Anyone want a thread for starting year 10 this autumn?

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If so, here it is!

Hoping not to be Billy NoMates...

Joining you! Dd has left today to do WE with sil who is the other end of the country, I feel bereft, but super proud of her for getting the train and putting herself out of her comfort zone a bit, sil will look after her very well I’m sure. Definitely going to be quiet round here.

Mocks were last week, with DoE in the middle, she didn’t do enough revision, which apparently is my fault (why wouldn’t it be). 6th form colleges have had open events too, and dd has decided on where she wants to go, and it does look amazing, and has a short list of a-levels. I did slightly cringe as we went round & she asked questions like ‘is there much writing?’ 🙄(to be fair English is her weakest subject).

Nearly at the end now. Think next year is going to be stressful!

We’re done for the term now. Phew. Finished on a high with unexpected school prizes, which was a real confidence boost and should stand her in good stead for the more competitive 6th form applications. There will be work to do over the summer, especially as she has to take 16+ exams for some 6th forms, but for now she is chilling and de-stressing by doing lots of cooking and baking. If we’re not careful we may all be a stone or two heavier by this time next year!

We've been having the awkward 'which A levels do you want to do?' conversation - which just results in. 'i don't like any subjects'.

Any tips when for when your child has no clue what they want to do.

@shamoola We had similar 6 months ago: “I don’t like any subjects except French”. Which was better than nothing I suppose! Then recently she came home from school saying “X is talking about maybe doing Economics so I might have a look at that”. Their thinking will evolve in the process of doing mocks and GCSEs. There is still time.

Do you have a list of subjects offered at your sixth form? That’s somewhere to start, at least.

My dd has been looking at subjects she does best in, which is Spanish and science, she’s thinking of psychology maybe. A couple of local colleges did open days where they could pick to do a few sample lessons which was really useful. Helps that dd is much better at languages and sciences than English & humanities.

@Marisquita I originally read your post as your DD having to sit over 16 different exams for sixth form applications! 😆 Considering both mine did the 11+ I should have been quicker on the uptake! What do those exams typically look like, will it be prep that’s directly useful for gcse too?

@MiniMidiMaxi no, thank goodness she won’t try for more than (probably) 2 really competitive ones, with the others happy to make conditional offers based on an interview and school report.

Those that set 16+ exams tend to make them as revision-proof as possible, typically setting reasoning and problem-solving rather than knowledge-based questions, often with a topical and/or philosophical essay title thrown in. King’s Canterbury is not one of our targets but is one of the few which publishes past papers - see e.g. in case you’re interested https://www.kings-school.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Sixth-Form_-General-Paper-2019-1.pdf

Otherwise any prep is likely to be based on past questions from the TSA (Thinking Skills Assessment), which is for Oxbridge entry but along the lines which competitive 6th forms are looking for. Not sure it’ll help for GCSEs exactly but should stand her in good stead for later studies. I did Westminster 6th form entry back in the day myself, definitely no prep involved as I was at boarding school and sworn to secrecy about my mother’s plan to move me!

Anyway, lots to think about, and we need to get DD very up to speed on topical matters if she wants to pass interviews for (especially) Economics A-level. We had a talk about the recent interest-rate rise, and her understanding of what that meant and why it was a tool of monetary policy left a lot to be desired!

Thats an interesting exam paper @Marisquita, I can imagine that being more enjoyable than knowledge based GCSE type questions! DS wants to stay at his current school for sixth form, and will need 57 GCSE points from his top 8, but it’s harder for external applicants - if they get an offer they need the same points, but in reality need to be predicted a fair bit higher to get an offer.

There are usually subjects not tried before on offer which may be of interest:

• psychology
• gov/pol
• ethics and philosophy
• Eng lang (vv different from GCSE)
• film studies
• media
• business

Or there are college courses offering BTECs which may focus on one area - catering, sports science, engineering?

I did sociology A-level and absolutely loved it. One of the colleges we visited did environmental science A-level which looked really interesting, dd briefly considered classical studies, I think the choices are quite overwhelming really.

There aren’t any school 6th forms in our area, and as well as a choice of 6th form colleges there’s technical colleges and a college specialising in outdoor occupations, land management, agriculture, equestrian studies etc. My nephew is off to tech to study building trades with the hope of doing a trade apprenticeship. Knew a kid a few years ago who became a farrier through the outdoor Ed college.

We had a "What to expect in Year 11" evening at DS' school yesterday. Most of the time was devoted to being in school and getting to lessons on time.

My son's school may, or may not, have a sixth form by the end of next year but we will be going to all of the open evenings (all next term) locally and applying widely.

My son did well in his summer term mocks and is upbeat as a result. He is sure he wants to do History A level, fairly sure he wants to do English Lit, and not sure at all about the third choice, except that it won't be Maths DP did 5 A-levels back in the day and is adamant that it's not worth doing more than 3. DS also wants to do EPQ and is sure of his subject too.

I guess something like philosophy and ethics or politics and government would be a good third to accompany English Lit and History. Unless anyone else has better ideas?

@Waspie those do sound like good third-subject options. DD briefly looked at Philosophy and Ethics before pronouncing it to be “RE in disguise”! She may well do Gov and Pol. Economics also in the mix - would that be too mathsy for your DS? I find the spec for Economics more interesting than Gov & Pol but it’s not me choosing 😀

Thanks Marisquita. Yes, I have a feeling DS with reject P&E as too much like RS too. Economics is an interesting one to consider - I'll take a look.

One of the local colleges does "Film Studies" which looks great, but I would worry that it wouldn't be considered a "real" subject for uni entry. I think the Govt and Politics spec looks really good but, as you say, I'm not choosing

@Waspie in conjunction with other stuff Film Studies is fine unless there is some vocational path that requires specific A levels, e.g. medicine. Film Studies demonstrates and develops all of the same skills at English Literature, the medium is just different.

We''ve had a busy summer visiting unis for DS1 which will continue into Autumn, which is when our Sixth Form/College open days also start. DS2 still has no idea, we are going to look at T levels, A levels (at his school) and Btecs as well as specialist colleges e.g. film type stuff and possibly catering college. We are in London so he has a lot of options, as long as he gets decent grades. He has no idea what he wants to do and as another poster above, doesn't 'like' anything. He is not confident that the exams have gone well, though he did do some cursory last minute revision, but he needs little and often.

We have a revision plan and he has agreed to my help from Sept. It is spoon feeding but I cannot sit and watch him fail and have no options next year. I'm hoping that once he is in the habit the rest will come.

He is on work experience this week and has learnt how to navigate the tube :-) so that is something.

Thank you @StColumbofNavron, that's helpful. DS currently wants to do a modern history degree perhaps then with a law conversion after this. We shall see. Or not going to uni at all (this changes from day to day).

My son's school sent out a letter about T levels last week linking to a .gov.uk website T Levels They do look like a very interesting option.

Navigating the tube system is certainly a life skill . Little and often for revision is a good plan. I've just bought DS some revision cards from Amazon so that he can start doing some flash cards over the summer.

This is precisely DS1's plan (but def not modern - that is my thing). If helpful, he takes Spanish, History and Classics. I reckon if history + film studies + A N Other essay (or language) is prob good.

If considering T levels at this early stage of their evolution, be aware that there are some concerns about whether sufficient employer placements will be available:

https://feweek.co.uk/red-tape-and-cost-pressures-leave-firms-struggling-to-offer-t-level-work-placements/

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/news/194988/government-must-pause-post16-education-shakeup-or-risk-making-skills-shortages-worse/#:~:text=DfE%20research%20also%20showed%20employers,progressed%20to%20a%20T%20Level. (See the section on “What needs fixing”).

@StColumbofNavron if film-type stuff is in the mix for your DS2, is the London Screen Academy on your radar? We went to an impressive open evening there.

Yes, that’s the one I am referring to. I did watch their online open evening and it looks amazing. No idea if it will appeal but just trying to put as much in front of him as possible to help him pick a pathway for 16-18.

I did read that about T Levels and it’s only the second year of them running so they don’t really have enough evidence of success behind them yet.

DS has now finished for the summer, much to the annoyance of his younger brother who has a week to go. He’s talking vaguely about doing some study - he’s not got much planned apart from our family holiday. Any plans for summer study amongst your DC, or other more exciting stuff?

I did sociology a-level and lived it, it worked well alongside history, both subjects where writing a decent essay is the core skill.

loved

DD hasn't got a clue about what she wants to do, and is having trouble accepting that growing up is on the radar. She's sticking her head in the sand and hoping life will always be the way it is today. So I don't want to push her too much.

However, she's very bright and excels at academic subjects. She enjoys them but enjoys the arts more. I'm sure that her teachers will be encouraging her to take up the academic subjects for a level, but she's likely to push back and drift into art or film a levels. It'd be a struggle too far (at the moment) to get her to consider t level, or other 16-18 options.

I wouldn't mind either way, so long as there is a plan and strategy around which direction she's heading. She won't contemplate either 🤷‍♀️

Dd just back from work experience, went to spend a week with her aunt who’s senior at Lancaster. Did a project with their analytics team and is now wondering about statistics a-level. So the short list is Spanish, psychology, statistics, biology chemistry.. Think Spanish is a definite. So difficult to narrow it down when they’re only 15 making these decisions.

My eldest is doing A'levels in Law, Geology and Environmental Science so totally all new subjects. This is at a college rather than sixth form, the former often giving a wider scope of subjects than a school sixth form can. (Not really an option in my area)

DS - is my just about to finish yr 10. His exams were dreadful. I know his English teacher is going to be looking at the potential of a scribe for him (just had a new teacher) He has other allowances for exams in other subjects.

He desperately wants to do Maths A level, and whilst his target grade is okay for that, his others are mainly 2-4's.