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.

Welcome back @WriterOfWrongs - how lovely that they're going together though. I'm sure if he has been revising one night won't matter.

We've now got the rollercoaster of getting results back here. DD2 has COMPLETELY messed up maths. She has no idea how - she's top set, usually does extremely well, teacher is baffled by her result - think it might be a 5 or 6. Such things shake her sense of self completely and I got a tearful lunchtime call.

She can be very unpredictable and appears to have no memory of what happened during the paper - I'm wondering if it was some form of extreme panic, which doesn't bode well for the exams themselves. We've asked for a copy of the paper so she can go through it with her maths teacher grandmother, which might at least yield some answers as it really is a weird result.

On the other hand 9 for music, 9 for drama. She'd have said she was better at maths than drama. So strange.

Hi @WriterOfWrongs - and welcome back!

Oh @minisnowballs - that's a shame for your dd. Different teaching methods maybe? I'm sure school will be on the case to help her get back to her usual level of attainment.

Cant recall who asked but our school only do one set of mocks for GCSE (and A level actually). The former are now before Xmas. Thank heavens! Previously it was half before Xmas and half after, but the same subjects, so had to revise everything before xmas and again during. So paper 1 for all subjects before xmas and paper 2 for all subjects after Xmas. So I’m pleased these will all be in November despite it being a tadge early.
@DataColour according to a bunch of dads on another table as DD collected awards for dance & cheer at the school Sports Awards recently, my DD is doing ‘embroidery’ sports! So there we go. Not proper sports - embroidery sport. Their comment really pissed me off! She’s a gymnast & dancer and has been cheerleading (a flyer) for the past few years but you can’t do cheer for gcse PE so she’s starting trampoline alongside her gymnastics & dance - Tbf trampolining goes quite well with her skill set but they’ve not done any as the hall is always being used for team sports or exams, and when the trampoline is dragged out they spend most of their time watching each other. But at least school will film that. She’s got some footage from gymnastic and dance comps this year and there will be a few more comps in autumn, so should be ok. Hopefully good enough embroidery! 🙄 I know that if they saw her fly (and her team mates) they’d be pretty amazed but, whatever!

@NotDonna - embroidery sports?? I'd be spitting tacks!

Dd has her g4 singing exam today and of course her sore throat from the last two days has developed into a full blown cold so she sounds like a frog! Oh well.

@NotDonna embroidery sports - that is rude misogynistic crap if I ever heard it! My DD1 does aerial dance - silks - most of the boys she knows would struggle to muster half the strength she has to do that, and I think cheer is probably even more like that.

@QueenMabby oh no! Fingers crossed it goes Ok and she can relax after ...terrible timing though.

DD2 is FAR too relaxed about her g6 singing next Monday. Doesn't know the time, who the accompanist is, whether they have the official books not photocopies, has only done one session on the aural. I'm terrified for her- but have to just let her get on with it since she's so far away. She says her singing teacher is back today though (been away a couple of weeks) so hopefully finally have some answers.

I’m also fecked off at “embroidery sport”. And If they’re going to be misogynistic, they could at least have come up with something wittier 🙄

@minisnowballs sorry to hear about your DD’s maths exam, poor thing. I wouldn’t take it as a sign she’ll get nervous in the real thing, but as a blip, and she’s got a whole year to course correct.

DS said his first mock, Maths, today was absolutely horrible and that he wanted to cry. So I may be having to take my own advice on this

@WriterOfWrongs - Oh poor love... this stuff is so tough. You are right, they have a year though.

English back today here. Much ecstasy over literature, where she dropped one single mark (so a 9), and happy enough with a 7 in language. Just history to go, which she is worried about. Wish they'd done all the results at once as I can't stand her emotional ups and downs from afar.

DD has received most of her results now and 5/6 but lots of positive comments to her saying they should go up a grade if she continues as she is. So she’s not too disappointed. We’d both be very happy with 6/7’s as that’s all she needs for her preferred A levels.
She vastly improved chemistry due to a fab new teacher this year. Annoyingly she told me this morning that he’s leaving in July. 😩😩 They usually have the same teachers from yr10 into yr11 but obviously not for chemistry or physics as both leaving. Teachers seem to last a couple of years at the school and I don’t understand why. Behaviour is very good and I assume slt are supportive but still they go! It’s not a cheap area to live so maybe that’s it. Such a shame.

Sounds like she's done really well @NotDonna - and comments like that suggest teachers are happy with her attitude too if they think grades will rise. I do get what you mean about teachers leaving, so frustrating. We are in London where teachers seldom stay as it is just too expensive to live. The benefit is that the teachers are very young and keen (though I feel like an old bat a parents evening) but they don't stick around. DD2's new school in rural somerset is a different story - lots stay forever, but I shouldn't imagine there are too many employers! Fingers crossed for some new excellent science teachers from September for her.

Well done on your DD's results @NotDonna - sounds like she has a great attitude. Fingers crossed for good teachers for next year too!

Dd will be getting a new German teacher from September as hers is leaving. We have pretty good staff retention generally although seem to struggle more with MFL than other subjects. Dd not too fussed as she's not massively keen on the teacher.

@minisnowballs - well done on your DD's English results. I agree that getting the exam results piecemeal seems a bit weird and not easy on you either having to deal with any fallout long distance. Dd got hers on one piece of paper although they were also supposed to be uploaded to the portal but weren't which caused issues for those whose children were absent.

A lot of teachers have been at our secondary school a long time. Quite a few taught ds1 who is now 23.

Ds just arrived home from school annoyed he's done "very badly" in his biology test. He said the whole class did badly. I said that's ok if you all did badly. He then said he only got an 8. Surely that's excellent. I wish he wasn't so determined to get 9's in everything.

So on speaking to DS after he got home yesterday, it turns out the reason why he and all of his year found their maths mock paper really, really difficult yesterday is because… it included questions on topics they haven’t been taught yet

So they were being examined on parts of the syllabus they’re scheduled to learn in Yr11. Apparently the issue is because it’s a Trust-set paper, not individualised to the various Academys. But it left DS and his peers feeling upset and demoralised.

I mean, FFS.

@WriterOfWrongs - I'll echo your FFS. That's ridiculous and really doesn't help confidence.

@icanbewhatiwant - an 8 is a stellar result. It's a shame that he doesn't see that. My dd is similar.

@QueenMabby thanks, it is isn't it.

Oh heck @icanbewhatiwant an 8 is flipping amazing! Even more so in yr10!

Im also echoing your FFS @WriterOfWrongs it won’t be a reflection of their abilities whatsoever.

@NotDonna I think it was the 35 out of 50 he was more disappointed with. But that was still an 8.

@icanbewhatiwant 8 is amazing - our DD1's school actually wouldn't give anyone a 9 in year 10. At all. But I do understand children who don't get that sometimes low percentages can give high grades. DD2 (despite being otherwise reasonably clever) cannot fathom that sometimes 60 per cent can be better than 80 per cent depending on the level of the paper sat. Well done to him though.

@WriterOfWrongs FFS - though if it is a helpful learning, DD1 (who got a 7 in maths which was absolutely the top she could really have expected) was told there would be questions she wouldn't be able to do and to just ignore them - they were for only the very top students - which she wasn't. So it may be useful to be faced with choices to make about questions to do.

@minisnowballs yes why don't they give 9's? Ds was rather embarrassed as his English teacher read out a piece of his work to the class, she said it was definitely worthy of a 9 but she isn't allowed to award a 9 to a year 10. Surely when they do mocks they must give 9's if they score a 9. None of the gcse predictions on his report say a 9.

Agree @minisnowballs. The grade boundary for a 9 in DD's end of year biology test was about 67%! It was a hard paper.

Also, in her maths exam, those in the top set got a different paper 2 as they are covering the work faster so they can also do gcse further maths within the timetabled lessons. This meant the other sets got a paper 2 that they could engage with.

Dd is learning (slowly!) that the percentage matters less at gcse and that it's all about the grade.

No more so evidenced than ds and his A-levels. For physics for his exam board the grade boundary for an A star in 2023 was 12% lower than it was for the 2019 exam year!

@QueenMabby - yes the same with DD2's school and the different and harder maths paper. Which certainly didn't work in her favour by the sounds of things. Heaven knows what went on with her there. One result left to go here. Meanwhile she's home tomorrow straight after her woodwind assessment - because we have a 'family commitment' (ahem, Taylor Swift concert) tomorrow night. Suitable celebration for getting through the things!

@icanbewhatiwant the rationale for the 9s thing was that 9s were only decided in relation to other grades (or something like that) so it wasn't fair to predict. Which is fine unless you're applying for a superselective sixth form where other schools are more bullish in their predictions. No consistency at all.

DS's school's maths dept doesn't seem to give 9s. Although some subjects do as he got a 9 for RE at the beginning of the year. The grade boundaries are a funny one. It's good to know though that you don't have to get 80%+ or so to get a top grade as there is so much content to cover in the GCSEs you can't possibly get everything right unless you're a genius!

@NotDonna omg, embroidery sports, that's just so wrong. If they aren't "proper" sports they won't be accepted for GCSE assessment would they?! How on earth can they think dance is not a sport, you have to be so fit and precise!
I'm glad that our one set of mocks is before Christmas. Having a bit of a break before the final slog would be good.
Well done to your DD on her set of results.

@QueenMabby hope your DD did well in her singing exam despite her cold.

Well done to all the DCs for their results. DS has a Biology and Chemistry end of year exam this week. He has done some revision for both, but not much. He's tired and worn out now from too much school work and doing sports during the week. I don't think they matter too much his EOY tests, as only a couple of teachers are doing them. But it'll be good to know how much he's retained from the rest of the year for those subjects.
It's frustrating as science is the thing he struggles with the most (despite us both being Chemistry graduates!). He's been getting good results, 7/8s from the other subjects in end of topic tests with not doing that much revision at home.

Our teacher retainment seems to be pretty good. Just one teacher I know of, a French teacher left a couple of years ago. She was great and DD loved her lessons, since the new teacher she hates the subject. DS has been having the same Maths teacher since year 7. The headmaster has been round for yonks too and seem to know each pupil by name. It's a relatively small for a secondary though. 5 class entry, used to be 4 before DS joined. Some of the nearby schools are 10 classes in each year group!

Thanks. Dd is off today as she's just full of cold and is coughing like a chain-smoker! She's sad as she was due to be "background music" for the school art exhibition this evening which she was looking forward to. I'm just glad she got the singing exam out of the way first! She said it went ok.

@QueenMabby glad that your DD found the singing exam ok. When does she get her results?

DS still has end of topic tests and assessments on going and into next week and beyond. He's not really going to be doing much revision for them with all the sports he's doing and DH is taking him away this weekend for a cycling holiday. How to prioritise all the things he's got going on is a constant battle here.

Totally agree about it being hard to prioritise things - there's just so much going on this term. DS has his end of year exams next week and I wish they'd done them earlier in the term, or maybe even last term. By this stage of the year they're always knackered. I did manage to persuade him to make a revision plan, and to be fair he has stuck to it, but it's quite minimal!

Mine has been doing mocks all week. 3 today. Hot weather for sitting in a hall doing exams.