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 is a 'good enough' type as well, he always sets his aspirations so low! He's quite happy with 65/70% in a test. Which would be fine if it was his best effort but it never is. He is convinced GCSEs really don't matter and he just needs a few 6s in the subjects he wants to carry on with (which at present, he's not sure about anyway). I have pointed out that some subjects, like Psychology, need 6s in English, Maths and Science, which is almost half his GCSEs, so he might end up needing more than 3 x 6.

Thankfully he doesn't have any aspirations towards corporate law or medicine, so he's probably right that GCSEs will be fairly meaningless. It just annoys me. He got almost the same mark as his sister in the 11 plus; she got all 8s and 9s at GCSE and I know he's capable of the same. But he will probably get a range of 5/6/7s (I hope!).

@SilkieRabbits in that you’ll reward her with more money for higher grades or that she’ll potentially get a higher paid job with higher grades? 😂

Higher paid job with higher grades though sure she won't miss an opportunity to ask for money.

Wales have just announced teacher assessment for 2021. Wondering if we will get that in 2022 as well though hard to know if a vaccine is being rolled out, just have to prepare for all scenarios I guess. So hard for the kids though. And uni entry will be complicated if they are first year of exams and lower grades but guess unis will need to adjust. Worry about that later though not now.

DD says all students have been asked to predict their grades, seems an odd way of doing it. DD said she was worried her form tutor would make fun of her if she puts too high and I just told her to put what she thought and ignore any form tutor reaction.

DD is wanting to do clubs but everything is closed, her air cadets, netball etc but at least she can run each morning. A lot more energetic than me.

I see I posted just before half term saying ds had no assessments, turns out he lied to avoid revising. Frustrating! Not sure he really knows how to, how have your kids learned? Difficult to approach school for help when he’s uncooperative at home.

@Aramox My DS2 normally looks at the online resources the school have provided or goes through his text books. For some subjects if there are old practice papers online he does those. It is difficult when they are uncooperative the only thing you can do is be there for him and when he is ready for your support he will ask.

DD just gets on with it by herself. DS (y9) conversation will go DS you've got maths homework. DS no I haven't, me yes they have it's on here. DS yes but they don't expect us to do it. Me It says here they do. DS I don't do homework. Me reads homework out and he answers. It's pretty painful, he's asd but nothing gets done unless I intervene. You could try asking school.

DD had all prediced 9s for first 6 subjects, last year she was said to be 9 already for history - now a new history teacher just graduated and she's just graded DD a 4. DD says she can't teach at all, they really shouldn't have someone with no experience on GCSE classes but maybe due to covid as y7/y8 are in class bubbles so lower risk. It's annoying as she was a 6 in geography last year with 9 predicted but chose history, too late to change now.

And she's in trouble for being late all the time for tutor, she keeps running in the mornings and being late. Though she hates that tutor group and think that's the main issue, two of the girls are nasty and the form tutor doesn't like her though that's life really and only 15 mins a day.

I could actually really help DS with revision techniques, it’s something I am quite good at, but of course currently he doesn’t want to know, but he will. He has form for resisting me (passively) then slowly coming round.

I bought him some maths revision cards (weakest subject I’d say) and Spanish because I did languages and frequency will make it so much easier and showed him how many questions on a card - 10 mins is all it would take. He will do it but he will wait it out.

@SilkieRabbits omg this is my life. Except our hw isn't online so I never know! He does do a lot himself but he knows if I know he has a test he will be forced to revise. Languages, no, no need to do any work outside school... That sounds wildly unpredictable for your DD, I hope it levels out, my comfort is that so much content is available in revision stuff that they can survive a poor teacher. Fingers crossed!

DS is a nightmare-he is just so lazy. Bright but cba-says he only needs 6’s so what he’s doing, is “good enough” and if he can achieve 65% or more in tests without trying then why should he put the effort in-its boring apparently 😱

@Aramox I would reach out to the school, I’m sure they will have some guidance/links to revision material. DD is a big fan of writing flash cards. She writes the questions on the front and answers on the back. She also says that she’s got in to the habit of writing the question down in her notes in her school book during class rather than the answer as she finds it easier to revise from that. Rather than having loads of statements that she doesn’t know what they refer to.

DS in Year 8, who has ADHD, is a completely different kettle of fish, and is exactly the same as @SilkieRabbits DS. I have to completely keep on top of his homework on SMHW or it just won’t get done. He constantly try’s to get away with the bare minimum and will argue that a task doesn’t need to be done. Then if I make him he’ll say that it doesn’t ALL need to be done. Or that the teachers never look at it. That it doesn’t matter if it isn’t right, they don’t care. That nobody else does it. It’s SO unfair that they are at school all day and then have to do more work when you get home! Same thing repeated. Every damn night. 🤦‍♀️🥴

Silkie that does seem odd ref predicted grades. Are they doing that purely as an exercise or will that actually become their predicted grades? DD would struggle doing that too as she could quite feasibly put 9 for most but she would be very reluctant to do so for fear of looking big-headed.

We have had lots of pupils in Year 10 and 8 sent home to self-isolate and DD says there are a heck of a lot of teachers out. They are having many lessons with cover teachers having to cover two or three classrooms at once. So not sure what the quality of the teaching is like at the moment.

@Aramox Not knowing how to - and not thinking they have to - are definitely the big stumbling blocks. I'm not sure that schools especially teach "revising".

A couple of things we've found (which all started having been through GCSEs with DS 3 years ago) are:

• Planning is absolutely key! Map out a week at a time. Start by blocking out their free time. This helps them see balance rather than it being all about work. Then with revision time, be really specific about what topics are going to be studied. Maths is too vague and leads to procrastination. Then review the week. Anything that's been finished can be ticked off as done. That also helps to create a more immediate feeling success (it's hard to feel motivated about a result you won't know until August).

• Spaced learning - ie little and often - is considerably better than cramming. Rather than reading through notes and highlighting, or just watching YouTube, get them to test themselves with what they know first. It's a great way of strengthening retrieval bonds. E.g. get a piece of paper and write down 7 or 8 great words to describe Lady Macbeth or as many points about urban regeneration as they can think of. Then go back through notes to see what they missed. There are also some fab online resources, Quizlet, GCSEpod, Seneca - some are free and some might have school access.

They won't convert to a model pupil overnight, more's the pity! But giving them a sense of control - 'sense' being the important bit - will pay dividends in the end.

@MrsElijahMikaelson1That's really tough. Boys are especially prone to the idea that "I didn't really fail if I didn't even try". It's linked to their self-image and ideas about masculinity. Although from experience a healthy dose of laziness and disinterest is also at play!

Does yours tend to have a concerted (but maybe masked as blasé) push at the end? That might indicate he cares more than he's letting on.

@thestudybuddy I think you’re bang on here. I think that there is a liberal amount of peer pressure tied up with the boys and how they want to be perceived as the tough man that doesn’t care about school and doing well and is absolutely not a “sweat”. I don’t think there’s the same level of pressure to give off this “tough” exterior for the girls.

@MrsElijahMikaelson1 and @Rollergirl11 my ds is exactly the same! All the same excuses - '60% is fine, X or Y only got 50%', 'Mr D never looks at our homework so it doesn't need to be done', 'I only need three 6s to do A Levels, it's not worth sweating' etc etc.

And I have to keep on top of Satchel One every day! He keeps saying 'leave it to me, I can manage myself' but the behaviour points for missed homework/low test scores suggest otherwise.

I veer between thinking it doesn't really matter, he'll probably do well enough to move on to the next stage and then hopefully he'll find some motivation for what he really wants to do - and panicking that he'll have no options because he just can't organise himself and study!

@Rollergirl11 I think that's right. And girls tend to be more compliant. Obviously, not all boys and girls fall into these stereotypes but enough of them do to perpetuate them. Some of this is down to school and the [false] idea that teaching boys should revolve around activities, topics they like and competition.

Not my own insights: I'm reading "Boys Don't Try?" by Matt Pickett and Mark Roberts at the moment for a podcast. It's aimed at teachers, but I'm as a parent it's still really interesting.

I’m afraid he doesn’t do a concerted effort at the end and it’s constant avoidance and complaining. He pretends he doesn’t know when exams are happening so couldn’t prepare🙄 He gets behaviour points for inadequate homework-he just didn’t seem to care-we get “oh I didn’t realise/I didn’t know/the teacher didn’t set it properly “. My youngest just started Year 7 and already knows you’re not to hand homework in unless you at least get 75% so why the middle one thought 62% was ok is beyond me. Is probably not helped by the eldest being incredibly focused and high achieving though...

@crazycrofter I did a lot of veering too! Certainly up until Christmas before exams. Then it all got a bit fraught in Casa McGurl! Lots of rows and bad atmosphere as he was neither motivated nor disciplined.

The problem as I saw it was DS was cocky but ambitious - the apple didn't fall far, I'm afraid! He might have been fine not organising himself and studying for GCSEs but A-Levels are a different pace entirely. And he was never going to be prepared for the self-study of Uni.

It is tricky because, at the end of the day, they can always resit and we don't want to tip the balance on their wellbeing by stressing them out, etc. But things are so much easier if they can get out of bad habits and into good ones early on. That's definitely what I've changed in approach for Yr 10 DS.

@MrsElijahMikaelson1 ds has a high achieving older sister too. I’ve never had to mention homework or revision to her...

Ds says he doesn’t want to go to university at the moment, but I want him to have that option open to him in case he changes his mind. He was very keen on the army/marines but he has eyesight problems.

@thestudybuddy I can already see from DD’s experience that ds’ current approach will not work for A Levels! But maybe he will do a BTEC that he’s really interested in and all will change. My ds does have incredible self discipline when he sees the point of something or enjoys it.

Yep same here with DD being high-achieving and DS under-achieving. The waters are particularly muddied for us though because of DS’s (only very recently diagnosed) ADHD. DS self-esteem and confidence is very low and we have had years of him telling himself that he can’t do it. Hopefully now with diagnosis, and he has just started on medication, we can begin to unpick the years of negative conditioning. He is Year 8 so at least we have a bit of time in our side! 🤞

That’s good @Rollergirl11. Ds is also ADHD - diagnosed at the end of year 8. Year 9 was rocky (until lockdown!). Medication seemed to help at first but it made ds feel very low. I want him to try a different type but he’s not keen. Hope you have more success!

@crazycrofter it’s still very early days at the moment and we are still working out most effective dose. He is taking Medikinet and so far so good.🤞Distinct loss of appetite, which I was expecting, but we are managing it so far with a big breakfast and allowing him to snack freely before and after his evening meal. Do you mind me asking what your DS is/was taking? I have done lots of reading up and there are definitely alternatives to try if one doesn’t suit.

We also have from DS the I know everything already about that topic so there's no point in me doing that homework / lesson / test. When asked to learn a new word a day for English he told me there was no point as he has a hobby of reading dictionaries and knows the entire contents. I can only assume this is a secret hobby he does in the middle of the night as never seen him with a dictionary

And we had the only 4 people have Mums that make them work, its not fair everyone else does nothing line. In lockdown he said he didn't want to read or write anything so I had to do both but think a lot is just laziness - I am learning a lot of GCSEs again myself and some for the first time!

Same here Silkie I’m your woman if you ever need to know the 4 types of erosion and river characteristics/landforms!

Sounds fascinating Rollergirl I've become an expert on 6 foot prehistoric penguins, comes in useful so often. I do sometimes wonder why I am doing 3/4s of DS's work but without that he would do zero.