots of assessments for DD the last 2 weeks and this week also. She’s been told it’s for predicted grades. She’s actually done excellent so far and had 9’s for Chemistry, Physics, History and Geography so far.
Half term next week. We are in a Tier 1 area but all her friends live in the next borough over which has moved up to Tier 2 so its looking like they can only meet up outside now.

The school has only had 3 positive Covid cases so far, one of them in the 6th form on another site and the other a member of staff in the Admin team so not in any contact with students. So luckily we have managed to survive this far without any year groups being sent home.

Limping on towards half-term here, DD has 4 tests between now and the end of the week then a week off. The tesst are previous exam questions 16-markers in both languages, a 23-mark section in Biology etc and they've been told that they will have pretty much continuous assessment in case it's needed to support teacher assessed grades. I'm praying that by the time it gets to the exam cycle in 2022 this won't be necessary but still glad that school are putting it in place.
Then we have a week off although in Tier 3 so not much to actually do and our planned visit from SiL and her children has gone out of the window! She's a teacher and too far away to go for weekends (plus football takes priority anyway ) so holidays are the only time we see them.
Lots of cases within DD's school - half her year are out isolating as close contacts of positive cases, and worryingly we had an email last night to say that the current cases seem to be linked to a particular school bus - multiple children positive from different years and this journey is all they have in common. Anyone using that route has been asked to stay at home for the rest of the week.