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. 🙂

Oh no your poor DS @Silkiecats - hope it gets sorted next week. Glad to hear your DD has managed to be in school a bit more and they have said she can take the exams she missed later, hope things continue to improve for her. Hope your DD is doing ok @Rollergirl11 and didn't get too stressed about the Spanish exam.

We are feeling glad to have made it to the weekend! So far he's done four subjects, next week he has four more and the last one the week after. They have been doing revision in all their lessons in school and he has managed to do small amounts at home and hopefully I can get him to do some more over the weekend, we don't have anything else planned. There seems to be so much content to learn, quite different to when I did my GCSEs with loads of coursework! They are only covering the stuff they have done so far (so about half the course) in these exams and there is loads so it feels like next year there will be a huge amount.

Hope everybody manages to have a good weekend despite the weather!

Well DD managed to do her Spanish speaking exam and I’m really proud of her. She now has a full week of exams coming up this week. She will miss either 1 or 2 of them tomorrow as she has her treatment review with CAMH’s and a psychiatrist. Those exams will be followed up in the following weeks.

She was made a prefect this week which she is happy about. And now with the Year 11’s gone they have opened up the common room to Year 10’s at break time and lunchtime. Not that DD has had a chance to utilise it as she has to spend every break time and lunchtime with me supervising her.

Silkie has your DD told you why she is so unhappy at the school? Is she being bullied? It’s tough isn’t it as you want your DC’s to be happy. But changing schools at this point will be a huge upheaval for her and your family and possibly have a detrimental effect on her GCSE’s? And as you say she may not be any happier there.

Ithink wow they have really spread your DS’s exams out haven’t they? Sounds like he’s doing a good amount of revision though which is good. We have a weekend full of revision too.

DS has his end of year exams the week after next too. He missed the end of year exams in Year 7 with lockdown so this is the first time he has had to do this level of revision and the first time he’ll sit exams in the hall. He’s starting to get stressed about it. Spoke to his HOY to ask if he qualifies for sitting them in the learning centre with additional rest breaks because of his ADHD. They say he doesn’t qualify at the moment and we will need to apply for an assessment to open up access to the centre. I’m a bit annoyed about that as the school have been heavily involved with providing feedback when he first got his diagnosis and then subsequently with him starting on medication. They know how much he struggles. It seems that the diagnosis itself isn’t enough to automatically open up the provision. Although they have done exactly that for DD with the ED (although ironically she doesn’t want to use it).

💐 to you both Silkie and Rollergirl but congrats to Rollerdd for getting through the Spanish speak and for being made prefect!
DS’s results are coming in in dribs and drabs. He’s had a 7 in Maths and a rather surprising 9 in Geography so far. He’s got 83% in his ICT exam apparently but doesn’t know what grade it equates to yet. 🤞🏻

DD has been down to London today to meet friends and have a haircut. She doesn't know what it is about school, says not bullying. School are trying to get a 1 day visit to the alternative school which would be helpful but so far not replying but guess a busy time for them. It'll be useful anyway as has a 6th form. DH didn't want to go out for Father's Day as its raining here so I've ordered afternoon tea and his favourite cake in. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Well done to your DD on getting through the Spanish speaking Rollergirl I'm worried about impact on results as its different exam boards, different orders, if it goes to teacher assessment they won't have any year 10 data and she may go in wrong sets but DD just says she will study over summer and catch up.

Hope exams goes well next week Ithink

Well done to your DS on his results so far QueenMabby

@Silkiecats Did you move partly because DD didn’t like the schools where you were before? Does she grasp that things are likely to be the same elsewhere, with the added complications of different exam boards, new teachers etc? I work at a school, in a non teaching role. We so often have students leave us, and then bounce around two or three more schools before they get to Year 13.

Yes DD did a year at a London grammar and wanted to change schools after that so that was partly why we moved, also needed a smaller school for DS with SN and to be closer to DHs work. I could see the point of changing from a grammar to a comprehensive albeit the grammar was amazingly academically. But one comp to another I think will be much of a muchness and think will do more harm than good, there's only 2 terms to go and a month of this one. Makes much more sense to wait it out and change, school ends at 16 so has to change then. But I think all DD can see is I am unhappy at school so change school. If I don't she says she won't go. I can't see any logic to it unless there was bullying going on but she is adamant there isn't. It is very negative at the school, no praise for doing well and criticism any time you make an error (other than kids that do drama or football) but think that is very common in comps. The school seem very stretched on staff and suspect that's the same anywhere but its tricky situation as it means not much support for the kids and lots more kids with issues.

The issue we are having as well is school say she has to be in everyday and she isn't well enough for that but they are talking a lot now, for a couple of months before I was getting no response to anything. I think they thought she was fine and was off their radar and the staff are buried in kids with problems and covid issues / gcse chaos.

Silkie it all sounds so tough. I think you’re right on the one hand that schools can be much of a muchness particularly at the moment with all the struggles around Covid, staffing and budgetary issues. However, the ethos and general feel can vary from school to school although you often can’t assess that from the outside! Your DD’s school does sound negative which must be draining. Are there any potential local schools that include a sixth form so at least dd could have three years of continuity?
Although I suppose that it’s good that they’re talking now although their attitude sounds rather intransigent. Would your dd attend daily if she had a “time out” card she could use and an allocated safe space to retreat to, to gather herself and take a breath? I know a friend whose ds has struggled and he has a card and a teacher (pastoral lead) whose office he can go to if he needs it.

Thanks QueenMabby The alternative school we are looking at has a sixth form and its realistically one of two places she could go for 6th form. Its a fairly typical comp with reasonable results. We chose it as there is public transport to it, it doesn't require a language and has a 6th form though no idea whether she will go its sixth form or 6th form college but it would give her chance to try school and meet new people. The journey is a pain after a 5 min walk but one she will have to make in y12 anyway. Think the bus is every 30 mins and takes 30 mins or so so maybe 45 mins door to door.

I heard from potential new school today they said its an unusual time to change but we seem to be in control (do we ) so to give them GCSE boards and they would see what they can offer and get back to us mid week. DD was so happy and excited. They asked for a school contact as school still haven't sent forms in and cc'd current school in. Then current school said what they are doing and its basically insisting she does all exams, is in every day, is doing what she has said she doesn't want. She will go in and do rest of exams next week but it wasn't helpful. I've ordered a bit of uniform for new school as its summer so not much required and if she needs to move best to move asap. I've been through both sets of curriculums and looks like she could do 9 out of her 11 subjects there if spaces, we need to check also if could go in top set for things and if they would accept her current forecast grades. I sent them in. All the subjects look similar content and 8 out of 9 look taught in a similar order, one is taught different way round so she's missed a year in one but has covered the content in y8/9 basically. She says she will catch up over the summer and that seems plausible as in lockdown it was taking me an hour to teach 5 hours lessons as there's a lot of wasted time in lessons, 10 mins walking in, 10 mins out, 10 mins kids asking random stuff, 10 mins repeating stuff, 10 mins teacher controlling class / explaining to other kids and 10 mins she needs to do. She is amazing at teaching herself.

The issue will be if goes to teacher assessment will she lose out badly, will they accept current grades (current school wouldn't when she moved there and wouldn't put in sats and put her targets as 4s and in random sets and that year was not great, resolved in y9 but we don't have time to deal with that) and will she cope with new school and will there be spaces. There's also they do a 10th subject and what will happen with that though that is OK, she wants a 10th one and I don't mind either way. The 10th one she has not done before but said she has read up on it on seneca and done 1/4 of the A level and it what my degree is in though worried about workload. I think we need to chat to new school more and see what would happen exactly and ideally she needs to visit.

Well done to your DS @QueenMabby - excellent results. Not sure when we will get results, will be very interesting, the promised interim grades in April never appeared!

Good to hear you have had contact from the alternative school @Silkiecats - doesn't sound like your current school are being very helpful. I think often schools assume that pupils are fine if they seem to be coping and not making a fuss and it takes a crisis for them to realise that all is not fine. I know with my DS they didn't seem to put much support in place until there was an "incident" but now he is getting the one-to-one English support and mentoring which I think is really helpful. It's disappointing your current school is not being more flexible in trying to find a solution, it will be their loss if your DD moves school!

Friends of mine in other parts of the country have reported rapidly rising cases and lots of children having to self isolate (one friend is a teacher and says that 700 out of 1100 in her school are self isolating and another says her DS's school has closed!) It's really alarming and yet every night our local pub seems to be full of drunken idiots shouting and singing and not distancing at all. Really hoping we can get to the end of term without having to do isolation again - 21 school days to go but hey who is counting!

Just saw this on the BBC news
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57579211

Interesting @IThinkIMadeItWorse - wonder what next years exams will look like?

@IThinkIMadeItWorse

I was wondering if they'd start talking about any changes to the exams next year. I guess they'll wait and see how the results go down in August and also where we are up to by September in terms of isolation periods and how much disrupted schooling there will be. Fingers crossed it's back to normal although I'm sure DS would be happy if they are made easier

Hope all year ten exams are going well. My DS finishes tomorrow thankfully.

I'm thinking of subscribing to tassomai or Seneca premium to help with revision for year 11. Anybody any experience of either of them and if they are worth the £££££? I can't believe the school year is nearly over

DD is through her exams now but wants to go with the change of school. They have provisionally offered a place but current school have sat on their part of form for 2 weeks though finally did it yesterday. They can offer 10 GCSEs, 9 she is doing (out of her 11) and 8 are very similar order and content, 9th is taught in reverse order so a year to catch up and 10th is new but DD has studied some of it already and really keen to take it. Not sure what impact will be on results, she says she will catch up over the summer but not sure what sets she will be put in, what target grades will be given etc and what happens if teacher assessment again but she is so unhappy at current school and they aren't offering any viable solutions.

She is very excited, trying on new uniform and seems happier, just hope it lasts.

Fingers crossed that it all works out @Silkiecats

When is she due to start?

We don't have a date yet as the new school have to get the application from the LA and its been on hold until current school reply, they sent it yesterday though so it says 10 working days from application received. It might be quicker as new school has been pre-warned and checked things. DD is hoping for Monday but doubt that is possible.

We had a Zoom parents meeting with DD’s head this week. She advised revision/consolidation over the summer, and there will be assessments in November February and May next school year, which will be used as evidence if they need to go to teacher assessed grades again. All seems a bit scary suddenly. Thankfully DD’s results so far have been good, though Physics, Maths and English still to be moderated, so she won’t get those until next week.

We haven't got results in so far but DDs already had masses of assessments and grades in y10 and they've all been fine. I'm not sure if they go to teacher assessment next year how far back they go for evidence - obviously new school will have y11 stuff but do they give y10 stuff as well, in theory can get it from old school if move (checked) but doubt in reality that will happen. I think if she works over the summer she should be fine by November or so assessments as its only 2 subjects to catch up and then she'll be a year ahead in History as done course in reverse. She says she has finished some of the GCSE courses already. I just find the whole thing so scary esp with the move, I have to not think about it too much.

DD thinks she needs to do about 3 weeks over summer and will also have UKMT Maths camp for a week so will only get 2 weeks holiday with us plus days out in London with friends but its what she chose.

Well done to your DD on the results and getting through exams HelloDulling Gosh am so glad DDs and DSs exams are over for this school year. Now I have DSs draft EHCP to go through. And then DDs school move. Just never ends but think it'll be like that for next 3 years as well with a y9 and y10 and GCSEs then A levels.

@zighead

My ds uses Seneca premium and really likes it.

Our school uses Seneca for homework/revision sometimes and I think my DC find it helpful. There is quite a lot available for free so you could try those before signing up to premium?

Glad to hear you have some progress on the change of schools for your DD @Silkiecats Hope it goes smoothly and the longer journey is straightforward. Is she thinking she would stay there for sixth form or move to the sixth form college? I guess you can't know until she has been there a while.

DS just has one subject to go next Thursday so finally feeling like I can ease off the pressure trying to get him to revise. I actually had a stress dream that I was in an English exam running out of time this week! Hope everybody else is doing ok, the end of term is in sight which feels very welcome (but at the same time a little bit scary!)

I think will just see how it goes re sixth form and also DD says it depends who is going where but at least she will know the one option really well. And if she does move to the 6th form college will know children from two schools.

No more news today but both in school and exams over for both and at least its the weekend. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

I fell off the thread and have just caught up (sort of). @Silkiecats hopefully DD is turning a corner and this move will help her settle. Sympathy and empathy for everyone - it is so tough being a parent. I hand on heart believe that this stage is so much harder than the little stage. At least when they were little we could just pick them up, or a hug was enough and they went to bed at a decent time. The stresses are different but gosh, it is so hard.

DS exams started on Friday and he is on study leave going in every day until Monday for one exam a day. He didn't even tell us about drama which wasn't a mock but 40% of his actual mark. I saw him walking home in non uniform and was and he casually said 'oh yeah, drama GCSE today'. It was before the timetable came out.

He is revising but his own way, he doesn't want any input as he says he is happy with what he is doing. He has also had a few library sessions where teachers are on hand. He has had History and Eng Lang so far and said he was happy with them, but they are his strong subjects. The problem really is that he is generally someone who does well so I am not sure if he will learn any lessons here as even if he drops we are talking 9 to 8 which he obviously still thinks is fine.

DS2 OTOH is year 8 and he is set up to not do well this year but has refused to even look at a book. I have told him that he can manage it how he sees fit this year, but once the results are in then things will change the way that I say instead. Not sure I can follow through really but I can curb the amount of time he goes out and spends gaming. He says he will still not revise but then I guess that is his choice. Giving him free rein to grow up and manage himself which was what he wanted isn't really working so I think we have to step up and be a bit stricter.

p.s Sixth Form open days/evenings don't appear on the horizon yet here.

Welcome back StColumbo Glad your DS is doing well but yes its very stressful and I wish they were younger at the moment esp with the exam chaos.

The council e-mailed to say they weren't processing the transfer of schools as even though I applied 3 weeks ago as her current school took 2.5 weeks to do their 1 page (which has about 4 questions on) and we missed the deadline. And we could start whole process again and fill in new forms. Argh. I e-mailed back and it said your e-mail will be answered in 10 working days hopefully. Then I phoned and after 15 minutes of constant sorry to keep you waiting someone answered who was like we aren't working now for the summer. I got like a ranting mad woman with them and they backed down and are putting it through as an exception and hopefully will hear in the next couple of days. I sent a message to both schools and mentioned the lack of support at current school and they replied saying they had offered lots of support but DD hadn't engaged.

And EHCP for DS is a complete shambles after taking 3 years to get this far, all the things he has issues with they have just put as current school staff to deal with. Then they have added in lots of stupid things like he goes off to another town by himself and has group therapy, this is a child who runs off with adults he doesn't know and goes mute and he has never gone anywhere by himself. Then they had a consequences for autistic behaviour section and to have punishments at school and at home, yes that's exactly what a mute anxious child needs and led to school refusal when they tried that before as well as refusal to eat or drink and pulling hair out. So trying to argue that.

Grades are coming in though not sure what is going on with them at the moment, some subjects seem to have taken all year 10 data away but overall they look fine, have dropped a little from before but still very high, will go to mainly 9s with a few 8s and one 7. Given she was very stressed and also didn't have full time in most of them its great. I'm not sure is the 7 is the right grade or the year 9 one.

Our sixth form open day has been cancelled and moved to September.

Fell off the thread as well, trying to catch up. Wow Silkiecats you're really going through it at the moment, hope that DD is more comfortable in the new school and that the ECHP is something which can be sorted. We don't have any experience of them but everyone I know who has been involved with them says they're so difficult to navigate.
Rollergirl so pleased that DD has been made a prefect and that she managed her Spanish speaking and most of the others.
DD's exams were the first two weeks back after half-term so finished here for over a week and results starting to trickle through, French made her cry twice so I'm quite amazed that she's apparently managed a 6. Also 6's in Biology, Physics and Geography, 7's in German and Chemistry, and 8 in Food Tech. Only the biggies left to come - Maths and English, and we'll have to have those back for Thursday as we've got parents evening on Zoom!!!!
The next hurdle is DofE residential in two weeks - walking from school to the moors, camping and cooking in groups Tuesday and Wednesday night . I can't see DD making it through the first night tbh as she's never actually camped in a real tent - we've glamped a couple of times but this is an entirely different matter............
Good Luck to those with exams still going - I can't wait to see the back of this year x