GCSEs next year and he can’t remember anything!

[ExTeacherNowJustMom]

So obviously we’re home learning at the moment. Starting to see real gaps in my 14 yr olds knowledge and understanding and I’m beginning to panic slightly. He probably knows less than 50 French words, struggles to memorise vocab and seems to not be able to answer even the quick/easy questions in revision books. In his English he struggles to pick out features in poems/writing and just seems to regurgitate stock phrases learnt from the model answers.

I believe he may have dyspraxia, which does affect memory, but does anyone have any tips on how to improve on vocab in French? We thought duo lingo app but it seems to cover things that aren’t in his exam.

Is it just going to have to be hard work and continual past paper practise etc or are there short cuts to help him catch up and score well?

My DD1 has dyspraxia.
With her it was practice and repetition that was needed, and sometimes explicitly showing links and ways of remembering.
She also needed a LOT of 1-1 help with revision as she couldn't organise herself otherwise or know when she was actually learning something, or not.
Luckily she did GCSEs under the 'old' system, where 60% of MFL was learning by heart (which she was good at) and 40% of English Lang was coursework.

So MFL is my subject. I guess he won't know yet which tier he is doing (or does he?) if not, no point doing past papers as F and H tier are very different.

There aren't any shortcuts but duolingo is good for vocab. If he us in yr 10 he won't have covered a good deal of vocab anyway so there will be things hasn't seen.

It's really about finding out how he remembers. Flash cards, post its on the fridge, mnemonics, songs or silly rhymes, mind maps, telling it to you?

For English, try using practice questions. There are lots online, not just past papers but also teaching resources. I think Teachit English is good with some useful tasks and suggested answers. Look at these and see if he can explain why this us the answer.

Thank you both. @clary He has been told he is doing Higher, he unfortunately had no choice but to take French in his options and has no choice but to do Higher. He really dislikes the teacher, who shows no passion for the subject and just uses powerpoints every lesson and has done since yr7. I think his attitude to French doesn’t help with learning it.

He loves YouTube so I’m wondering whether to encourage him to watch things on there by teachers. I’ve bought all the revision guides and revision flash cards and I’ve tried to break it down to learning a card every week. I think I’m just panicking because the GCSEs seem very close but I suppose it is classed as a 2 yr course so maybe things will improve as the year progresses.

@TeenMinusTests Do you think it would be worth my son’s while to get a diagnosis of dyspraxia? Would it benefit him in the long run? We have always believed he has some sort of dyspraxia. He still struggles with jigsaws, can’t catch or play sports very well, took ages to ride a bike, finds organising his time and following routines difficult, despite numerous prompts and reminders. He finds drawing freehand hard, enjoys colouring but only when it tells him the colours to use and is quite awkward when it comes to cooking/spreading butter etc. He struggles creatively, hence the problems with being able to answer creatively in English.

How would I go about getting him assessed? Is it more hassle for no real point? I’ve never mentioned to my son the thoughts we’ve had about dyspraxia, he just assumes he is just the way he is. He’s ok with that so I wouldn’t want to stress him out with getting a diagnosis if it wouldn’t improve things. I’d be interested in your opinion. Thank you.

Had a DS that also 'had' to take a MFL. He hated every second of it. Having experienced how much my son hated it with hindsight I'd have let him focus on the subjects he did enjoy and ultimately continued with. French ended up sucking time away from the subjects he really needed to do well in like English, Maths and Science. I know he would have done much better in his other 8 GCSEs had he not wasted time trying to get the French to go in!

@HappySonHappyMum Unfortunately, at his school, they’ve only entered him for 8 GCSEs so he needs to pass French and not leave it. Plus it’s all part of the baccalaureate now too. I’m so annoyed, cos if lockdown last yr hadn’t happened we’d have had a meeting and I could have argued the case for him not doing French. But we had no choice, he could only choose 2 options (he chose Geog and Psychology, both of which he enjoys).

My DS worked his socks off to try and get French for his Baccalaureate - got a 3 and didn't get it. In fact he only got 7 GCSEs out of his 9 and he still got onto the courses he wanted at sixth form and he's now doing highly sought after apprenticeship. His school insisted that students took subjects which would give students the Baccalaureate qualification - but they admitted this was just because it would make them look better in the league tables. It's up to him of course but I wouldn't sacrifice better grades in Maths and English struggling with a subject you're not going to continue with.

@HappySonHappyMum Yes, we are in the same boat. I think if we still feel the same way this time next year, then we may just admit defeat and focus on getting the English and Science, which are both worth 2 GCSEs each. Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking might happen, it has put my mind at rest that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t pass his French. Thank you.

It's never the end of the world - I was completely freaked out with my DS with the thought of him failing and I have to admit when he got his GCSE results I was pretty devastated because it became clear to me that despite all the effort he'd put in, the revision he'd done and the time he'd spent, it hadn't translated into excellent results. But the results he did get got him onto an excellent BTEC Engineering course and he came out with two D* and an A level. The Engineering apprenticeship has followed and it's all worked out well for him in the end. Have to say though that period from 15-19 is stressful because you have to start letting go and trust that they are capable of the responsibilities they need to fulfil. Good luck to your DS.

Thank you for your post, I’m so glad it has all worked out brilliantly for your son. I think I need to readjust my expectations for my DS and admit that it’s ok not to be good everything. I was always a straight A student, very studious and actually enjoyed revision timetables etc. But I’m gradually starting to realise that actually, it’s ok not to be a straight A student. You have really helped me to change my thinking about this, so thank you @HappySonHappyMum.

DD1 didn't get an official diagnosis until autumn of y11 and I would say it really helped. We too had suspected for a long while, but things became more obvious in secondary.

• By being able to 'name' the problem it has made it much easier to explain, to peers, teachers, and now the workplace
• It helped her understand she really couldn't help how she was
• It helped her 'buy-in' more to strategies to help her
• School assessed her properly and she got extra time for exams
• As an aside, she dropped a subject (History) after mocks. She had bombed out in History & English language but the diagnosis really explained why (and it wasn't just a matter of trying harder)
• Lots of other things that we didn't realise were linked to dyspraxia came to light

I 100% think it was worth it.

To get her assessed we went to the GP with a printed out checklist from the dyspraxia website with all her struggles ticked. She was referred to OT for assessment and the school had to get involved somehow too. I think you could also just start with the SENCO.

Even without assessment, ask school for a check on processing and handwriting (unless already uses a laptop?) as you don't need a formal diagnosis for exam concessions, just to score badly enough on their tests.

Thank you @TeenMinusTests

Hi OP I meant to post earlier, I am surprised he has been told he has to do higher, especially if he looks as if he may not get a high grade.

I would never put a student in for higher unless they were a pretty strong candidate for a 6 tbh. It's a lot easier to get a 5 on foundation than higher - yes you have to get a higher percentage, but the questions are a lot easier (as indeed they should be).

If you really think he only knows about 50 French words, I would be tempted to push back on the higher decision and suggest he do foundation - if you know now you can focus on what you need for that.

I know the spec pretty well so feel free to PM me if you want to know more.

Ds is doing Scottish higher French now. His teacher and text books give him vocab for the areas covered in the syllabus - employment, culture etc.

What helped him improve was to write his own flash cards.

Ds found it easier initially to see the French side and translate to English, then swapped them around. Did 15-20 minutes 5-6 nights a week and tried to make it fun, we did it on the sofa in the living room an hour before bed and just had a laugh/fake accents/lots of cheers/no pressure. We used spaced repetition technique (Thomas frank youtube video on flash cards and spaced repetition is good).

Once he got better at words his confidence improved and he moved onto short sentences, again selected from syllabus and written himself.

Have you heard of oaka books? They do revision guides for dyslexic students. They're expanding to GCSE now so I'm not sure if they have some just yet but worth a look. They've been amazing for my DD.

Thank you everyone.

. @clary I think because he’s in top set for everything (low performing comprehensive so it’s not difficult to be in top set, if you see what I mean) they have told them they are sitting higher, no discussion. As soon as there is mention of a parents meeting, I’ll be asking about putting him into foundation. Following on from this thread, I’ve told him we will put more energy into his English, which he is so worried about, and put French on the back burner. I’d rather he felt confident in his other subjects and did well in the core subjects rather than spend forever on French which he isn’t going to study post16.

His teachers did an assembly yesterday and they were fairly sure that the 2022 exams will be impacted in some way so I’ve got everything crossed that they will do centre assessed grades, then he may have a chance with French!! When they covered how much time they have had off, it was frightening! Since the first lockdown, he has only done 43 days in school (had covid in Nov plus bubble closure for 2 weeks). Surely they can’t expect them to sit exams that are 2019 standard???

OP, unless there are still lockdowns going on next year (please no!) I don't think you should pin your hopes on CAGs in 2022.

I think more likely they will do reduced syllabus / more choice in questions / lower grade boundaries.

I really don't think they will do CAGs next year if all is back to normal after this lockdown. With that train of thought you will be doing CAGs for the next 5 years. My DD is in Y8 and she has missed most of Y7 content last year (they go over y6 content first term) and now Y8 too. She's having to choose GCSE options with practically y6 knowledge. This will be the case with all kids. The younger will hopefully be a me to catch up but that's very difficult to do once you're in Y5 and up.
It's effected all years groups. I would hope though that given the situation they will be more flexible in changing to foundation.

A reduced syllabus would definitely help. Maybe they will use a mix of coursework, school graded work and then an end of year exam?? Who knows what that idiot will come up with, Williamson never seems to plan ahead so we probably won’t know until after the 2021 exam results are completed. As GCSEs are classed as a two year course, surely the fact that yr 10s have missed nearly a term, not even including school imposed isolations/covid, will mean they HAVE to acknowledge this is in the 2022 exams. Yrs7-9 are in a different situation, with time on their side to have interventions and catch up programmes. I don’t know though, I think we will be seeing the repercussions of covid for decades.,

I've got a y11...

Don't expect anything regarding the y10s until Sept at the earliest.

I think repercussions will definitely be felt for a long time. They may be able to catch up but it definitely think grade boundaries will be very low for the next 5 years.

Do you foxes ? I can see for the current y10s, but below that I can forsee at least for core subjects grade boundaries bouncing back. I think schools will put effort in catching up core subjects at the expense of more optional / creative ones.

I think in the grand scheme of things yes. I teach dyslexic students and a lot of this sort of thing isn't being picked up on at the moment/ given interventions as all kids are behind.

I think certainly for the current y8s, the grade boundaries will be low. Subjects like English and Maths really rely on previous knowledge and they build on it. It's v difficult to jump to Shakespeare when their basic analytical and writing skills are poor. Maths is even harder to teach when they're so far behind.