Current Year 10 2020/2021 support thread

[Alsoplayspiccolo]

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. 🙂

[Lightsabre]

Hello! Ds starting Yr 10. Doing English x 2, Maths, triple science, Geog, History, Music and German. RS half GCSE which will be sat at the end of Yr 10. Struggles a bit with English despite being his strong subject at primary and Yr 7 and German. His music tutor has been shielding so I'm not sure what will happen with that next year.

He Games too much but did engage with learning during lock down. Tends to get anxious over school work so we've taken a hands off approach so far but need to nudge him along. Unfortunately I've had the long tail version of Covid and am still poorly and exhausted so not sure I'll have much energy to support him.

[GhostTypeEevee]

How are everyone's dc schools doing the return?
Ds is starting a day later and his new school start time is 9:30 which he's thrilled about as it means extra time in bed
They've changed their tutor groups and these new tutor groups are their science and maths class.

[KoalasandRabbit]

Y10 back 9 September, 2 days late. Year bubbles for 9/10/11 and class bubbles 7 and 8. Start times tba but fairly normal, luckily we are 5 mins walk away unlike most who travel in on rural buses. Full timetable. Seperate rooms for each year group. Same tutor, same setting. Full uniform but then said no blazers if we want. Will fine if don't return. Fairly like before.

[nightshade1]

Separate entrances and a 1 way corridor system, year group bubbles and staggered lunches. I set day after school library session per year group (where as they used to be able to go every day)
Uniform remains the same except for PE days where they need to wear kit.

[GhostTypeEevee]

On PE days they have to go in in PE kit as changing rooms are closed.its a bit annoying as we have to buy more pe uniform which we normally didn't get so he doesn't freeze during the day

[MrsElijahMikaelson1]

Hi there. DS is going into year 10. They have to do the Ebaac unfortunately. History is his humanity and French his language. He has then picked DT and music. They started last year. School will “invite” those they think capable of doing triple science later this year. DS is a nightmare. Very bright but just doesn’t apply himself so that over his time at high school, we have seen his grades drop and drop. Just because he is lazy and doesn’t see the point. He thinks that although when he started his targets were 9/8 and that now they are 6/7 that that is ok. I despair. School have been completely shit over lockdown and work provided has been poor. Their idea of 3 hours of maths a week took him 20 minutes.

DD is year 11 so we are currently waiting. She’s had a few anxiety attacks with all the news. She has worked really hard and methodically and was on for 9s. She is currently front loading her A level subjects so hopefully she will get to do the ones she wants-at least unlike year 13 she has time to appeal.

[whojamaflip]

Dd is going into year 10 - chosen geography, history, PE, double science, French along with maths, English and English lit. However there's a good possibility French will be dropped by Christmas as she is also national level in her sport which means she spends more time training than she does in school!

It's school that suggested she only took 8 GCSES but dd being dd wanted to take 9! Time will tell but it's great we have the support of the school where her sport is concerned.

Of course training may be suspended again should we go back into lockdown!

[GhostTypeEevee]

@MrsElijahMikaelson1

At ds schools they don't change their targets although I would prefer they would. He had a very good SATs day so his targets are 9s. He has ASD and is very anxious and unconfident. The targets, especially maths is like an albatross round his neck and although his maths teachers have said he's not a grade 9 student they still won't change the target, which has effected his confidence even more in the subject.

[GhostTypeEevee]

When I say don't change the target grades they said they're not allowed to.

[Aramox]

Hello! Ds going into y10, doing 10 subjects incl media studies- it’ll be a big jump from y7-9, where his very academic school has had very few end of year exams, and he usually does badly in them. Feeling deeply anxious about the whole thing- he takes the minimalist approach too.

[Alsoplayspiccolo]

Anyone who has a child in year 11 would be very welcome over on the Corona Cohort support thread. 😊

[MrsElijahMikaelson1]

@GhostTypeEevee that sounds like made up bullshit to me. Of course they are allowed to if they need to. DD had targets moved up as she didn’t perform well in SATS and only came into her own in high school. In fact I think it was January in year 8 that she was invited to a special high flyer G&T group-their school start with the G&T thing by October in year 7, so we sent an email back saying I’m sorry, we think you sent this invite by mistake-to which we got a resounding no-we’ve re-evaluated the students and changed their targets accordingly, and a big congratulations to DD...

[MrsElijahMikaelson1]

On the other hand DS was invited in the initial round as he was a high flyer but now, although he doesn’t come off the G&T register, he isn’t invited to the high flier groups any more😰

[nightshade1]

They won't amend the targets here either, Dd underperformed on her sats so her targets are relatively low and she's already working above her targets, yet they still remain the same

[beenrumbled]

Bit concerned really about DS2 Maths - he hates it and will be targeted with a 4, but he is in all top set science as he loves it - targets with 7s & 8s - my spikey profile ASD boy is going to be a challenge!

[GhostTypeEevee]

I think one of the reasons he did so well with his SATs is he got extra time so he could have his initial panic and then calm down.

It really came to a head at the end of year 8 where he got graded a poor for effort but excellent for behaviour and homework and their reasoning was that he wasn't meeting his target grade although they said he was working at the level of his ability. It's like banging my head against a brick wall. He's never had a poor in anything before. He's on the SEN register for his anxiety so that didn't exactly help matters

[RubixCubix]

Hi, joining as my DD is officially Yr10 in September, although she is Home Educated. She also has SEN, anxiety and dyspraxia, so it's going to be a challenging few years. Luckily no subjects are compulsory for us but DD has chosen to study Maths, English, Science, History, French and Art. She has also produced the long list of stationery requirements others here have mentioned, complete with colour coded folders, post-its and pastel highlighter pens!

[Swimmum1206]

Hello. DS is also starting Y10 in September. Can't believe how quickly the last few years have gone! He's opted for Triple Science, Geography and French. He goes to a faith school, so RE is compulsory. He was determined to do EBac, although his music teacher was pretty upset when he didn't opt for music! He coped pretty well during lockdown and just got in with the set work. his school were really good and had a full timetable thoughout with either live lessons on Teams or set work. It will interesting to see how he copes with everything when he goes back. He does a lot outside of school with swimming and music groups, but some of his friends with older siblings have been telling him that they will be expected to do at least 2 hours of study after school everyday!!

[Lightsabre]

Ds day will be a bit shorter, finishing at 3.10 instead of 3.30. Not sure what's happening with after school clubs or Duke of Edinburgh Scheme yet. I was hoping that he'd be in the cohort that is starting at 9.30 instead of 8.40 but that's the earlier years only. We have become so used to lazing about in the mornings that it's going to be a big shock to the system getting back into an early morning routine.

[RedskyAtnight]

DD's day has moved an hour later and is now 9.30-4pm. (used to be 8.30-3). She is very pleased about getting a lie in!! Her school decided that the older students should be the one to start later due to teenage circadian rhythms (ironcially DS - going into Y12 - who's constantly moaned about the 8.30 start is now complaining that they are finishing too late. Can't win).

[Lightsabre]

@RedskyAtnight, yes, that makes sense and i can't understand why ds school is making the older ones start earlier! Operational reasons no doubt...

[Alsoplayspiccolo]

I don’t actually think I know what time DS and DD will start. They are back in the same school again, after being in different schools for 5 years; I’m hoping their start times are the same, as I suspect the school minibus won’t be running so we’ll be driving the 35 minutes there.

In normal times, DS leaves home at just after 7am and gets home at either just before 5pm or just before 6pm. Long days.

[zighead]

We've not been given any different start or finish times so I'm really hoping it will be 9-3.45 as usual. No idea whether extra curricular stuff will be on or not so it's going to be very strange indeed.

I have a feeling the traffic is going to be horrific as I drop DS off on my way to work and it's already bad as it's on the way into the city and I think more parents than ever will be dropping off. I'll just be glad that they are back so no moaning from me

[KoalasandRabbit]

We've not been given start and finish times but only 5 mins walk away - DD would much prefer nocturnal hours or as late as possible. We are supposed to be getting complete details next week though maybe dealing with looming gcse chaos soon.

[SweetCandies]

DSs school has said there will be no extra curricular activities