Year 10 - 2023/2024 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

Hi all

A new thread for those needing support (or just wanting to chat or rant!) with teens heading into their GCSE years.

Healing vibes to all with poorly DCs. @minisnowballs - your poor dd! I hope she's getting some good R&R this week.

Dd finished last Friday. No exams for her until her end of year ones in May but she has an actual mock the second week back for her gcse that she's taking at the end of this academic year. She'll do some revision for that after Christmas. Her report was good. All 8s and 9s so no worries there!

Otherwise for us it's just a bit of a flop to look forward to after a hectic term. Dd has just had her 15th birthday so we've had all that and a party etc. so no rest just yet. Flopping after today though!

Hoping all the ill dc’s have a good rest and recovery over the holidays.
DS broke up last Friday and has been out and about with his mates to Nando’s and power league and is karting with his football team tomorrow but is still managing to chill.
His end of term report was mixed as usual-great marks in Maths and Spanish and then fairly average in everything else.
He isn’t failing anything and is happy with a good bunch of mates so am thankful for that.

Ds will turn 15 on Saturday, it’s always tricky having his birthday that close to Christmas! We have booked breakfast out at a fancy cafe, and in the afternoon he just wants to meet mates in town. I always feel a bit sad because it’s hard to arrange a day out two days before Christmas. But for his birthday present we’ve bought a tour of Old Trafford (he’s a big Man U fan) to do in Feb half term, so something to look forward to.

@SB1971 there’s a LOT to be said for a happy DC with decent mates (and the not failing bit too!)
Mine broke up last Thursday afternoon and we’re currently all away in the snow and feeling a bit more Christmassy. It’s definitely a break from it all as everyone was pretty exhausted. DDs report gave grades too but as two - so 6/7; 5/6 etc. Very helpful and included where to improve. Now to heed the advice.

Ds broke up weds. He's had so many tests and mock exams the past few weeks. So he will be glad for the rest. Ds2 is home for uni and has so much work to do, so no rest for him. He's driving back to Brighton Boxing Day as needs to use the library. So it'll just be ds3 for the rest of the holiday. Ds1 has been travelling since January, currently in Australia. So he is not here this Christmas.

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas.

Dd has just started on some revision for her one mock that she has the second week back for her early gcse.

I'm treading the fine line between not wanting her to get too stressed (it is only one gcse after all) but also wanting her to have good habits and not to think that she doesn't need to put any work in!

@QueenMabby good luck with your DD's mock. What subject is it?

We've had a good Christmas and I think the DCs have been able to relax quite a bit, although they have been ill through the holidays too. Absolutely no school work done during the holidays yet. They go back on the 9th so will have to do some homework at the weekend.

DD vomited this morning when it was supposedly first day back. Her sisters have both been ill too so I think there must be a bug going around. There’s a 48hr rule so needs to miss tomorrow. Not the best start to the term/new year. 🙄

@DataColour - it's Classical (ie Ancient) Greek! Bit of a random one but she enjoys it. She's learnt it from scratch and done the gcse all off timetable in two years so it's been a lot of work!

@NotDonna - sorry to hear your dd is poorly. There are a lot of bugs going around at the moment. Hope she's not too ill with it.

Hello! I’m re-joining after being on the Year 9 thread at the beginning under a different name, before being off MN for a while.

DS is also ill (no vomiting, just a headache & cough) which is a shame as it might prevent him from going to see a musical with his school tomorrow.

Happy New Year all! Hope those who are ill feel better soon, there seem to be some nasty bugs going around.

DD is in the midst of Jan exams, two today and two tomorrow and six more next week. Heating at her school is broken in some areas so that is not great, they are hoping it can be fixed on Monday. It will be interesting to get the results of these exams as I don't really have a feel for how DD is doing and what her predicted grades are likely to be. She has set herself high targets and did do some work in the holidays but not huge amounts, hopefully she is getting the balance right.

Hi all happy new year! We had parents evening on Monday, mostly very positive. He needs to pull his grades up in maths and chemistry, but having said that both teachers said he works steadily in class and no issues with his homework. All other subjects were very pleased with where he’s at.
I find I do have to keep reminding him to go and do some work though!
There’s a lot on with school musical rehearsals and sports matches, it’s hard to get the balance right.

@WriterOfWrongs - welcome! I think we're also in the yr 13 thread together too? Sorry to hear your dd is poorly - hope he feels better soon.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse - that's a lot of exams! What for? We have some set just before May half term but that's "end of year" and the only big exams they have. I hope your dd isn't too stressed and fingers crossed for the results.

@MissyB1 - glad your DS's parents' evening was positive. We don't get ours til March which seems quite late.

DD had her Greek mock today in readiness for her GCSE in May. It's a 1 1/2 hour exam but she said she was finished in 30 mins! That made me slightly nervous but she's done plenty of revision so we'll wait and see what the result is like. She's generally a very quick worker and promised me she checked through all her answers. Fingers crossed she didn't miss anything!

@QueenMabby they are "mid-year assessments" so I presume she will have another set at the end of the year! They are doing them for all subjects so three for languages, english language and lit, all three sciences etc.

Had an email this evening to say that the heating is now not working at all so school may be closed tomorrow! They have someone there trying to fix it. I guess we will find out in the morning.

Oh no @IThinkIMadeItWorse - that sounds horrible. This is not the weather to have broken heating in! Hope it gets fixed soon.

@MissyB1 that's great that's parent's evening went well. It's such a relief isn't it. Ours is not till April!! It is hard to get the balance right that's for sure what with sports and music.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse good luck to your DD with her upcoming exams, that's quite a lot, hope they go well.

@WriterOfWrongs welcome! Hope your DS feels better soon. Did he miss out on the musical?

@QueenMabby I bet your DD did well in her exam if she's a fast worker and well prepared. My DS did his grade 5 music theory test in under 30mins when he had 2hrs to do it and my heart sank when he told me as I thought he might have missed out questions or something - but he got a distinction!

@IThinkIMadeItWorse oh no re heating! What a pain...
@QueenMabby I suspect she's done extremely well. If you know ancient Greek, you know it... the time is kind of irrelevant.

Both my girls and my ward are back in school after a very long but safe trip back from Kyiv in our ward's case and a thankfully less long drive back to the boarding house for DD2.

Not sure DD2 - in Y10 -has focused on any actual work yet (just music) but we've set her a challenge to ensure she uses her prep time for work this term. She gets an hour and a half prep time at night and spends an awful lot of it playing tetris as they still have their computers.

This doesn't seem to have impacted on her grades so far but I think that the workload will catch her out later as the music won't slow down as she gets closer to exams. Last night she was writing her programme notes for her first lunchtime concert and kept calling me to read them to me. Like I am any help! Also trying to ensure she actually reads some books - something that seems to have gone utterly by the wayside in the last term.

She did no work over the hols (they set none) so I'm a little antsy. All her friends at the local school she's left had absolutely tons. And exams this week.

Sounds like he's doing all the right things. What I would say is that Year 10 is the best time to start forming good revision habits. So, for example in English, he should start making quotation flash cards now, to get him ready for Year 11.

@QueenMabby Yes we're in the Year 13 thread together too, I also noticed that! Nice to have a comrade who's going through both years

@DataColour thanks DS made the musical and enjoyed it very much.

This talk of revision is interesting and making me think blimey, as DS hasn't been doing much. He's mentioned January exams but is vague about when they are, and although he's been revising, it's certainly not been every day if even four times a week.

However he received his head of year's award for achievement at the end of the Christmas term, as well as some individual subject awards for effort and achievement, and he's done very well in tests so far, which suggests he must be on track. I'm very proud of him for the awards as he as ADHD and struggled in Yr 7 & part of Year 8 with focus and behaviour.

That's great news @WriterOfWrongs - you must be very proud of him.

We don't have any exams until the end of the year. DD's just had one mock as she's taking one gcse a year early. According to the exam timetable one of her actual gcse exams is right in the middle of "exam week" for her year 10 subjects so that's going to be interesting to navigate!

She's a solid worker and very conscientious so will probably tackle her revision pretty sensibly.

Hi All. Have to tell you about the utter bodge I've made. What a twat!

What texts /books are your dc studying for English?

Ds2 is doing 'Macbeth' and 'An Inspector calls'. I get an email from school that they have limited number of tickets for London Macbeth, starring Ralph Fiennes. Thinking he wouldn't get tickets I checked out prices, asked a couple of other mums, told ds2 to ask his closest friends. So angry with myself I left it so late, the tickets get sold out, not £30, not £85, some £108, some £260+.

I've got 6 tabs open. I'm looking at all places that have Macbeth. David Tennent is no longer doing it. My friend says her dd saw it in Guildford last week but that's now finished. Bugger. I'm looking at Fiennes Macbeth in London, Macbeth in Guildford expired, Brighton, Farnham and finally found one in Wimbledon so booked that for £22.50 each. Result.

I also had inspector calls 3 screens open, looking for that aswell. finally found one in London that I'll book tonight.

And I'm buzzing around, flitting between tabs, trying to do too many things .... accidentally had 'the importance of being earnest' open. And then accidentally booked it by accident, what I thought I was booking 'An inspector calls'. What a twat. Non refundable. So decide to go with 2 friends. Do you think they'll notice that I booked 2 tickets for 2 x under 16's, and 1 adult? Angry? Because I've spent £77 by accident!

I did study Inspector Calls myself at school and love it. "A handbag"? But I am so cross I accidentally booked them.

You can all laugh!

Anyone else done anything as stupid?

😩😩@Oblomov24 that’s so annoying. At least it was £77 and not the £260!!
I took DD to see the Macbeth in Guildford and you’ll be delighted you avoided that one as it was a ‘modern adaptation’ that began with Lady Macbeth pumping breast milk and some type of shrine to a baby in the corner. There was audience participation and ceiling disco balls. All very odd. I don’t think it’s helped DDs coursework one iota!

DD also doing An Inspector Calls too (and Macbeth). I think the novel is Of Mice and Men. Than the poetry. I’m not sure if there’s a second novel or not.

@NotDonna
My friend said similar. That her dd had says that the new age woke modern Guildford one was poor. That's why I wanted to see the Fiennes London one. I hope this Wimbledon one isn't a new age breast feeding shit one. I'll let you know!

My broken brain has forgotten what Ds is studying for English. I know he's doing Macbeth but I can't remember what else. Our school has never taken any pupils to see any of the plays, or at least not to my knowledge. Not in the years my 3 dc's have been there anyway Sounds a great idea.

Ds seems to be doing no end of tests and mocks. It's never ending. He's now decided he wants to get 9 in everything. I told him not to set such high expectations of himself. Then he replies with why do you not want me to do well? I suggested setting a realistic goal and an aspirational goal. But that didn't go down well. He gets so annoyed with himself when he's not in the top 2 or 3 pupils after tests. Which he is most of the time. It's difficult knowing what to say to him as he takes it all the wrong way. Of course I'd be very happy for him if he gets high grades in everything, but I'm more worried about him not doing well for himself. I wouldn't mind if he only got low grades if that was to the best of his capabilities. GCSEs with Ds3 is going to be the most stressful.