Anyone up for a GCSE handholding thread?

[BaconAndAvocado]

DS2 has his GCSEs in June. He had mocks in November and more (why??) next month.
He needs to get 5 6s to stay at his current school (IB, not overly keen) or to transfer to another local 6th form.
He said he’s going to start revising this week......
Think his school will be helping him devise a revision timetable this week. I’ve bought him flashcards, he just needs to knuckle down now.......

DC came home after two exams today saying that one child had been disqualified from one of their mock exams as they had words written on their hand. So yes, also very strict here.

I’ll join please! DD sat mocks in November and next lot will be in March. I’m not expecting her to revise specifically for those, as she’ll be underway with revising for the real deal. Just hoping she does enough to enable her to move on to the next stage in her life. Can’t say more than that really. I sympathise @SolitudeNotLoneliness as mine’s had a tough time in the same way as yours. I’d definitely echo being there to ease what is a stressful time with cups of tea, Haribo, tissues, etc etc.

DS2 has officially started his revision. He stayed late at school for a Maths revision session then came home and did some Biology. Hope he keeps up the momentum 🤞🏻

@BestofLuck that’s just it - as long as they do well enough to get onto whatever they want to do next then you can chalk it up as a success.

we lost ds1 a bit during covid. He found online learning much harder to engage with than face to face and became pretty unmotivated. He’s a very bright kid and could have got a really good set of GCSE results, as it was he got a fairly average set - but good enough to get onto his preferred college course. He’s absolutely loving college and is thriving. There’s the potential for him to get onto an apprentice in the next couple of years which he would love.

We could have nagged and nagged him to do more revision, but that wouldn’t have got us anywhere. We have managed to maintain a great relationship with him and I couldn’t be happier for him just now.

If I didn't help my son he'd do no revision. He has no motivation. I've tried leaving him to it in the past but he just procrastinates. And I fear if I just leave him to it now he will end up failing. He's another one that won't achieve his full potential. He's by no means a straight 9's student, but he's capable of more if he only tried.

Some kids get through it better on their own, some need help with personal organisation. We know our own children best, people leave snarky messages about this stuff when they can't be arsed to help their own kids, it doesn't make them either correct or an expert on other people's children.
In fact the area of their brain where executive function ( personal organisation) occurs isn't even finished developing yet.

frontal lobes

The frontal lobes, home to key components of the neural circuitry underlying “executive functions” such as planning, working memory, and impulse control, are among the last areas of the brain to mature; they may not be fully developed until halfway through the third decade of life [2].

This is my second round of GCSE's ( firstborn took them two years ago). I am monitoring my DS's revision as he procrastinates when left to his own devices. He prefers it when I am there to keep him going.

Interesting what you say about Executive functioning my younger child is autistic but at mainstream and has shocking executive function it’s so hard to just constantly support. If I hadn’t got a child like this I wouldn’t have got it at all and probably have been that critical parent as my oldest just gets on with stuff. We didn’t have ASD confirmed until age10, so for years I’ve been scaffolding every aspect of their life. Every single morning they can’t remember what goes in the school bag despite lists, visual reminders etc Arrhh! I’m dreading when they get to GCSEs.

pinkflop I think I’m going to find it hard not to “helicopter “ too much. It’s finding that balance between being a helpful parent and being overbearing/annoying as then he’ll shut down.
DeadbeatYoda that’s interesting about the organisational function of the brain developing last.

DS1 doing GCSES this summer. Mocks were in December with another lot in March.
He got a range from 4 in German to a very unexpected 8 in Eng Lit (and just scraped a 5 in Lang).
I've signed him up to school revision sessions fo English after school once a week as that's his weakest of the core ones. He's not impressed.
At best he is doing one hour revision a night and a few hours on Saturday. We have a no homework rule on Sundays.
He doesn't have a job or any hobbies really (except parkrun on Saturday mornings if I can persuade him).

He has a German GCSE revision app, another one for English quotes and a physics one but barely touches them, preferring bitesize.

His school were very strict in the mocks and a couple of his peers are only now allowed to sit the lower papers due to talking to other students / not handing in phone.

So glad I've found this thread. Think I'm more stressed than my DD. She's barely scraping by at the minute. Mocks were a mixture of ok and awful. She's a bright girl, did really well on SATs but a mixture of covid, teachers not being replaced and just not working hard enough mean she's in top sets but really not achieving her predicted grades. It's so difficult! I've got her signed up for tuition and school are doing loads now but it's hard to catch up!

Does anyone have good App for chemistry higher AQA revision? We didn’t realise she would need a min6 in Chemistry to do Alevel Biology, as she should do ok in Physics & Biology but the Chemistry always hovered around 5-6. Due to travelling with sport training she does bits of revision on the go.

Thanks for starting this thread Bacon Does anyone have any advice with regard to technology? Are there websites which block access to websites such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram while allowing access to the websites they do need?

I can totally relate to what you're saying @blue23blue, I'm definitely more stressed than my son! He also did well in SATS, is in all the top groups but covid and lack of/turnover of teaching staff at the school plus his can't be bothered attitude have meant he's failing some subjects.

We had parents' evening last night and actually I feel better for it, which is a surprise! He's performing very well in both German and history (the subjects where he's had consistent, quality teaching), will probably get a 6 in maths and will definitely pass science. English is a bit more unsure, he was 1 mark off a 4 in both Lang and Lit in his mocks. To be honest, all we need is for him to get 4's. However, food prep and construction are a shitshow, with no teachers (he had a music teacher standing in yesterday) and currently no plans in place as to how the school are going to address the situation.

The impact of covid and staff turnover has really been felt at my daughters school as well. At times it’s been weeks of cover and they just can’t maintain momentum on learning. There’s still large parts of the curriculum that my DD says they haven’t covered yet 😞 we are just hoping she moves to college for A’Levels. She’s not sure as it’s a longer commute than 10min walk but the results are so much higher so we are “strongly encouraging” her 😩it’s hard as it’s her decision I just hope she has the courage to try it.

it's a tough climate for schools, isn't it? DD1 hasn't had a consistent biology teacher throughout the GCSE course. The school only has one, and during her mat leave there's been a series of not terribly inspiring supply teachers. They have just recruited someone but who know if they'll a) be exceptional enough to cover the lost ground, and b) stick around? I am not blaming the school, they're doing their best , but it's a shame for the kids.

On a positive note DD1 was offered a 6th form place yesterday. It's her least preferred option as although very decent it's a really long commute, but it's reassuring to have something in the bag.

I have found my people!
DS had previously confessed to scoring a 3 in his maths mock, so we had arranged for private tutoring. He brought home a report of his results last night and actually a 3 for Maths & science we're his best results!
He was forecast 5/6's but has only attained 1/2's!
I am horrified and cross with him and also the school as this is the first sign we've had that he's failing so badly. I have asked the school for a meeting to discuss what's going on and how we can try to turn this around. Any ideas what I should be asking them to put in place to support DS?
DS is not speaking to me because he is furious that I have arranged tutoring and a meeting with his teachers?!
I want to support him but I am also cross with him because ultimately, he's choosing to not put in the work or ask for help.

Ds used the CGP revision guides. After revising every topic, he'd do the fact recall and application questions and cross reference with the answers at the back to look at the wording or check his working out.

We have the same issue with maths, a revolving door of teachers and it showed in the mock results before Christmas. We have parents evening at the end of the month and i know that even if I mentioned it we will be told that it is what it is and little they can do. Ds school is up to 16 only and feed into the college for ALevel but we are also going to look around another school, but we would not get transport which would be difficult.

Similar here. DS has been bringing home mainly 5s until now, then his mocks were mainly 3s and 4s (more 3s than 4s). I am hoping that it's just meant to be a shock to encourage him to work, but it's got me really worried that he'll lose confidence and not put the work in.
I've gone from encouraging him to turn 5s to 6s, to not quite knowing how to support him.
He's not the most hard working of kids, but he attends revision sessions at school, attends school (!), does homework and tries to revise. All of that I think at least deserves 4s and 5s.

I think with “no covid exemptions”in place for this cohort at exam time the impact is still being very much felt and the gap in attainment between schools due to under resourcing is really hitting this year group. My youngest child is at a different secondary school and it’s eye opening the extra opportunities I can see they are getting already compared to their sibling sadly. I see a lot of posts from neurodiverse groups and reading information like a third of kids will “”fail”” at gcse level in order to have the grade curve is frankly horrendous when it’s the system failure not the kids 😞.

@BrightGoldenHazeintheMeadow my DD set one up on her laptop as she found herself getting distracted by other websites, or the temptation at least. I’ll ask her what it was called and report back.

Thanks so much BestofLuck

Got an email from DS2’s school today....they’ve offered the students after school Intervention sessions and have said they will introduce sanctions for non-attendance!
Parents can opt out of this if their child has other after school commitments, issues with transport etc.
I will opt in and have told DS2 I expect him to attend.
The school’s 2022 GCSE results weren’t great so I think they’re pulling all the stops out now.

We had parents evening this week. My DD 's school does what they call morning maths. It's basically a few questions that they do every morning in tutor time.

Apparently the reason for this is they are the same format questions that come in the first section of the GCSE paper so it means when students open the paper the first questions are a familiar style for them and it eases them into the longer questions.

That sounds like a good idea.