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.

Saw DD2 yesterday. All exams finished - she says Maths was VERY tough - she won't hear how they've all gone until the week after this I think. It also emerges that she has only two weeks more of actual lessons this year as she has 'Opera Week' (off timetable for opera ALL WEEK!) followed by Symphony orchestra chorus (similar for another whole week). I'm not sure many of them are in both, but it's a bit of a big ask for those who are.

Must drive the teachers mad!

@minisnowballs ahh so good that exams are over & you’ve seen her! 😊

DD3 in the throes of end of year exams. They started Thursday and finish Wednesday. 2 exams a day for her, but some have 3 if they’re taking more subjects (not many take 11). They’re having 2 papers for maths and English, which I was a little surprised at. Their proper mocks are in November but this will help her see the exam format and how good her revision has been. It’s been a bit of a wake up for me that this will be for real next year. Not my baby anymore!

@NotDonna good luck to your DD for her exams.

@minisnowballs opera and chorus sounds fun and will be a nice break from exams etc!

DS is refusing to do revision for biology and chemistry coming up next week. There's been end of topic tests for something every week and end of year test for maths last week and then they announce end of year tests for biology and chemistry compromising of everything they learnt in year 10 with less than a couple of weeks notice. Then there's a topic test on geography this week, plus the usual homework for everything. He can easily get good marks for maths and geography doing a couple of hours revision, but the sciences are so content heavy that there just so much to learn it's overwhelming! Realistically, he's only got the weekend to study for both tests with sports taking up most of the school day evenings......any tips on how to cram a full years worth of stuff??? He's tired and fed up with the constant tests and I don't want him burning out before year 11. His official mocks are end of Nov.

@DataColour thats sounds a bit much and not really going to give a true reflection. DD’s end of years are timetabled and they had all half term to revise. So very different to what your DS is facing. I think I’ve mentioned before that one technique is a traffic light system where he would colour code topics into green - know it; yellow - some gaps; red - really struggling/don’t understand. The idea is to initially get yellows up to greens. Then work on reds. Psychologically it feels less overwhelming. Apparently parents tend to want them to focus on reds; whilst kids if left to themselves focus on green. Maybe an approach he could try? My older two use flash cards and something called quizlet - but I think the latter is time consuming.
DD3 is a bit stressed about the exams. There’s been quite a bit of cheating going on too. I wish they were strict about it.

@DataColour - I agree with @NotDonna's suggestion. Also, once the topics for revision have been identified then do use physicsandmathstutor.com as they have practice questions by topic for all sciences (and geog etc) grouped by exam board so your dc can just practice the questions for the topics needed.

Seneca is also good. We have the paid for version but there's a lot of free stuff on there too also by subject/exam board.

It sounds a bit disorganised though. For dd hers were the week before half term but for the 2-3 weeks prior no homework was set apart from revision and the there was a formal exam timetable and revision periods etc. Mocks here aren't until Jan 2025 though - straight back after the Christmas holidays. What fun!

Do any of your dc's schools use tassomai? In years 7, 8 and 9 ds had bedrock and online platform for homework for English. He was always moaning about it. He was pleased to know he wouldn't be doing it in year 10 but now has tassomai instead. I think it's maths and sciences. He's meant to do each one three times a week. But I think he often does all 3 sessions in one evening. He is always complaining at how boring and repetitive they are.

Ds is awaiting his mock timetable. I think he said they will have mocks over a week starting in 2 weeks. Then he has a week of work experience, then one more week of school before summer hols.

No. Nothing like that here. Dr Frost sometimes for maths and they occasionally use Isaac physics but nothing else and no formal school-wide programmes.

DD1 used tassomai for science, but we paid for it - there were just so many covid holes for her to fill and she was doing triple in the same time as other classes did double. It did help and she did ok (7,7,8) and though it was boring she found it helpful. She now uses an AI-based one for Biology A-Level called AI Q chat, which is noticeably better, and cheaper, but it is I think only for that one course at present.

oh, and when i said 'chorus' for symphony for DD2 i should have said 'course' - she's playing the contrabassoon. I got an email from her head of dept yesterday concerned about her schedule, so at least someone has noticed I guess.

@DataColour that all sounds a bit much... hope it goes ok.

Is anyone else's child doing art? DS is finding the workload hard, the sheer quantity and it's not something he can rush, ive suggested to him he focus on quantity rather than quality occasionally just to keep up with the pace as apparently he'll get marked down for not producing enough.

Mocks for y10 dd utterly useless

Timetable not accurate at all - making planned revision pretty much impossible

Revision suggestions for some subjects, not all

No idea when or how 2 of her subjects will be assessed....not even on the timetable!

Just awful

@user8800 we are finding the same thing at our school. There are no timetabled end of year exams but some teachers are doing them, with little notice and no time to revise due to homework, other end of topic tests etc. Some subjects, no idea at all.

Thanks for all your suggestions, really useful. I've gone on the website for physicsandmathstutor.com and went through some flashcards with DS who found it "boring" but I will print out some practise questions for him to do at the weekend. He has done Seneca for Geography as instructed by the teacher, so we did do that for Biology too and he seemed to get on well with it, although it did take a long time to complete one topic! But I think rather than cram everything in it's better to carry on with the Seneca if he prefers that even if we only cover a couple of topics.

Also, Dr. Frost has been great for us. Both DCs like the question format and it's good that you can choose questions according to what they need to work on and the right level of hardness. Both of them have done really well in maths so far using only that for revision.

Another whinge at the school....DS is doing PE GCSE and the sports dept is RUBBISH. I usually have a lot of sympathy for teachers as DH is a teacher and I know how much they are under pressure. But, no guidance on anything, won't answer to emails most of the time, no notice for exams, no revision material or helpful aids suggested, no clue as to how to film their sports or how good they have to be to get a certain grade. It's ridiculous. We've been googling for information about how to produce a cycling video for assessment, no help from the teacher at all, despite several emails! Cycling and also cricket are summer sports so have to get footage now, not in the autumn! DD who is going into year 10 in the same school has also chosen PE as she is also very sporty, but I'm regretting it now!

@user8800 and @DataColour that sounds very frustrating.

@DataColour - I'd be incline to email the head of academic PE and/or the head of year to try and get some progress on this. Sometimes you just have to be the squeaky wheel unfortunately.

@CactusPeach - neither of mine did art but one of DD's bffs does - the friendship group spend a lot of lunchtimes in the art room keeping her company while she does her work. It's a heavy workload for sure. Can he bring things home or work on them in the art room at lunchtime or after school?

DS has started his end of years today,we had an exam timetable well before half term and they are held in the hall like the actual GCSE’s will be next year.
@DataColour my son also does PE ,they have an app they use but I can’t remember the name helpfully,I will check with him this evening but am not sure on whether it’s just useful for a specific board. We also had quite detailed guidelines on what is needed for the practical elements ie the filing clip set -shout if this would be useful also and I’ll dig it out.
So the school is pretty organised, it remains to be seen if this has transferred to DS….

@DataColour Everlearner is the on line system he uses for PE GCSE

@QueenMabby unfortunately DS's PE teacher IS the head of PE! And DH says the head of year has no authority over heads of departments so no point emailing the HOY. But I think we will have to now, they might be able to do something. Or point us in the right direction.

@SB1971 thanks so much. I've just had a look at Everlearner and it looks fab! Will definitely have a more thorough look into it this evening. What sports is your DS doing?

@DataColour He is doing football which is his big passion and then we are struggling a bit for the others so he is doing table tennis and running.
I only have the detail for football in terms of the filming as I’d asked for that earlier on this year so can’t help with any other sports-apologies I thought I had a big list .

@DataColour - maybe if HoY isn't an option then perhaps there's an Assistant Head or Deputy in charge of academics? That might be an option. Be squeaky!

Dd terrified last week to be asked to stay behind in English - she thought she was going to be told she'd done really badly in her English exam - but actually she's been asked to be an anti-bullying ambassador for the school! Which is lovely, but is another full day out of school for the training and accreditation in what is proving to be a very busy last few weeks of term.

She'll have most of the day after out of school too as the choir is going to sing evensong at a cathedral in a city about an hour away

All lots of good opportunities but it's more time away from the classroom that is ideal.

@QueenMabby sounds like an honour! I'm not sure DD is really ever in the classroom at the moment, but that's her own choice, and ours for letting her go to specialist school.

Yesterday she auditioned for the school musical, which is next year. I'm not that delighted about this, but pretty sure that if she wasn't acting in it she'd be playing, so either way won't be in lessons while rehearsals are going on. The old school didn't allow Year 11s to do any extra-curriculars at all in school, so this is a huge headshift for us as a family. She has to ask her head of department for music whether she can audition for things but no-one seeks permission from her parents!

First lot of exam results back from last week - 9/8 for combined science. She's reasonably pleased (not elated)- she must have absolutely smashed physics as she knows her biology score was woeful. Fingers crossed for the rest.

That's a great score @minisnowballs - she should be well-chuffed with that.

Dd will also be auditioning for our school's big musical come the autumn. She was devastated not to be able to do this years (Les Mis) as rehearsals clashed with her Greek class so I suspect nothing I say will stop her auditioning for next year! She also has her dance school's biannual dance show which although not until July next year will also include additional rehearsals/costume fittings etc.

She's thrilled at the moment as her g5 ballet syllabus includes a dance to the Prelude to Bach's first cello suite which is one of her current cello pieces!

@QueenMabby so glad it isn't just us. I made her go for 'secondary part' though I don't think she'd be getting a main part in a school full of singing specialists anyway- really don't want it taking up too much time. Ballet as well? How on EARTH does your daughter fit it all in - we certainly don't have any of that.

To be fair all of her music lessons and two of her ensembles are before school which helps massively. She doesn't practice her instruments as much as she should at the moment and her ballet and tap lessons are "fun" ones rather than anything serious - although she's just started pre-pointe which is another half an hour a week!

Still really impressive @QueenMabby - she must be super organised - whatever she does in future she'll fly!

Just heard from DD2 - she's rehearsing all day today - tomorrow she's helping with the interview process for new music tutor on her main instrument. When does she actually go to school?

I bet she has a lot of catching up to do in the evenings @minisnowballs - I suppose that's easier to do at least being a boarder!

@minisnowballs that's a great score for science! I hope she gets the part she wants in the musical. What's the musical?

@QueenMabby your DD sounds so busy! How does she have the energy?! My two would never contemplate doing anything before school. Great that your DD is so motivated. Only thing my DS would be ok doing in the morning is 5 mins of extra music practise just before his exams and I thought that was pretty good!

DS has got a geography exam and an English exam today. He's tired and achy as he injured his arm on Tuesday playing cricket, he did some amazing bowling and he dived to catch the ball (successfully!) and ended up with a grazed elbow on the right arm, so after a day of writing in school yesterday it's even more painful today. So, Geography and English exams are probably the last subjects he wants to have exams in today because of all the writing!