General starting Y10 Sept 21, GCSE's 2023 thread

[Itsafouryearjourney]

Don't think there is already a thread??

I think our cohort have an 'interesting' time ahead and would definitely like to hear how others are finding it along the way. Will they get told they have had no disruption (!?) so everything can be normal come 2023 exams? But more importantly how will they adjust and and thrive whilst coping with being 14/15 and all that that entails AND studying?

Oh I wondered if there was a year 10 thread!

DD will be doing triple Sci plus Spanish, Computer Science, Latin and Music. It feels odd that she has no humanities subject, but she was very clear on what she wanted. I think she’s looking forward to getting stuck in at the beginning of term; she’ll have a busy time of it as she’s a musician and very tied up with extra-curricular but she’s been quite organised so far and I’m just hoping that will continue!

Got one starting Y10 too and she’s picked German, History, Drama and Economics

I think mumsnet must break the national average on the number of pupils choosing Latin! Back in my day when we only did 9 gcses I'd have done Latin if we could have chosen 10 subjects.

I noticed latin emphasis too. My girls both speak conversational Spanish (lived abroad for a bit and have a weekly conversation chat with a ‘tutor’) but dd1 doesn’t want to convert this into a gcse - too much work on tenses apparently, so latin it is and I don’t feel too guilty that she isn’t getting the experience of speaking a modern language. Year 7 sister wants to do the same.

@Tiggles

I think mumsnet must break the national average on the number of pupils choosing Latin! Back in my day when we only did 9 gcses I'd have done Latin if we could have chosen 10 subjects.

Latin is a completely new area for me, DD2 started it when in Y7 and just fell in love with it - Classics as well. A friend who is a teacher tried to advise against doing both at the expense of either History or Geography, but DDs school said to play to her strengths!

I saw the choice of Latin and classics and thought wow how amazing to be able to totally immerse yourself in the past like that.
My youngest (year 8) loves that historical period and is good at languages I think that would be an amazing choice he would love to do, but his school sadly don't offer either. I wonder if they might be able to offer classics if he starts asking now!

No harm in asking @tiggles, DD and her year group have been asking for both Food Tech and Astronomy as neither are offered at GCSE. They admit its too late for them but are trying for the younger students.

I have a DD starting Y10 & GCSEs. She's chosen French & Geography GCSEs & Health & Social Care BTEC & Engineering BTEC (both worth 2 GCSEs)
Plus the usual English Lang, English Lit, Dual Science (she doesn't like Physics so didn't want to do triple) Maths & RE.
I was surprised she chose Engineering over Art or Art & Photography as she's good at Art & her Art teacher did try to persuade her. However DD was put off doing Art because of the sheer amount of work & time that's involved.
In her last option choice none of the subjects really appealed to her apart from the Engineering as it was something different.

I just hope that there will not be any more disruptions to their education from now on.

DD won't be in lessons until next Tuesday because they have four days of testing to work through first - really big school and they won't let the students in until they have done both tests (not that they are compulsory of course, but we had over 90% takeup before). Surprised at the number of schools who let children start having done one. When we did the March sessions we found our positives on Test 2 and 3, not 1.

DD is starting year 10 next week, LFT on Tuesday, in to school Wednesday for 2 periods of tutor time then lessons proper start after break.

She's doing 2 x English, Maths and 3 x science as compulsory then they had to choose a language (French), a humanity (history) and 2 others which are Art and Music. Because everyone at her school does 3 sciences, they started that & the maths course in year 9, all the others start this year.

I'm really hoping they have a less disrupted time of it this year, she really struggled with home learning and her grades for both effort & achievement dropped off a cliff as a result.

DD is back in next Tuesday & has to go in on Friday for an LFT. The whole year group will then be tested again next Weds (the day after their first day back) and then we will be asked to do twice weekly LFTs at home. Well, at least, that’s how it is at the moment. Am also - like everyone else I should imagine - hoping for much less disruption this year, fingers crossed.

DD had to self-isolate only once last year when the schools were open and that was in the last week of the summer term when they sent home the whole year group.

But one of her friends in another school had 5 separate periods of being sent home to self-isolate because pupils she sat next to had tested positive .

I also have a DD starting Yr 10 next Tuesday. Not sure of the testing arrangements in the first few days without re-reading the end of term letter which seems like it was sent out 7 months ago rather than 7 weeks ago!

DD has to do 2 x English, Maths, 3 x Sciences as these were compulsory (unfortunately for her as definitely not her strong point), a language (Spanish), a humanity (History) and she has chosen to do Geography and PE.

Another sincerely hoping there is far less disruption for all school students this academic year.

Ds is back in on Thursday, has to do 2 LFTs before start of term (one 5 days before and one the day before).

Ds is back on Monday, dd in y11 back Wed but at different school

My DS goes into yr10 on Wednesday next week. He chose options back on yr8, 3 yr ks4 (though they don’t flag it like that 🙄) and he seems to have covered a fair amount of content already. I have no doubt this year will be extremely disrupted, so I’m very glad he’s already been working at gcse level for a year.

DD starts Y10 tomorrow.

Well DS technically goes back today but he is actually doing his bronze d of e expedition. Hoping all his class mates aren't doing too much work today.

DD went back yesterday, and is already worrying about French She was moved up 2 sets to top set where there is a lot more focus on speaking, so while she is good at reading and listening/understanding, she hasnt done a lot of speaking in her previous set so is panicking. I think she will be fine, but its going to be a testing few weeks until she settles I think.

@MayBlossom DD was contemplating PE but couldnt fit it in, it was definitely her 4th option had she been allowed more than 3. She is quite sporty but I think she underestimates the amount of theory in GCSE PE

(namechanged but already on thread!)

Another year 10 for the group. DD started back yesterday. 2 yr GCSE courses at her school. Options were Spanish, Geography, RS and PE. She is also taking triple science. They have baseline tests in a week or two so back to normal very quickly.

DS starting year 10, 2 year GCSEs. He only gets to choose 3 - compulsory is maths, English x2, double science, Welsh, some kind of general study and he has chosen triple science, history and computer science.

@LetTheCakeCool Yes, we made sure DD knew about the theory in GCSE PE, especially it being predominantly science which she doesn't enjoy. However, she seems much more interested in science relating to the human body. Her other option would have been Drama, but she got put off that when the teacher advised there is a lot more writing in Yrs 10 & 11 than there was in Yr 9.

DS1 starting year 10 on Wednesday he is still annoyed that as he was deemed "able" he had to follow the ebacc route (despite people on MN loving to tell me it doesn't exist anymore) so could only chose 1 option as had to do Spanish. He wanted to do PE and Engineering as he wants to do either of these routes post 16. In the need he went for Engineering as its a Btec rather than a GCSE and therefore not so reliant on the end of year 11 exam.

Hi, I've posted on education threads before (is it really 3 years since my DS1 started secondary school? Wow!) but fell off a long time ago. DS1 was back yesterday, I also have a DS2 who started back in year 8 today (they both had to go and have lateral flow tests).

I think DS1 could do ok but I'm a bit worried about focus and getting him to spend some time on his homework after all the disruptions of the last 18 months. He's made a bunch of really good friends at school, which is so local it's a shorter walk than my kids' primary school to get there - 5 minutes instead of 8 or 9 (most of his mates went to 2 or 3 other local primaries). They like to hang out in the local park, which is luckily less than 2 minutes walk from our house.

It's ok today but I do think he's going to have to get used again to putting in regular time to his homework. If we go back to everything being on exams at the end of year 11 he'll be better prepared for them if he works steadily, and if they have to do centre assessment the evidence will be better if he gets back to better work habits. He was pretty good and self motivated in year 7 but the last 18 months or so have been pretty strange for everyone.

My ds went back today. He seems mostly interested in who his teachers are and what friends he is with

He played football at lunchtime and didn't want to ditch his new trainers so played in his new white socks instead 🙄. Common sense is not one of his options🤣

Survived first week and is very tired but pretty happy. A bit of a wobble over one option subject, but I think we're OK, probably... Almost all teachers declared nice so phew to that. Lots to take in though and bigger site with longer walks between lessons, and a longer walk to school. More fresh air good though!