GCSEs - can bright children wing them?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Had some problems recently with my 15 year old dd and school. She is on the autistic spectrum and had some mental health problems at the start of Year 10 (so 6 months ago) resulting in erratic school attendance. She is managing to keep up but her attendance averages around 50%.

I am obviously quite worried about GCSEs next year. She is very bright and so far has done very well at school with not too much effort. I'm wondering how she will do next year if the pattern of school attendance continues.

Some people I speak to (including my own older children!) say that GCSEs are actually not that challenging for bright students. My oldest dd did pretty well and she admitted she didn't work that hard and she is probably not as bright as my youngest.

I know my dd's health is the most important thing and that GCSEs can always be done later on but I don't think spending more time on these exams is the best thing for her. She just wants them over and done with so she can get onto the next stage.

Thank you @Princessdebthe1st I am keen to address this with school but only with DD’s knowledge and permission. She was talking to her older sister about it who told dd it’s better it comes directly from her rather than a parent and suggested dd talks or emails the head of KS4 who is very helpful and approachable. So far dd hasn’t done it yet (it’s angst inducing for her) but she can also see the injustice of having this terrible teacher.

My DD is taking her GCSEs this summer, exams start next week. She is autistic and has ADHD. School is a trial for her. We finally got her EHCP in the autumn last year so there is funded support in place. She keeps going to school takes her meds and goes to after school revision club which helps as she hates doing "school" at home. But she is doing very well and we are hugely proud of her whatever the final grades, her determination to keep going and her resilience has been amazing. There may be a benefit to looking into an EHCP for your daughter op, we started the process in April 2021. The school didn't support us but the LA agreed it was needed. Whatever you end up doing good luck, it is not an easy time for any young person.

Ime yes...with a combination of luck (which questions come up on the papers) good working memory and good exam technique.

However, also ime, these kids then struggle at A level - which is a huge step up from gcses.

An A at gcse in no way equates to an A at A level!

Sorry that should have read A*!

I passed mine without doing any revision because I didn't know how to revise as had never needed to. But I had attended pretty much every class, I also didn't get straight As which confused people because I'd been a straight A student previously. I got a mix of A, B, C.

A bright child with good attendance will probably be fine. Mine eldest seemed to do very little at home and got mostly 8/9s. He’s got a good memory and is at a grammar who work them very hard whilst they’re there-and his attendance was good. . A neuro diverse child with mental health problems who has 50% attendance may find it might more difficult.

What’s her general motivation like-does she do lots of self-study at home?

I don't have good working memory, mine is atrocious (ADHD) although perhaps it was better when I was younger.

I had good exam technique through sheer luck - I happened to naturally write in the way exams require. I only learned about exam technique years later and I still don't really understand it. Struggling to teach my teen DC now.

ime yes with good attendance and an absorbant brain.

but the tests are not just about content but also about 'how to pass' itswim.

your dd really needs to start engaging

Yes. DS put practically zero work into revision. BUT he showed up and tuned in for the entire 2 years. Result was 11 A stars. He wasn't the only one. And this was a (now failing) comp.
DD probably could have done the same but is a worrier so used the belt and braces approach of actually revising. Same result and a much calmer mum!

Am I right in thinking your daughter is happy to do the work at home? @bendmeoverbackwards

If so I had one similar, and we negotiated with school and got extra support for her to study at home.
As an aside, I recently did gcse maths myself with an evening class. I struggle to concentrate in a class setting and got very little out of them, but managed a 7 by working through old exam papers qnd engaging with Hegarty Maths videos.

You say that she struggles with new people in terms of a tutor. Would you consider employing either one of her siblings or a sixth-form student to tutor her? Although it might not academically be as good as a qualified tutor, having someone just a few years ahead might give her the confidence that she needs.

I kind of did this. Well this was 1998. I did not attend any of year 11 in school. We bunked off every single day. I passed Science as it was multiple choice. I passed English because it's my aptitude and I was taught that mostly at home. I failed the rest because I didn't know what any of it was about. But I believe that if a child is "bright" as in naturally adept at a particular subject then they can wing the GCSE.

For the history/science/geography type onesI just read the appropriate revision books night before then regurgitated onto exam papers and got top marks. I didn't pay attention in class as I found school pretty unbearable.

What’s her general motivation like-does she do lots of self-study at home?

It's difficult to tell @Shinyandnew1 she hides away in her bedroom, likes her privacy and doesn't want me to get involved at all. However reports from school suggest she is currently doing ok.

They had end of year exams in the last few weeks (very early I know). Dd got up and went to school and sat all her exams and made an effort to get there on time. I am taking this a positive sign.

DS1 is autistic Yr11, has an EHCP. Massive mental health crash in Yr9. He technically had good attendance but was incredibly disengaged. Stays in the ASD provision which isn't set up for that.

He's doing much better now, but has dropped a lot of subjects. He managed all the mocks, with adjustments (smaller room extra time etc)
Won't pass science. Will likely pass his best subject (History) around a 5/6. Likely to squeak a low pass in English. Maths is more like a 3 than a 4, but he has a long history of loathing Maths. He's doing a Btec as well but it's only a Level 1.

We think we've found the right post-16 pathway, but it's only accessible with an EHCP, so I'd second what @AReallyUsefulEngine says

Most bright (rather than super duper intelligent) can wing GCSEs if they’ve had good attendance and paid attention in class, and probably get 7s pretty easily.

Depends if they’re satisfied with 7s. It will get them into the next stage of education. It might not help them into the most selective unis.

It depends what you’re capable of and aiming for. The super duper intelligent might get 8/9 without much work and just good attendance (as others say, you do need to know the content in lots of subjects) but most bright students will only get so far without some work.

In score schools 7s are top grades. Some kids and parents are thrilled with 7s. In other places and for other kids a 7 is a bit crap…so if winging it results in 7 when you wanted more, then it’s not a success.

Really depends if ‘success’ looks like a grade that allows you to do the subject at A Level, or if it’s a really top grade and the kind of grade needed for offers on competitive courses at top unis.

I'm not sure it's relevant what an NT bright child can do. Intelligence comes in very different forms. My autistic child is phenomenal at memorising so he has to work far less hard than a lot of peers with that part, and that can look a lot like winging it. However he can struggle with the technique of exams - figuring how to squeeze 16 marks out of a one sentence question, for example, moving on if you get stuck, doing questions out of order, being able to cope if you need the loo. This stuff needs to be taught much more explicitly to him than to NT peers, and it's actually more important for him than the memorising, because the latter comes so easily.

Your DD's profile will be different, but my general point is look widely at the barriers she has to squeezing every mark out of those papers. Look at skills, not just syllabus. It's relatively easy to cover syllabus at home, but what other exam prep might she be missing out on? Stuff like exam technique and social & emotional challenges in exams that bright, coasting NT kids might not even realise is a thing?

Has your daughter had any CBT therapy to cope with talking to strangers (tutors)? It sounds like there’s a lot of anxiety there but the fear is a doom loop spiral that will keep her locked away. The other thing is CBD oil. It might help her feel less anxious. A couple of drops before the tutoring lesson to take the edge off things? It’s fully legal and does help with anxiety. I’ve used Blessed CBD full spectrum. Quite expensive but worth it. Maybe try it as a whole family so she doesn’t feel alone doing it the first time? It’s just a plant after all with no psychoactive anything in it. You won’t be going on any kind of trip. Just feel a little more “normal”.

@JulieBeds no therapy for dd because that involves talking to people 😂 I am very keen for dd to accept some help but currently she just won’t.

Interesting about the CBD oil, is it safe to take and where do you buy?

I bought this one. Maximum strength, full spectrum. blessedcbd.co.uk/product/cbd-oil-1800mg/

but if you wanted a less potent one you could buy that instead. I can’t see the point myself. In for a penny in for a pound and is the most economical in the long run.

Blessed is one of the biggest most recognised suppliers in the U.K. I looked at many others but settled on this one. I may try another brand soon as it’s expensive but for the first time I wanted a place that was well known.

Even my 79 year old mum is taking it now to help with arthritis and sleep. She was v worried it might give her strange feelings but nope, nothing. There’s no THC the psychoactive ingredient in it. So yes it’s safe from that point of view. There’s a dosing suggestion in the product.

It's tricky - there is a company which offers digital homeschooling which my friend used for her daughter (she has ADHD and really suffered after the pandemic). That could be an option?

Thank you @JulieBeds

Well the first end of year exam result is in - History 48%. No idea what GCSE grade that equates to. Dd said she left one 8 mark question as she hadn’t revised it.

Have you thought of a more indirect type of therapy that doesn’t rely so much of verbal communication? Such as Art therapy, equine therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, gaming therapy… whatever would interest DD.

I know it doesn't feel like it now, but a lower mark does give you a chance to unpick what's going wrong for her. Is it a knowledge gap or a skills gap? It'll probably be really hard to talk her round to going through it with her but it could be a really key bit of info in figuring out what help she needs.

I think it depends on both how well she expects to do, and also how good her studying/study guides are. And the subject.

Some of the subjects I seem to remember (biology was one I think) need you to produce key words. So you could write everything correctly, but not use the key word, and get very little, or be not actually correct and use the key word and score highly.
That is very different to when I did it (my French teacher told us about one exam where one school translated a word (apparently the teacher couldn't remember the right word when teaching) as "the thing you put your ticket in and it stamps a hole in it" rather than "ticket machine" and were able to get the marks.

Ones like maths, if you're good at maths, are far easier to wing than some you need to have memorised facts and regurgitate them.

I would say it would be hard to tell currently how easy to wing they are. The first (just maths and I think English) new style GCSEs were only in 2017. More GCSEs went into the modern format in 2018 and 2019... and in 2020 and 2021 they were totally winged by doing teacher assessment.

I'd look at requesting tutors for her if possible.